The author reports the case in which he was sued for medical malpractice. A nonunanimous jury found in favor of the plaintiff. Interviews of two of the jurors revealed that the jury discounted the expert testimony on both sides, the evidence, and the jury instructions. The author, finding that the jury decided the case based upon it's perception of the physician's" bedside manner," concludes that juries expect psychiatrists to behave more like friendly family doctors than objective psychoanalysts.

The patient was first treated psychiatrically at age 20 when he was admitted to the county psychiatric hospital in Grand Rapids, MI. He was again admitted to the same hospital at age 21. Schizoaffective psychosis was his discharge diagnosis for both hospitalizations. At the time of the second admission, the patient banged on the hospital windows, saying that he wanted to be admitted. He was told to go to the general hospital emergency room and get certified, which he cooperatively did. He then came back to the psychiatric hospital and was admitted. The patient's third hospitalization, at age 29, was to a private, for-profit hospital in Grand Rapids, the Forest View Psychiatric Hospital. Upon admission, his behavior was bizarre. He walked out a fire escape door and came back in the front door. He put his arm around the neck of