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Articles, Publications & Quotes

Assessing the Truth: How Forensic Psychiatrists and Psychologists Evaluate Litigants

Drs. Levy and Roberts co-author featured article for San Francisco Attorney Magazine, Spring 2008.

Download SFAM-spring-2008.pdf

Deposing Mental Health Experts on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Chapter 716, Lawyers' Guide to Medical Proof, Volume 4
edited by Marshall Houts, J.D., LexisNexis Mathew Bender
2002

Download Deposing_MH_Experts.pdf

The "Eggshell Plaintiff" Revisited: Causation of Mental Damages in Civil Litigation

The Commission on Mental and Physical Disability Law Reporter
by Mark I. Levy, MD, FAPA and Saul E. Rosenberg, PhD

Download EggshellPlaintiff.pdf

Overcoming Obstacles to the Independent Examination of Emotional Damages Defense

Comment
Spring 2004
by Saul Rosenberg, PhD & Mark Levy, MD

Download OvercomingObstacles.pdf

STRESSING THE POINT: The Use of Experts in Psychological Injury Cases

When is a Post Traumatic Stress Disorder Claim Legitimate...and When Is It Not?

by Mark I. Levy, M.D.  Asst. Clinical Professor Psychiatry

University of California San Francisco

School of Medicine

(expanded version of article published in For the Defense,  November 1995)

In prehistoric times, when our earliest ancestors lived in dread of their mortal enemy, the saber-toothed tiger, those cave men (and women) who were fortunate enough to be genetically endowed with the quickest “fight or flight” reactions survived, and became our ancestors. That’s where the story begins... a story which flourishes today in a medical-legal climate where Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD) claims comprise  a substantial and costly portion of personal injury and employment litigation....

Continue reading "STRESSING THE POINT: The Use of Experts in Psychological Injury Cases" »

Mental Health Confidential

This article is a reprint of the one which first appeared in the San Francisco Recorder on 07/24/96

Though recently protected from disclosure in the federal courts, therapists' records remain under siege by insurance companies

By: Mark Levy, M.D.

Confidentiality is the core of a patient/therapist relationship. Trust, the very foundation of therapy, is eroded by a threat to privacy.

Continue reading "Mental Health Confidential" »

All in the Office 'Family'

Los Angeles Times  5/18/98
CAREERS / ADVERSITY AND CONFLICT

Employees and bosses sometimes reenact childhood family dynamics on the job. Is your workplace dysfunctional? Read up on these relating styles and find out.

By: SUSAN VAUGHN -  SPECIAL TO THE TIMES

The successful executive in psychiatrist Mark Levy's office was complaining of deja vu. "He had a critical father he couldn't please, who'd told him he was little and inconsequential," recalled the San Francisco-based psychoanalyst. "And now he found himself with a superior who was belittling him just as his father had. In response, he was becoming submissive and enraged, just like in childhood."

Continue reading "All in the Office 'Family'" »

Shrink in the Courtroom: Forensic Psychiatry and Law

by Mark Levy, M.D.

This is the first in a series of articles about forensic psychiatry as it is utilized in civil litigation. In this article, I will describe how a forensic psychiatrist can be useful to trial attorneys in civil litigation whenever there are allegations of emotional damages.

Continue reading "Shrink in the Courtroom: Forensic Psychiatry and Law" »

The Stigma of Mental Illness in the United States

By Mark I. Levy, M.D.

America today is plagued with a pandemic prejudice against those suffering with mental illness that is crippling our nation. Our society equates mental illness with moral weakness, causing individuals to deny their mental suffering out of fear that they will appear to be morally culpable for it.  In so doing, we are telling these individuals that they are inadequate and not meeting socially acceptable standards

Continue reading "The Stigma of Mental Illness in the United States" »

Moms Who Kill: When Depression Turns Deadly

by Mark I. Levy, MD, Deborah Michelle Sanders, Esq. and Stacy Sabraw
Psychology Today
December 2002
reprinted with permission

Summary: Postpartum mood disorders are more common than we realize: Up to 80 percent of new mothers experience mild depression within a year of giving birth. If the "baby blues" persist, depression can escalate to dangerous levels, influencing some women to experience psychosis and-in rare and tragic cases-to kill their offspring.

Continue reading "Moms Who Kill: When Depression Turns Deadly" »

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