Psychiatry and the Law
Winter term, Block B
M,T,W,Th,F 1:00 PM - 4:00 PM
Professor Alan A. Stone
3 classroom credits LAW-44600A
This course will examine the recent developments in mental health law, civil commitment, the right to refuse treatment, competency to stand trial, the insanity defense, recovered memory, and psychiatric malpractice. Psychiatric materials will be examined in detail in an effort to analyze the medical model of mental illness and its limitations for legal purposes. Examples of material to be studied: the major psychoses, suicide, recovered memory, obsessive compulsive disorder, the sexually violent predator, and the psychiatric concepts of the sociopath. Consideration will also be given to various psychiatric treatments and their possible abuse; e.g., drugs, behavior modification, electro-shock therapy, and psychosurgery. Photocopied materials.