His knack for teaching, the ability toclearly present his material, enablesResnick to maneuver effectively throughany testimony. But the doctor claims healso comes equipped with the right per-sonality - specifically, a confident styleand a willingness to defend his opinionsand undergo the most intense scrutiny- to gird himself for the nastiest court-room contests. He adds that nine out of10 psychiatrists are not so equipped.

"It's not for the timid of heart;'Resnick declares. "In a hospital, a physi-cian is very much the king of the hill, andhis opinions and orders are not ques-tioned. But in a courtroom, he getspushed around, so it's not an arena mostphysicians like to go into:'

"Phil loves what he does so much,he's always the same whether or not he'sin the middle of a high-profile case,"says Resnick's wife of seven years, Lois, amagistrate in the Shaker Heights Munic-ipal Court.

Resnick is fresh from the nationalspotlight once again, having testified forthe defense in the Andrea Yatestrial inHouston earlier this year. Resnick testi-fied that Yateswas legally insane - suf-fering from both schizo-affective disorderand postpartum depression - when shedrowned her five children on the morn-ing of Iune 20,2001. His conclusioncame after approximately 70 hours ofevaluation that included a tour of thecrime scene and extensive interviewswith key players, including two 3 1/2-hour interviews with Yates.

Though she knew her act was legallywrong, Resnick concluded, Yatesbelieved that killing her children wouldaccomplish a "higher good" because itwould send them to heaven, whileSatan, who she thought was living insideher, would be killed when she was exe-cuted by the state.

"Human nature wants to hold somehuman being responsible, but the realculprit here is mental illness;' statesResnick. "It made Andrea so ill that thekillings flowed from it."

Though a jury of eight women andfour men convicted Yates, a registerednurse, of murder after only 3 1/2 hoursof deliberation, Resnick earned praisefor his work.

A March online analysis by AndrewCohen, legal consultant for CBSNews.com,suggests that prosecutor Joe Owmby'snearly two hours of cross-examination

134 JUNE 2002

J Exploring the Dark Side"landed barely a scratch on the credibilityand reputation and conclusions of Dr.Phillip Resnick, the man who quite liter-ally wrote the book on the psychology ofchild killings."

For his part, Owmby, assistant districtattorney in Harris County, Texas, saysthat before the trial he had read exten-sively about Resnick's affinity for goingmano-a-mano with a cross-examiner. "Itried to keep his cross-examination asshort as possible and not engage in whathe has said he enjoys: a lively debate withthe cross-examiner." Instead, Owmbyargued that Resnick's finding was not inaccordance with Texas law.

"He's a very analytical, very credibleexpert;' Owmby says of Resnick.

On the other side of the aisle, GeorgeJ. Parnham, Yates' attorney, says Resnickhelped save his client from becoming theninth woman on Texas' death row (Yateswas sentenced to life imprisonment)."Resnick's input, not only during thepresentation of his testimony, but also inthe pretrial preparation, was a significantfactor in achieving this result;' says theHouston-based lawyer.

James Knoll, M.D., one of Resnick'sformer students, says Resnick possesses a"verbal genius;' an uncanny ability todistill a complex problem into a lucidexplanation for a jury or a judge.

It's a trait well matched with his leg-endary thoroughness when preparing fora case. While evaluating Ted Kaczynski,for example, Resnick visited theUnabomber's Montana cabin, inter-viewed his neighbors and reviewed all22,000 pages of documents in the case,including the defendant's diaries andfamed manifesto.

All of which, Resnick relates, is one ofthe biggest challenges of his job, yet it"provides a wonderful opportunity to seethe window into someone's mind."

"Phil doesn't need to resort to anyantics or emotionality like some expertwitnesses do;' says Knoll, director offorensic psychiatry at Dartmouth Medi-cal School in Concord, N.H. "His com-plete and total mastery of a case is threat-ening enough:'

Yet the Yates defense strategy was notwithout criticism. In a controversialApril interview with The New YorkTimes, Dr. Park Dietz, who testified forthe prosecution in the Yates case, saidthe role of a forensic psychiatrist is "toseek the truth, not to help any party tothe case." Though he failed to name

names, Dietz went on to imply that thedefense had lost its objectivity in thecase, ignored or overlooked pieces ofevidence and asked leading questions inthe interview process.

"It would have been the easier courseof action to distort the law a little,ignore the evidence a little and pretendthat she didn't know what she did waswrong," Dietz told The New York Times."It was obvious where public opinionlay, it was obvious she was mentally ill,it was obvious where the professionalorganizations would like the case to go,but it would be wrong to distort the law,to stretch the truth and try to engineerthe outcome," he added.

"I am very comfortable in terms of myown integrity and testifying honestlyabout how I perceived things;' Resnickcounters. "Dr. Dietz and I presented twodifferent views to the jury, and it was theirresponsibility to make the final decision:'

In October, Resnick will travel toNewport Beach, Calif., Dietz's home-town, where these two heavyweights offorensic psychiatry will subject theirviews to the scrutiny of 500 colleaguesduring a panel discussion of the Yatescase sponsored by the AmericanAcademy of Psychiatry and the Law.

"I don't think I would be comfortabledoing that if! didn't believe my findings;'says Resnick.

Phillip Resnick did not begin hiscareer with the intention ofprobing the evils of the humanmind.

A good listener who enjoyed whenpeople opened up to him about their per-sonal problems, Resnick decided while atCleveland Heights High School that hewanted to enter "a helping profession."

He majored in psychology on thepremedical track at Case WesternReserve University, where he earned hisbachelor of arts degree in 1959. Hisdecision to become a psychiatrist ledhim to CWRU's medical school, whichhe graduated in 1963.

But it was while serving as a captainin the U.S. Army at Valley Forge Hospitaloutside Philadelphia from 1964 to 1966that he began to define his role as a spe-cialist in extreme behaviors.

In his second year, while working onthe women's ward, he treated twopatients who had murdered their chil-dren. During his interviews, Resnickfound both women to be loving, caring

mothers who suffered from severe mentalillness. When neither was held criminallyresponsible for the killings, Resnickattempted to place them in private insti-tutions. Initially, nurses and other staffstrongly opposed admitting the women.Over time, however, the staff got to knowthem and became quite sympathetic andcaring, Resnick says.

That experience exposed Resnick to thevery visceral reaction - a mix of horrorand fascination - people have to motherswho kill their children. "In the abstract, achild murderer is a monster that stirs a lotof upset feelings;' he says. "But once theyare seen as humans who are mentally ill,it's easier to try to help them:'

Resnick's hospital supervisor encour-aged him to write an article about childmurder as a way to enhance his careeropportunities. "At that time, I didn't thinkof myself as an academician or scholar interms of my aspirations, but once I wroteabout that experience, it came into focus;'Resnick recalls. He went on to publishseveral papers about child murder, whichcontinue to be considered the seminalstudies of this psychotic behavior.

After being honorably dischargedfrom the Army, he completed his psychi-atry residency at University Hospitals ofCleveland in 1969 and began the earlypart of his career as an academic psychia-trist on the CWRU medical faculty.

But by 1975, Resnick was looking to"differentiate himself from being anotherrun-of-the-mill psychiatrist." So, afterhearing a professor'spresentation aboutpsychiatry and the law, the ambitiousyoung doctor entered CWRU's lawschool. In 1978, after adding a law degreeto his credentials, he accepted a positionat John Carroll University, teaching acourse called ''Aggression, Psychiatry andthe Law."He taught at JCU until 1983and also began lecturing at CWRU's andCleveland State University's law schools,all of which he considers key to his pro-fessional development.

"Teaching at the undergraduate levelis different from the medical school inthat you teach a whole semester;' Resnickexplains. "So it got me to prepare a num-ber of instructional videotapes of inter-views with patients, and it built my con-fidence in lecturing to a group."

Around that same time, Resnickjoined the Court Psychiatric Clinic ofCuyahoga County and Cleveland to com-pletely immerse himself in psychiatricapplications in the legal arena. (This divi-

J Exploring the Dark Sidesion of the Court of Common Pleasassesses accused criminals for sanity atthe time of the act and competence tostand trial.)

In 1976, Resnick was named directorof the clinic. Since then, he has consider-ably improved the way the clinic oper-ates, according toFranklin Hickman,senior partner at Hick-man & Lowder law firmin Cleveland. Resnickreplaced the full-timepsychiatrists with part-time doctors who rotateshifts each week.

"These psychiatristsdon't get burned outbecause they're doingother things;' Hickmanexplains. "That has sig-nificantly increased theeffectiveness and credi-bility of that program:'

Recognition of theclinic's success evencrosses philosophicalboundaries. GordonFriedman, partner inthe Cleveland-basedFriedman & Gilbert law firm, says he dis-agrees with Resnick's "very limited andstrict definition of criminal insanity;' yetconcedes that Resnick has "created a verycompetent forensic-psychiatry unit forthe county."

Resnick's academic impact alsoextends beyond Northeast Ohio. In1979, he initiated a fellowship in forensicpsychiatry at University Hospitals andCWRU to bring others into the field. Atthe time, only six such fellowshipsexisted in the United States. Today, thereare approximately 35, and the AmericanBoard of Psychology and Neurology offi-cially recognizes it as a subspecialty.Resnick's one-year program is now con-sidered the leading forensic-psychiatryfellowship in the country, followed bythose at Harvard and Yaleuniversities.

"Because Phil is so intense and metic-ulous in his work, his fellowship standsout as being the most intense, thoroughand detailed," says Jonas Rappeport,M.D., a retired forensic psychiatrist inBaltimore and one of the founders of theAmerican Academy of Psychiatry and theLaw. (Resnick served as president of theAAPL from 1984 to '85 and continues toteach an annual forensic-psychiatryreview course for the organization.)

Having trained more than 39 fellows,several of whom now direct divisions offorensic psychiatry at other universitiesor teach at law schools, Resnick findshelping prepare the next generation offorensic psychiatrists especially gratify-ing. "The single identity that I feel most

proud of and successfulin is my role as ateacher;' he says.

His work has eveninspired his offspring.He's proud to note thateach of his childrenwent into fields to helpother people: Heather,40, is a psychologist inChicago; Reuven, 37, isa rabbi in Temple Hills,Md.; and Kimberly is asocial worker inYoungstown who spe-cializes in sexual disor-ders and offenders.

Of course, a portionof the fellowship entailsResnick imparting hisdaunting testifying skillsto his students byputting them into simu-

lated courtroom situations and cross-examining them himself.

"The inside joke among his fellows;'relates Knoll, "is that if you can make itthrough Phil's fellowship, you have noth-ing to fear from any lawyer:'

Renee Binder, M.D., professor of psy-chiatry at the University of California,San Francisco, says Resnick is regarded asthe finest educator in American forensicpsychiatry Last year, Binder recom-mended Resnick for the APA'sprestigiousIsaac Ray Award in recognition of hiscontributions to the field, including set-ting a high standard for the ethical prac-tice of forensic psychiatry. In May 2001,Resnick became the most recent recipientof the award, named for one of thefathers of forensic psychiatry.

"His talks are wonderful and healways engages the audience;' saysBinder, adding with a laugh, "I've heardhim talk about the same topic multipletimes, and every time I learn somethinginteresting."

A year after the award, Resnicksays things have come full cir-cle for him and the work thatstarted 37 years ago at the

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continued from page 135Army hospital. During a three-week tripto the Pacific Rim in April, he deliveredkeynote addresses to the Royal College ofAustralian and New Zealand Psychiatryin Brisbane, Australia, and the HongKong Society of Psychiatry. In May, hewas slated to give a one-day course onchild murder and insanity to the fabledBehavioral Science Unit at the FBIAcademy in Quantico, Va.

Resnick quotes philosopher FriedrichNietzsche to explain the impact of his ownwork delving into the darkest demons anddelusions of the human mind: "Whoeverfights monsters should see to it that in theprocess he does not become a monster.And when you look into the abyss, theabyss also looks into you:'

Resnick sayshis intimate interactionswith hundreds of murders, rapists andothers who have committed the mostheinous acts imaginable have had no illeffects on his life. Instead, he finds that hefrequently experiences some degree of pos-itive feeling for the person, which he addsdoes not interfere with his job of objec-

tively formulating opinions on legal issues."When I bring in fresh medical or law

students who've never sat in the roomwith a rapist or murderer before, andthey become uneasy or excited or fearful,it reminds me that I've become hardenedjust by virtue of having done it for solong," Resnick says. "At this point, it's justkind of routine to me."

Still, when pressed, he does recall oneencounter that shook him. While inter-viewing a suspect for the County CourtClinic, Resnick learned that the individ-ual had raped a CWRU medical schoolstudent. "That was very hard to separatemyself from;' Resnick admits. "It helpedme to better understand how the prose-cution thinks of criminals:'

He notes that one of the paradoxes ofthe legal system is that prosecutors whodeal with victims and their families typi-cally seek the most severe punishmentfor criminals, while psychiatrists whoperform in-depth interviews with thepeople who commit terrible acts come tounderstand the acts in a different context- one that often includes acts of abuse

as a child or other damaging incidents tothe criminals themselves. While that doesnot excuse the crime, it does make theoffender more sympathetic and lessmonstrous in the eyes of the psychiatrist.

Resnick says that major advances inthe last two decades have increased ourunderstanding of the biology and genet-ics of mental illness and medications totreat it. He points out that in 1958, themean length of stay for a diagnosedschizophrenic was 13 years in a hospital;today, it's two weeks.

However, there remains a need toreduce the stigma of mental illness, whichcan prevent someone who is capable offunctioning perfectly well from finding ajob or even renting an apartment.

At 64, Resnick could contemplateretirement, but that's not the case - atleast not anytime soon. He observes - inthe calm tenor voice that helps him con-vey complex aberrant human behaviorsto a jury - that "people who look for-ward to retirement are those who are gladto get away from work. But I love mywork, so it's like work isn't work at all:' •