What is Forensic Psychiatry?
Forensic psychiatry is that area where psychiatric and psychologic knowledge is applied to legal decisions. Courts frequently require specialized knowledge to make legal decisions that are accurate and just. Sometimes a person’s mental state may make it impossible to understand the law or the consequences of his or her actions. At other times, a person’s mental state may make resisting impulses impossible. Other times a person may not be able to perform in narrow areas of life due to an underlying psychiatric condition while functioning well in other areas of life.
Because it is often difficult for people lacking the specialized education and experience of mental health practitioners to ferret out such information, and separate those with legitimate conditions from those who are malingerers or fakes, the courts will rely on testimony or reports from specialists.
Do forensic psychiatrists have to be board certified?
Unfortunately, not at this time. Anyone who can be picked as a forensic psychiatrist and be one. Too often the forensic expert is someone who has testified a lot and has succeeded by virtue of having a pleasing manner while testifying, rather than having true specialized knowledge. There is no true board certification for forensic psychiatrists and anyone can claim to be a forensic psychiatrist at this time.
Does a forensic psychiatrist need to be a lawyer?
Unfortunately, not at this time. Special understanding of the law is a big help for a forensic psychiatrist. Psychiatry is a clinical branch of medicine designed to help people get better when they are sick. Legal proceedings are about coming to legal decisions. The requirements there have more to do with finding out if certain legal conditions are met or not. A forensic psychiatrist must understand that the role of the expert is very different for that of the practicing clinician dealing with a patient. Therefore a legal degree is vitally important.
Who am I?
Wayne Blackmon is both a practicing psychiatrist and a lawyer. He maintains a clinical practice in psychiatry and psychotherapy at:
3000 Connecticut Avenue, NW
Washington D. C, 20008.
His clinical practice of psychotherapy and medication management serves people in the entire Washington, D. C. metropolitan area. He feels strongly that an active practice in psychotherapy is essential to being a good clinician or psychiatry expert witness.
He is also a lawyer and has been instrumental in formulating the underlying theories of some very large health law class actions. He is a Professorial Lecturer at the George Washington University Law School in Washington, D. C., where he teaches Law and Psychiatry. He is starting a second course there in Science in the Law to teach law students the proper role of science, scientific method and experts in the law in light of recent court decisions for the proper handling of expert testimony in court. He is current Editor in Chief for the Bulletin of the American Society of Psychoanalytic Physicians.
He does forensic consultation to lawyers including evaluation, reports and testimony. He has experience in court with Post-traumatic stress, employment related disability, standard of care and the proper basis of expert opinion.
To find out more, please see my full web site at the link on the left of this page.
