SPOILERS:
Jack isn't a Yithian, but his mind was transferred to the Yithian world after he collapsed in the house. During those 6 years, his mind was transferred into the body of a Yithian, where he studied and lived in the City of Dreams for 6 years, studied, and learned. When Pnakotus was attacked, Jacks Yithian father decided it was no longer safe there and sent him back to the human world.
It's implied that on the night in which Jack was conceived the Yithian took over the mind of Jack's father, and in so doing, turned Jack into a half-Yithian. He possesses the psychic faculties of a Yithian, but the mental faculties of a human. Which is too much for a human's mind, according to Lovecraft lore. Thus the cosmic horrors which Jack encounters scar his mind, because he doesn't have a fully fortified mind.
In the end Jack is so frightened by the beings which he has encountered, and their even more terrible cosmic leader, that it proves too much for his psyche. Rather than continue to face the unveiled future, and find out what other horrors the world may be home to that your typical being does not know, he decides it's time to check out for good. Against the better judgement of the Yithians, the mental ward facilitators, and even what would be the choice of a sane Jack he ends it all.
Which is why in the sequels (had they been completed) Jack plays no role whatsoever, it's also why Jack was unable to vacate his mortal body and project himself into the future (like the Great Race can).