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Garson Leder, PhD

Garson Leder, PhD

Assistant Professor of Bioethics and Medical Humanities

Locations

  • Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities

Contact Information

Biography

Dr. Leder joined 91ɫƵ in 2021 as an assistant professor of bioethics and medical humanities in the Center for Bioethics and Medical Humanities in the Institute for Health & Equity. Dr. Leder received his PhD from the University of British Columbia (Vancouver, Canada) with a focus on philosophy of medicine (especially psychiatry). Prior to joining 91ɫƵ, Dr. Leder was a Clinical Ethics Fellow at the Alden March Bioethics Institute in the Albany Medical College.

Dr. Leder’s research program focuses on what mental disorders are, and how different conceptions of ‘mental disorder’ affect medical treatment, social attitudes, and patients’ understandings of their conditions and their prospects of recovery. Dr. Leder’s dissertation, 'The Skill of Mental Health' defends a novel skill-based view that combats stigma and prognostic pessimism while vindicating widely shared intuitions about what should count as a ‘disorder’. Dr. Leder’s work applies this skill view of mental health to address long-standing debates about the concepts of health and disorder, the scientific status of clinical psychology, and the role of values in medicine.

In addition, Dr. Leder’s work examines theoretical explanations for mental healing and how the acceptance of these explanations affects mental health service users. Dr. Leder has published and presented research on the theoretical foundations of cognitive behavioral therapy, the relationship between theory and therapy in treatment, the mechanisms of change in psychotherapy, and informed consent in psychotherapy.

Finally, Dr. Leder’s third area of focus is clinical ethics. Dr. Leder works as a clinical ethicist at Froedtert Hospital and serves on multiple affiliated ethics committees. Dr. Leder is currently involved in empirical and conceptual research on decisional capacity, medically inappropriate treatment, and informed consent.

Publications

  • (Leder G.) Hastings Cent Rep. 2024 Sep;54(5):35-36 PMID: 39031550 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85199005131 07/20/2024

  • (Garson Leder, Tadeusz Zawidzki.) Philosophy and the Mind Sciences. 04/11/2023

  • (Leder G, Derse AR.) Am J Bioeth. 2022 Jul;22(7):87-90 PMID: 35737481 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85133100862 06/24/2022

  • (Leder G.) J Med Ethics. 2021 Jan 17 PMID: 33455943 01/19/2021

  • (Leder G.) J Med Ethics. 2020 Aug 20;47(7):444-7 PMID: 32820019 PMCID: PMC8257553 08/21/2020

  • (Leder G.) Philosophy, Psychiatry and Psychology. September 2019;26(3):E-35-E-50 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85073460499 09/01/2019

  • (Leder G.) Review of Philosophy and Psychology. 1 June 2017;8(2):391-410 SCOPUS ID: 2-s2.0-85020050682 06/01/2017