Paula J. Caplan is a clinical and research psychologist, author of books and plays, playwright, actor, and director. She was born and raised in Springfield, Missouri, attended Greenwood Laboratory School from kindergarten through twelfth grade, 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. In 2006, she is Lecturer in the Psychology Department at Harvard University and Fellow in the DuBois Institute, Department of African and Afro-American Studies, also at Harvard. She is former Full Professor of Applied Psychology and Head of the Centre for Women's Studies in Education at the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, and former Lecturer in Women's Studies and Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Toronto.

She does expert witness work for a variety of court cases, both civil and criminal, including cases in which psychiatric diagnosis is an issue. 

Dr. Caplan regrets that she is unable to provide psychotherapy in connection with this website and is not currently taking therapy patients. 
The Most Relevant Books:

They Say You're Crazy: How the World's Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who's Normal

Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis (first editor, also wrote or co-wrote many of its chapters)

Directly Relevant and Indirectly Relevant
Published Articles:

Caplan, Paula J. (2004). For anguished vets: The listening cure. Washington Post.  September 5, 2004, (Outlook section, page 2).
   Reprinted in Newsletter of the National Military Family Association
   Reprinted in The Officer, magazine of the Reserve Officers Association
 Caplan, Paula J. (2004). Review of Rethinking Mental Health and Disorder (Mary Ballou & Laura Brown (Eds.) In Contemporary Psychology 49(6), 794-97.
 Caplan, Paula J. (in press). Ambiguity, powerlessness, and the psychologizing of trauma: How backlash affects work with trauma survivors. The Journal of Trauma Practice.
 Caplan, Paula J. (2004). The debate about PMDD and Sarafem: Suggestions for therapists. Women and Therapy 27(3/4), 55-67. Special issue, simultaneously published as a book, From Menarche to Menopause: The Female Body in Feminist Therapy (Joan Chrisler, Guest Editor).
 Chrisler, Joan, & Caplan, Paula J. (2002). The strange case of Dr. Jekyll and Ms. Hyde: How PMS became a cultural phenomenon and a psychiatric disorder. Annual Review of Sex Research 13, 274-306.
Caplan, Paula J. (2001) Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: A first-person story. Women and Therapy special issue on Minding the Body 23 (1), 23-43.
   --Simultaneously published in Minding the Body: Psychotherapy in Cases of Chronic and Life-Threatening Illness.  Ellyn Kaschak (Ed.). New York: The Haworth Press, pp. 23-43.
 Caplan, Paula J. (1999) Review of Ethics in Psychotherapy and Counseling: A Practical Guide by Kenneth S. Pope and Melba J.T. Vasquez.  In Women and Therapy 22 (4), 108-110. Ellyn Kaschak (Ed.). New York: The Haworth Press, 2001, pp. 23-43.
 Caplan, Paula J. (1992).  What should we ask about women and therapy? Canada's Mental Health  40, 25-6 (Health and Welfare Canada).  
Caplan, Paula J. (1992). Gender issues in the diagnosis of mental disorder. Women and Therapy 12, 71-82.
 Caplan, Paula J. (1992). Driving us crazy: How oppression damages women?s mental health and what we can do about it. Women and Therapy 12, 5-28.
Larkin, June, & Caplan, Paula J. (1992). The gatekeeping process of the DSM. Canadian Journal of Community Mental Health/Revue canadienne de sante mentale communautaire 11, 17-28.
 Caplan, Paula J.; McCurdy-Myers, Joan; & Gans, Maureen.  Should "premenstrual syndrome" be called a psychiatric abnormality? Feminism and Psychology, 2, 1992, 27-44.
 Caplan, Paula J.; McCurdy-Myers, Joan; & Gans, Maureen.  Reply to Mary Brown Parlee's commentary on PMS and psychiatric abnormality. Feminism and Psychology, 2, 1992, 109.
 Caplan, Paula J., & Gans, Maureen.  Is there empirical justification for the category of "Self-defeating Personality Disorder"?  Feminism and Psychology, 1, 1991, 263-278.
 Caplan, Paula J., & Larkin, June.  The anatomy of dominance and self-protection. American Psychologist, 46(5), 1991, 536.
 Pantony, Kaye-Lee, & Caplan, Paula J.  Delusional dominating personality  disorder:  A modest proposal for identifying some consequences  of rigid masculine socialization. Canadian Psychology, 32(2), 1991, 120-133.
 Pantony, Kaye-Lee, & Caplan, Paula J.  Response to commentators. Canadian Psychology, 32(2), 1991, 161.
 Caplan, Paula J.  How do they decide who is normal?  The bizarre, but true, tale of the DSM  process. Canadian Psychology, 32(2), 1991, 162-170.
Caplan, Paula J.  Response to the DSM wizard. Canadian Psychology, 32(2), 1991, 174-175.
 Caplan, Paula J.  Delusional Dominating Personality Disorder (DDPD). Feminism & Psychology, 1(1), 1991, 171-174.
 Caplan, Paula J., & Wilson, Jeffery.  Assessing the child custody assessors. Reports of Family Law, Third Series, 27(2), October 25, 1990, 121-134.
 Caplan, Paula J.  The psychiatric association's failure to meet its own standards:  The dangers of  "self-defeating personality disorder" as a category. Journal of Personality Disorders, 1(2), Summer, 1987, 178-182.
 Caplan, Paula J., & Hall-McCorquodale, Ian.  Mother-blaming in major clinical journals. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 55, 1985, 345-353.
 Caplan, Paula J. & Hall-McCorquodale, Ian.  The scapegoating of mothers:  A call for change. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 55, 1985, 610-613.
Caplan, Paula J.  The myth of women's masochism. American Psychologist, 39(2), 1984, 130-139.
 Caplan, Paula J., & Newman, Frances.  Juvenile female prostitution as gender-consistent response to early deprivation, International Journal of Women's Studies, 5, 1982, 128-137.
 Caplan, Paula J.  Sex, age, behavior, and subject as determinants of report of learning problems. Journal of Learning Disabilities, 10, 1977, 314-316.

Some of Her Other Books:

The Myth of Women's Masochism
 Don't Blame Mother: Mending the Mother-Daughter Relationship
(published in second edition called THE NEW Don't Blame Mother: Mending the Mother-Daughter Relationship)
 You're Smarter Than They Make You Feel: How the Experts Intimidate Us and What We Can Do About It
 Thinking Critically About Research on Sex and Gender (written with her son, Jeremy B. Caplan, and edited by her daughter, Emily J. Caplan)

Selected Plays

Call Me Crazy (a full-length comedy-drama about the questions, "Is anybody normal? And who gets to decide?)
 The Test (a ten-minute play about mental retardation and the death penalty)


They Say You're Crazy: How the World's Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who's Normal Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis (first editor, also wrote or co-wrote many of its chapters)
Lifting a Ton of Feathers: A Woman's Guide to Surviving in the Academic World The Myth of Women's Masochism
Thinking Critically About Research on Sex and Gender Don't Blame Mother: Mending the Mother-Daughter Relationship