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When Lawyers Try to be Docs

We had our annual 3 day training conference this week. Most of it was painfully boring and as you looked around the room you could tell that the 80 attorneys trapped in the room were all visualizing various ways to stab their own eyes out. One of our last sessions today was on Psychology in the Courtroom. A psychiatrist did the presentation and gave us a big handout of all the various mental conditions that we might be faced with at various points in our criminal careers that included checklists of symptoms for each condition. By the end of the hour the row of people I was sitting with had self diagnosed ourselves with ADD, ADHD, Major Depression, Conduct Disorder Not Otherwise Specified, Substance Dependence, various Sleep Disorders, Bipolar disorder and possibly even mild schizophrenia. Seems like par for the course right? Too bad the doc didn't bring any meds with him.....

**Disclaimer: I don't really think the people I work with actually have those things, maybe ADD and Sleep Disorders, but that's about it. However the checklists that we were given just made it way too easy and tempting, we couldn't stop ourselves from checking off the absurd. Why yes I do in fact see circus clowns and talk to Bugs Bunny on a regular basis :)

Full post as published by [ Useless Dicta ] on September 16, 2009 (boomark / email).