Susan Hatters-Friedman, the Phillip Resnick chair in forensic psychiatry at Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine, has been named the recipient of the Seymour Pollack Distinguished Achievement Award from the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law (AAPL) for 2023. She received the award at an October ceremony during the AAPL’s annual meeting in Chicago.
The Seymour Pollack Award was named for one of the founding members of the academy, who served as its third president. The award honors exemplary contributions to the teaching and educational roles of forensic psychiatry.
Hatters-Friedman specializes in forensic psychiatry and has focused her work primarily on its intersection with maternal mental health. In addition to her endowed professorship in forensic psychiatry, she is a professor in pediatrics, and reproductive biology at the medical school, and an adjunct professor at the School of Law, where she teaches “Psychiatry and the Law.”
Hatters-Friedman is a past president of the AAPL, as well as a past chair of the Psychiatry and the Law section of the Group for the Advancement of Psychiatry. She serves as deputy editor of the Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. She has authored hundreds of articles in forensic psychiatry, often at the intersection of women’s mental health and the law. She was previously awarded the Manfred Guttmacher Award from the American Psychiatric Association for the book Family Murder: Pathologies of Love and Hate. She has lectured nationally and internationally on criminal and civil issues in forensic psychiatry and at its intersection with maternal mental health.
She received her undergraduate and medical degrees from Case Western Reserve University, in 2019 receiving the Distinguished Alumni Award from the School of Medicine. She completed her residency and her fellowships at Case Western/University Hospitals of Cleveland, training under Phillip Resnick, MD, in forensic psychiatry and Miriam Rosenthal, MD, in maternal mental health. Hatters-Friedman holds board certifications in both general and forensic psychiatry.