Elyn SAKS
LEGAL SCHOLAR & MENTAL HEALTH advocate
Marshall Scholar, Class of 1977 (Oxford University)
“Some people think that I’m unique. They say there aren’t people like me who are as high functioning. That’s not true. It’s just that the stigma is so great that people (with illness) don’t come forward. I think it’s a mistake when doctors tell patients with schizophrenia to lower their expectations. I was told to get a job as cashier at a store. I thought to myself, I’m a student. I’m good at it. I like it. If I’m down for a few days, I can make (the work) up. What was more stressful to me is the idea of a constant line of people asking for change.”
- Elyn Saks
FIGHTING MENTAL HEALTH STIGMA with her story
Elyn Saks is a Professor of Law, Professor of Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at the USC Gould School of Law. Saks is well-known for her work on the area of law and mental health. In 2007, she published a memoir, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness, about her life as a diagnosed paranoid schizophrenic, which has won a number of awards including the MacArthur Genius Grant. With her grant, she began the Saks Institute for Mental Health Law, Policy, and Ethics, a think tank dedicated to working on the intersection of law, mental health and ethics. She has advocated extensively for mental health policy and law, including involuntary commitment, competency to be executed, proxy consent, and the right to refuse treatment.