paula j. caplan
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, received her B.A. with honors from Radcliffe College of Harvard University, and received her M.A. and Ph.D. in psychology from Duke University. Currently, she is a Nonresident Fellow at the DuBois Institute, Harvard University, and Lecturer in Women, Gender, and Sexuality. 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.
Paula is currently finishing a major project looking at sexism and racism at predominantly white universities. They found that manifestations of sexism are as common as those of racism but at most universities are more likely to be denied altogether or treated as "natural."
In her 'spare time,' Paula is coordinating a group of members of the Association for Women in Psychology to create a section of the AWP website dedicated to exposing the harm done especially to women by psychiatric diagnosis.
Beginning in 2010, Paula will write a book on war veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan. She notes that receiving a blanketed diagnosis of 'Post-Traumatic Stress Syndrome' is not helpful, and perhaps even damaging. She also addresses the specific issues of women veterans, as well as the women who will need to take sole care of their husbands, fathers, and sons returning home from war.
Paula has authored many books, including: Children's Learning and Attention Problems (co-authored with Marcel Kinsbourne), Between Women: Lowering the Barriers, The Myth of Women's Masochism, Don't Blame Mother: Mending the Mother-Daughter Relationship , Lifting a Ton of Feathers: A Woman's Guide to Surviving in the Academic World, 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 (co-authored with Jeremy Caplan and edited by Emily Caplan), They Say You're Crazy: How the World's Most Powerful Psychiatrists Decide Who's Normal, and Bias in Psychiatric Diagnosis.
Paula has appeared on Donahue, Oprah, Geraldo, The Today Show, Hour Magazine, CBS Sunday Morning, Sally Jesse, and hundreds of others as an expert in psychology and in women's studies. She has given hundreds of invited addresses to a wide variety of community and academic groups. She is interviewed frequently for the New York Times, the Washington Post, the Los Angeles Times, Time, Newsweek, US News and World Report, and Psychology Today.
Paula is also an accomplished playwright. Among her plays, Shades won the Pen & Brush New Plays Contest. The play is about how war affects family and friends, depending on their race and sex and whether or not it is a "good war" and about what it means to be a good American. Call Me Crazy addresses questions like "Is anybody normal? And who gets to decide?" and won second place in the 1997 Arlene and William Lewis Playwriting Contest for Women and other awards. The Test is based on the poignant, true story of two men on Death Row and was published by Samuel French in its collection of winners of its 2001 Off-Off-Broadway New, Short Plays Competition. Her screenplay for The Test was made into a movie that won the Alliance for Community Media-New England Film Festival and has been screened in numerous other festivals and various other venues.
Paula is also an accomplished playwright. Among her plays, Shades won the Pen & Brush New Plays Contest. The play is about how war affects family and friends, depending on their race and sex and whether or not it is a "good war" and about what it means to be a good American. Call Me Crazy addresses questions like "Is anybody normal? And who gets to decide?" and won second place in the 1997 Arlene and William Lewis Playwriting Contest for Women and other awards. The Test is based on the poignant, true story of two men on Death Row and was published by Samuel French in its collection of winners of its 2001 Off-Off-Broadway New, Short Plays Competition. Her screenplay for The Test was made into a movie that won the Alliance for Community Media-New England Film Festival and has been screened in numerous other festivals and various other venues.
For more speakers on creative writing, see: Veronica Chambers, Helen Benedict, Marilyn French, Cathi Hanaeur, Catherine McKinley, Johnny Temple, T Cooper
For more speakers on motherhood and parenting, see: Ann Fessler, Peggy Orenstein, Letty Cottin Pogrebin, Rosalind Wiseman
