'High Functioning': Successful Professionals with Severe Mental Illness

36 Pages Posted: 6 Jun 2015 Last revised: 30 Jun 2015

See all articles by James T. R. Jones

James T. R. Jones

University of Louisville - Louis D. Brandeis School of Law

Date Written: June 4, 2015

Abstract

This Article will proceed in four parts. Part I discusses severe mental illness in the United States among legal and medical students and professionals. Part II looks at stigma, and why it keeps most of those with mental illness in the shadows. In particular, it will focus on the issue of professional licensure. Part III will give examples of successful medical and legal professionals who have gone public with their disease and discuss how they are able to function at the highest levels of their profession notwithstanding the special challenges they face every day. In Part IV, this Article concludes by discussing how these examples show that potentially tragic circumstances can have a positive effect on professionals’ lives through hard work, good medical care, and a modicum of luck.

Keywords: mental illness, bipolar disorder, manic-depressive illness, schizophrenia, legal education, law and mental disability, mental health law, law professors, legal academics, Academy, law and disability, health law

JEL Classification: K32, I00, J7

Suggested Citation

Jones, James T. R., 'High Functioning': Successful Professionals with Severe Mental Illness (June 4, 2015). Duke Forum for Law & Social Change, Vol. 7:1, 2015 , University of Louisville School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper Series No. 2015-16, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2614659

James T. R. Jones (Contact Author)

University of Louisville - Louis D. Brandeis School of Law ( email )

Wilson W. Wyatt Hall
Louisville, KY 40292
United States
502-852-6973 (Phone)
502-852-0862 (Fax)

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