Walking the Tightrope of Bipolar Disorder: The Secret Life of a Law Professor

Abstract

Primarily because of stigma, one of the unanswered questions in legal education is how many in the Academy have severe mental illnesses. When Professor Elyn R. Saks of the Gould School of Law at the University of Southern California published The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness about her secret life with schizophrenia, mental illness in legal education finally had a face. Now, it has another representative. In Walking the Tightrope of Bipolar Disorder: The Secret Life of a Law Professor, Professor James T. R. Jones of the Louis D. Brandeis School of Law at the University of Louisville writes about his life, and successful career in legal academics, with the secret that he has bipolar disorder. He discusses why he went public with his condition; offers hope to others in legal education who have severe mental diseases; and joins Professor Saks in inviting those colleagues to consider, after due reflection, joining the fight against stigma by disclosing their own conditions. Hopefully, his story will help create a world in legal academia free of stigma and discrimination against those with severe mental illness.

Keywords: bipolar disorder, manic-depressive illness, schizophrenia, legal education, law and mental disability, mental health law, law professors, legal academics, Academy, mental illness, law and disability, health law, Elyn Saks, The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness

JEL Classification: K32