April 21, 2009 — Elyn Saks, author of the acclaimed memoir "The Center Cannot Hold: My Journey Through Madness," will speak Wednesday at the University of Virginia School of Law about her experiences as a mental health law scholar and a person struggling with schizophrenia. Saks, a professor at the University of Southern California Gould School of Law, will deliver the 13th P. Browning Hoffman Memorial Lecture in Law and Psychiatry at 4:30 p.m. in Caplin Pavilion.

"Professor Saks is a distinguished scholar of mental health law whose work has addressed patients' rights to refuse treatment, informed consent, decisional capacity and criminal responsibility," law professor Richard Bonnie said. "Remarkably, Professor Saks has accumulated these achievements while struggling with schizophrenia."

The talk, which is open to the public, is sponsored by U.Va.'s Institute of Law, Psychiatry and Public Policy and the schools of Law and Medicine. Parking is available at the Law School.

Saks is Orrin B. Evans Professor of Law, Psychology, and Psychiatry and the Behavioral Sciences at USC.  She is also associate dean for research at the USC Law School; adjunct professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, School of Medicine; and research clinical associate at the New Center for Psychoanalysis. 

Saks writes extensively in the area of law and mental health, and has published four books and more than two-dozen articles. She is an elected member of the American Law Institute and serves on the board of several mental health nonprofits, including the Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law in Washington, D.C., and Mental Health Advocacy Services in Los Angeles.