PT  - JOURNAL ARTICLE
AU  - Rosner, Richard
TI  - Forensic Psychiatry: A Subspecialty The Presidential Address at the Nineteenth Annual Meeting of The American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
DP  - 1989 Dec 01
TA  - Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online
PG  - 323--333
VI  - 17
IP  - 4
4099  - http://jaapl.org/content/17/4/323.short
4100  - http://jaapl.org/content/17/4/323.full
SO  - J Am Acad Psychiatry Law1989 Dec 01; 17
AB  - The implications of the definition of forensic psychiatry are explored, with particular reference to the field as a subspecialty of general psychiatry. The allegation of undue moral uncertainty in forensic psychiatry is denied and the moral issues are revealed to be related to the status of the underlying philosophical disputes. An outline for the organization of the forensic psychiatric assessment is presented. The charge that forensic psychiatry is not as “hard” a science as the other forensic sciences is denied. The administrative and political organizational problems facing the subspecialty are explored. The practitioners in the field are encouraged to recognize that forensic psychiatry is a subspecialty and to work for official subspecialty status. Cautious predictions about the future of the field are provided.