Elyn Saks
About Elyn Saks
“Dr. Elyn Saks was well received at our event and her presentation was exactly what I expected. ”
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Books by Elyn Saks
“Informed Consent to Psychoanalysis: The Law, the Theory, and the Data (Psychoanalytic Interventions)” (2013)
The goal of this book is to shed psychoanalytic light on a concept―informed consent―that has transformed the delivery of health care in the United States. Examining the concept of informed consent in the context of psychoanalysis, the book first summarizes the law and literature on this topic. Is informed consent required as a matter of positive law? Apart from statutes and cases, what do the professional organizations say about this?
“The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness” (2008)
Elyn R. Saks is an esteemed professor, lawyer, and psychiatrist and is the Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, Psychiatry, and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Law School, yet she has suffered from schizophrenia for most of her life, and still has ongoing major episodes of the illness.
“Refusing Care: Forced Treatment and the Rights of the Mentally Ill” (2002)
It has been said that how a society treats its least well-off members speaks volumes about its humanity. If so, our treatment of the mentally ill suggests that American society is inhumane: swinging between overintervention and utter neglect, we sometimes force extreme treatments on those who do not want them, and at other times discharge mentally ill patients who do want treatment without providing adequate resources for their care in the community.
“Jekyll on Trial: Multiple Personality Disorder and Criminal Law” (2000)
The idea that multiple personalities can exist within the same body has long captured the Western imagination. From Three Faces of Eve to Sybil, from Pyscho to Raising Caine, from 60 Minutes to Oprah to One Life to Live, we are captivated by the fate of multiples who, divided against themselves, wreak havoc in the lives of others. Why do we find multiple personality disorder (MPD) so fascinating? Perhaps because each of us is aware of a dividedness within ourselves: we often feel as if we are one person on the job, another with our families, another with our friends and lovers.
“Interpreting Interpretation: The Limits of Hermeneutic Psychoanalysis” (1999)
Psychoanalytic interpretation, according to the hermeneutic view, is concerned with meaning rather than facts or causes. In this provocative book, Elyn R. Saks focuses closely on what hermeneutic psychoanalysis is and how the approaches of hermeneutic psychoanalysts differ. She finds that although these psychoanalysts use the same words, concepts, images, and analogies, they hold to at least five different positions on the truth of psychoanalytic interpretations. Saks locates within these five models the thought of such prominent analysts as Roy Schafer, Donald Spence, and George Klein. Then, approaching each model from the patient’s point of view, the author reaches important conclusions about treatments that patients not only will―but should―reject.
At a glanceElyn Saks
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