I hope it is ok to post an announcement about a very exciting symposium at the University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law, where I teach. On Friday, Nov. 7th, we are hosting our annual Law Review Symposium, Legal Borders and Mental Disorders: The Challenge of Defining Mental Illness. The all-day event, organized by Professor Teneille Brown, brings together nationally recognized experts in law and mental health to explore the difficulty of defining mental disorders, and the impact that this has on the law. What counts as a mental disorder? Is it when your behavior is statistically unusual, when it impairs your functioning, or when others think it is antisocial? For clinical treatment and research, having reliable and discrete labels can help. But what about for the law? Should the law rely on the same diagnoses as psychiatrists do? Doesn’t the law value very different things? How should the law respond to changes in clinical diagnostic structures, such as the 2013 revision of the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (or, “DSM”) developed by the American Psychiatric Association for clinical use–the first substantial revision to the manual in over 30 years.
You can watch the program live here, beginning at 8:30 am MT.
The conference program (all times are MT) is as follows:
9:15 a.m. – Introduction to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM): How Psychiatrists Use It
Jan Terpstra, MD
9:45 a.m. – Panel: When Changes to the DSM Affect Health and Education Benefits
Rebecca Johnson, Medical Sociology PhD Candidate, Princeton University
Stacey Tovino, Lincy Professor of Law, Lehman Professor of Law, William S. Boyd School of Law, UNLV
11:00 a.m. – Panel: The Role of Psychiatric Diagnosis in Civil Commitment and Sentencing
Sara Gordon, Associate Professor of Law, William S. Boyd School of Law, UNLV
Michael Perlin, Professor of Law, New York Law School
Nancy Haydt, JD
Conference Kaynote: Professor Elyn Saks, Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences, University of Southern California Gould School of Law, will deliver a lunchtime address beginning at 12:45 p.m.
1:45 p.m. – Panel: The Future of the DSM: the ethical and legal implications for revolutionizing the “psychiatric bible”
Jennifer Bard, Alvin R. Allison Professor of Law and Director, Health Law Program, Texas Tech University School of Law
Teneille Brown, Professor of Law, S.J. Quinney College of Law, University of Utah
For further information, check out the law school's website here.