Elyn R. Saks
Orrin B. Evans Distinguished Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences
Elyn R. Saks is the Orrin B. Evans Distinguished Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the USC Gould School of Law, where she directs the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics. She is a MacArthur Foundation Fellow whose memoir The Center Cannot Hold chronicles her experience living with schizophrenia while pursuing an academic career at the highest level. She holds degrees from Vanderbilt, Oxford, Yale Law School, and the New Center for Psychoanalysis, and has published five books and more than fifty articles on mental health law. She has received the American Psychiatric Association's Patient Advocacy Award.
Teaching Style
Professor Saks brings unparalleled personal and professional insight to mental health law, drawing on her lived experience with schizophrenia as well as her deep scholarly expertise. Her teaching style is compassionate but intellectually rigorous, using the Socratic method to explore the difficult ethical and legal questions surrounding mental illness, forced treatment, and criminal responsibility. She cold-calls to encourage thoughtful engagement with these sensitive topics, and her classes challenge students to examine their assumptions about mental illness, autonomy, and the role of law in psychiatric care.
Cold Call Tips
- 1Think carefully about the tension between patient autonomy and state paternalism in mental health law
- 2Be prepared to discuss the ethical dimensions of forced treatment, involuntary commitment, and the insanity defense
- 3Read Professor Saks's memoir The Center Cannot Hold for essential context on her perspective and teaching approach
- 4Consider how mental health law intersects with criminal law, constitutional rights, and disability law
Areas of Expertise
Education
- Ph.D. in Psychoanalytic Science, New Center for Psychoanalysis
- J.D., Yale Law School
- M.Litt., Oxford University
- B.A., summa cum laude, Vanderbilt University
Notable Publications
- The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness (Hyperion, 2007)
- Refusing Care: Forced Treatment and the Rights of the Mentally Ill (University of Chicago Press, 2002)
- Jekyll on Trial: Multiple Personality Disorder and Criminal Law (NYU Press, 1997)
Research Interests
More Professors at University of Southern California Gould School of Law
Federal Income Taxation, Property, Tax Policy, Intellectual Property
Civil Procedure, Property, English Legal History
Criminal Law, Torts, Stereotypes and Prejudice in the Law
Election Law, Constitutional Law, Legal History, Employment Discrimination