'High Functioning': Successful Professionals with Severe Mental Illness
Duke Forum for Law & Social Change, Vol. 7:1, 2015
University of Louisville School of Law Legal Studies Research Paper Series No. 2015-16
36 Pages Posted: 6 Jun 2015 Last revised: 30 Jun 2015
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: Suggested Citation