Elyn Saks, JD, PhD

Elyn R. Saks is Orrin B. Evans Distinguished Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law; Founder and Faculty Director of the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics; Adjunct Professor of Psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine; and Faculty at USC Keck School of Medicine and the New Center for Psychoanalysis. Professor Saks received her J.D. from Yale Law School, and a Ph.D. in Psychoanalytic Science from the New Center for Psychoanalysis. She was also awarded an Honorary Doctor of Laws degree from Pepperdine University and an Honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from William James College. Prof. Saks writes extensively in the area of law and mental health, having published five books and more than sixty articles and book chapters. Her memoir, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness, describes her struggles with schizophrenia and her managing to craft a good life for herself in the face of a dire prognosis. She has received numerous honors and awards for her research, advocacy, and work to destigmatize severe mental illness, including the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Fellowship (commonly known as the “Genius Grant”) in 2009 and the Schizophrenia International Research Society President’s Award in 2023. Her TED talk has garnered over six million views.

PUBLICATIONS

Wells KB, Zhang L, Saks ER, Bilder RM. Impact of Opera on Resilience and Thriving in Serious Mental Illness: Pilot Evaluation of The Center Cannot Hold Part 2 and Resilience Workshop. Community Ment Health J. 2024 Jul; 60(5):964-971. doi: 10.1007/s10597-024-01248-9. Epub 2024 Mar 22. PMID: 38517645; PMCID: PMC11169011

Klein, Judith & Carey, Benedict & Saks, Elyn & Doraiswamy, P. (2023). Independent Care Navigators for the Mental Health Maze. NEJM Catalyst. 4. 10.1056/CAT.23.0231.

Elyn R. Saks. Holding onto the center: Lived experience and the construct of schizophrenia. Schizophrenia Research. 2022 Apr; 242:121-122. doi: 10.1016/j.schres.2022.02.025. Epub 2022 Mar 2. PMID: 35248447.

Blanck, P., Martinis, J., Schnieders, C., & Saks, ER.  Psychiatric Advance Directives and Supported Decision-Making: Preliminary Developments and Pilot Studies in California. In M. Stein, F. Mahomed, V. Patel, & C. Sunkel (Eds.), Mental Health, Legal Capacity, and Human Rights (pp. 288-301). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press (2021).

Raquelle Mesholam-Gately, Elyn R. Saks et al. Are We Ready for a Name Change for Schizophrenia? A Survey of Multiple Stakeholders. Schizophrenia Research 238, no. 1 (2021): 152-160.

Barton W. Palmer, Elyn R. Saks, et al.  “Avoidance of Accelerated Aging in Schizophrenia?: Clinical and Biological Characterization of an Exceptionally High Functioning Individual” Schizophrenia Research 196 (2018): 45.

DV Jeste, GML Eglit, BW Palmer. JG Martinis, P Blanck, ER Saks.  An Overview of Supported Decision-Making in Serious Mental Illness, Psychiatry: Interpersonal and Biological Processes, 81(1), 28-40. 2018. (Epub 2018 Mar 1.)

AN Cohen, AB Hamilton, ER Saks, D Glover, SM Glynn, J Brekke, SR Marder. How Occupationally High Achieving Individuals with Schizophrenia Manage Their Symptoms. PSYCHIATRIC SERVICES 68(4), 324-329. PMID: 27842472

Elyn R. Saks, Mental Health Law and the Americans with Disabilities Act: One Consumer’s Journey, 4 (1) INCLUSION 39-45 (March 2016)

Elyn R. Saks, College Students with Mental Health Disorders:  When May Their Parents be Told?  24 USC REVIEW OF LAW AND SOCIAL JUSTICE 329-342 (2015 Symposium Issue)

Stephen M. Lawrie, Michael O’Donovan, Elyn Saks, Tom Burns, Jeffrey A. Lieberman, Improving Classification of Psychoses, 3 (4) The Lancet 367-374 (April 2016) 2015)

Elyn R, Saks. 2011.  Psychoanalysis and the Psychoses: Commentary On Kafka. JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN PSYCHOANALYTIC ASSSOCIATION 59:59-70

Elyn R. Saks. 2009.  Some Thoughts on Denial of Mental Illness.  AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIARY 166:972-973

Fred Freese, E. Knight, and Elyn R. Saks.  2009.  Recovery from Schizophrenia: With Views of Psychiatrists, Psychologists, and Others Diagnosed with this Disorder.  SCHIZOPHRENIA BULLETIN 35:370-380

Elyn R. Saks.  2008.  Retributive Constraints on the Concept of Competency:  The Required Role of APatently False Beliefs@ in Understanding Competency to be Executed.  BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES AND THE LAW 27:1-27

Laura B. Dunn, Milap A. Nowrangi, Barton W. Palmer, Dilip V. Jeste, Elyn R. Saks. 2006. Assessing Decisional Capacity for Clinical Research or Treatment: A Review of Instruments. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF PSYCHIATRY 163:1323-1334

Dilip V. Jeste and Elyn R. Saks. 2006. Decisional Capacity in Mental Illness and Substance Use Disorders: Empirical Database and Policy Implications. BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES AND THE LAW 24:607-628

Dilip V. Jeste, Laura B. Dunn, Barton W. Palmer, Elyn R. Saks, Maureen Halpain, A. Cook, Paul Appelbaum, and Lawrence Schneiderman. 2003. A Collaborative Model for Research on Decision Capacity and Informed Consent in Older Patients with Schizophrenia: Bioethics Unit of a Geriatric Psychiatry Intervention Research Center. PSYCHOPHARMACOLOGY 171:68-74

Elyn R. Saks, Laura B. Dunn, Barbara J. Marshall, Gauri V. Nayak, Shahrokh Golshan, Dilip V. Jeste. 2002. The California Scale of Appreciation: A New Instrument to Measure the Appreciation Component of Capacity to Consent to Research. AMERICAN JOURNAL OF GERIATRIC PSYCHIATRY 10:166-174

Elyn R. Saks, Dilip V. Jeste, Eric Granholm, Barton Palmer & Larry Schneiderman. 2002. Ethical Issues in Psychosocial Interventions Research Involving Controls. ETHICS AND BEHAVIOR 12:87-101

Elyn R. Saks. 2001. Psychoanalysis: Past, Present, and Future Contributions to the Law in THE EVOLUTION OF MENTAL HEALTH LAW (eds. Lynda E. Frost & Richard J. Bonnie). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association