Paula J. Caplan, Ph.D.

Paula J. Caplan was an activist, clinical and research psychologist, nonfiction writer of 12 books, award-winning playwright, screenwriter, actor, and director. Her books include They Say You're Crazy: How the World's Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who's Normal, her insider's view of the enterprise of creating the manual of psychiatric diagnosis, and the edited book, Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis, and her play, CALL ME CRAZY, is about the same subject, was produced off-Broadway in New York, and won a national playwriting award. Her latest book, When Johnny and Jane Come Marching Home: How All of Us Can Help Veterans, won the 2011 Association of American Publishers' PROSE Award for best psychology book, and it deals with the harmful pathologizing of war veterans and what really does help. She has been a Full Professor of Applied Psychology at the University of Toronto, a Fellow in the Women and Public Policy Program at Harvard University's Kennedy School, and a Lecturer at Harvard University and is currently an Associate in Harvard's DuBois Institute. Dr. Caplan was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri, received her A.B. with honors from Radcliffe College of Harvard University, and received her M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology from Duke University. She has given more than 400 invited addresses and invited workshops and has done more than 1,000 media interviews as part of her work in public education and activism.