Causality in Psychological Injury and Law: Basics and Critics

Abstract

In the next two chapters of the present work, I turn to an area of psychology in which I have helped place causality as a central concept (psychological injury and law; e.g., Young, Malingering, feigning, and response bias in psychiatric/psychological injury: Implications for practice and court. Dordrecht, Netherlands: Springer Science + Business Media, 2014; Young, International Journal of Law and Psychiatry, 2015; Young & Drogin, Mental Health Law & Policy Journal, 3, 373–417, 2014). Psychological injuries concern contentious conditions, especially PTSD, chronic pain, and mild TBI. The chapter considers causation both in civil law and in terms of mens rea in criminal law. I propose new terms that might help disambiguate some of the confusion in the field (e.g., biopsychosocial causation). The biopsychosocial model serves as a central focus in the area of psychological injury and law (along with forensic considerations).