Barry Schaller, a Retired Connecticut Supreme Court Justice Who Continues to Hear Cases

Barry Schaller, a retired Connecticut Supreme Court justice who continues to hear cases at the Appellate Court as a Judge Trial Referee, recently gave an interview to Tidelines about his latest book, Veterans on Trial: The Coming Court Battles over PTSD, released in June, 2012.

What inspired you to write your current book -- Veterans on Trial: the Coming Court Battles over PTSD?

After my book about Bioethics, I was planning a book on developments in neuroscience – looking into the human brain -- and what they would mean for life in our society as well as the law. An unexpected opportunity came along at that point when I was asked to be the “legal” member of a multi-disciplinary working group on Post Traumatic Stress Disorder at the Yale Bioethics Center. By the time that project came to a close some two years later, I had become so interested in PTSD arising in war that I got in touch with the editor with whom I had worked on my bioethics book. I submitted a proposal and the publisher accepted the idea. The steady stream of first-hand reports from Iraq and Afghanistan about mental health injuries in soldiers and veterans had gotten my attention. There was so much PTSD being reported. It was clear that we were in for a siege that would go on long after all our troops were home. I wanted to write about what combat PTSD is, how its symptoms were dealt with in previous wars, what its destructive effects are, and why everyone – civilian and military leaders, courts, and citizens – should be aware of it and work to minimize it in the future.

What are the main messages in Veterans on Trial that you want readers to grasp?

There are several messages. PTSD is a psychiatric “construct” or creation that has important social and legal implications. Although the DSM (Diagnostic and Statistical Manual) diagnostic criteria govern treatment and insurance coverage, the DSM is really just a general guide to the disorder. There is no uniform set of PTSD symptoms or conditions that occur in all cases. PTSD has many different causes and many different manifestations. It can cause behavior ranging from extreme anxiety or dysfunction in relationships to violence and even suicide, which is on the increase in the military. PTSD is often associated with depression and substance abuse. It can arise in civilian and military settings. Within the military context, it is clear that all wars have produced psychiatric injuries but only recently have its full implications been acknowledged. The present PTSD formulation didn’t arise until after the Vietnam War. Mental health consequences still are not taken into account when political decisions are made to go to war. Another message concerns veterans courts. Many cities and states around the country have set up special criminal courts for veterans with mental health problems. There is no doubt that veterans need help from the government but courts should not bear the primary responsibility. Courts are bound to make opportunities available to non-veterans as well in order to guarantee equal protection of the laws.

What was the most interesting aspect of researching the book?

Interviewing veterans of the Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan wars was the most interesting part of my research. Beyond that, studying how mental health problems arose during previous American wars and how they were dealt with turned out to be fascinating. Trying to imagine what future wars involving ground troops (and mental health problems) might look like is intriguing – but elusive. The nature of war changes in unpredictable ways.

What is the origin of your interest in writing?

It was a combination of purpose and opportunity. Writing has been very important to me throughout my life. During high school, I wrote for the school newspaper and, in college, as a member of the Yale Literary magazine board, I had the opportunity, not only to write, but to meet writers like Robert Penn Warren and scholars of American literature like Cleanth Brooks. In the late 1980s, I started teaching courses for state court judges for the American Academy of Judicial Education. My favorite course was law and literature, which involved teaching about the role of judges by using stories, novels and plays. Before deciding to go to law school, I had planned to study literature in graduate school and go on to teach. Eventually, I wrote an article for a law review about Faulkner’s use of law in his novels and stories. That got my writing career going and led to my first book, A Vision of American Law, which was about how cultural ideas central to American life have played out in American literature and law. That led to my book about the relationship between bioethics, law and our culture, which I had been teaching for some years.

Are your three books related to each other?

Yes. They all deal with the role of law in our society, each relating to a different aspect of American life – cultural issues, bioethics, war and mental health. I didn’t plan a “trilogy” of books on the role of American law in our society. Each one came about for different reasons. Judges are in a unique position to educate and inform the public about the role of law in our society. It is part of the judicial function. Although judges are restricted by the Code of Judicial Ethics, there is ample room for expressing our views and engaging in educational activities.

Does writing and teaching help in court work?

There is a connection between my writing and teaching and my work as a judge. The connection is not simply deciding cases that involve a subject that I’ve written about or taught. Judges have to decide a wide variety of issues arising from all kinds of situations, affecting all kinds of people. In the course of hearing cases, judges have to grasp quickly situations and subjects that they know little or nothing about. It’s very important that judges get to know about all kinds of human relationships and events, especially those outside their personal experience. They need to understand life in our society in the broadest sense. In individual cases, they can’t decide based on their own personal experience but the more they understand about life in our society, the more they will be able to grasp. Judges should have a broad base of knowledge and, experience but personal experience is not essential. After all, writers write about all kinds of people, experiences and situations. They haven’t necessarily lived through all that they write about. Every individual’s experience is necessarily very limited, no matter what it is. If we broaden our knowledge, work at understanding other people -- especially those different from us -- we should be able to gain a broad perspective and workable understanding of people and events.

Are you thinking of any new writing projects?

Several projects appeal to me. I haven’t written about what judges experience in the course of decision making. I’ve had experiences – and observed others – that I’ve never read about anywhere. I would like to share those experiences – probably through fiction. Judges usually feel very reluctant – even vulnerable -- about revealing themselves or the emotions that occur in the process of making decisions. Judging requires us to suppress a basic part of ourselves – our emotions, beliefs, personal experiences -- as we decide cases. I think that what we have to suppress – and what happens in the process – might well be interesting to the public. The neuroscience theme still interests me. I’ve done some teaching on this subject, in which exciting discoveries are being made all the time – discoveries that will have a big impact on the way we live in American society. I’d like to explore some of these subjects. And I’m not through by any means with war, mental health and the law.

Can you tell me which role – judging, writing, teaching, bioethics -- you enjoy the most?

The role that defines me as a person is my role within my marriage and family. As far as work is concerned, the role that identifies me is my judging role. I’ve been a judge for more than half my life – 38 years and counting. It defines part of me, in a sense. I interpret the role broadly, not narrowly, but it does impose restrictions. I see the judge’s role as a humanistic role -- being faithful to the law, adhering to the ethical restrictions, but attempting to carry it out with as much understanding, sensitivity, knowledge, and caring as I can manage within its scope. Once I became a judge, I realized that I had found a “calling” in a sense and it led naturally to writing and teaching – both on and off the bench. Teaching and writing are a

2 major part of my life, too, but what I do there stems largely from my work as a judge. It’s inevitable that I see the world through the eyes of a judge and a major part of what I bring to teaching and writing stems from my judicial experience. What motivates you to continue all the work you do?

It is the most natural thing in the world for me. I can’t imagine doing anything else. I still have the same sense of urgency. I have great curiosity to understand things I don’t know and to understand better what I do know. Although I continue to enjoy sitting at the Appellate Court since leaving the Supreme Court, another goal has been to do types of judicial work that I haven’t done before. Doing mediations and pre- argument conferences has been a challenge. After being used to hearing arguments and deliberating quietly about the cases before writing opinions, it is a challenge to operate in an entirely different way. Mediators are directly engaged with all the participants often for hours at a time. This involves interacting and adapting to constant changes that happen during the process. I find it satisfying to help people resolve their own cases without going through the winner-take-all of adversarial conflict.

What keeps you challenged?

I’d put it this way: In teaching: curiosity and a desire to teach young people – undergraduates and law students. There’s a real opportunity to help them shape their careers and lives. In writing: a desire to contribute to public discussion of important issues that concern the role of law in our society. In judging – to make the best decisions I can and, in mediations, to guide people to their own solutions.

How do you find time to write books while working and teaching?

I’ve always had a strong sense of urgency about my work. Once I’m engaged in it, I can’t stop until it’s finished. That may be a blessing or a curse. On the practical side, I get an early start every day. By the time 9am comes around, I’ve probably put in 4-5 hours of research or writing. After my first priority – my wonderful marriage and family -- I focus fully on my work as a judge. That still leaves time for other activities such as teaching and writing. Aside from these, my only hobbies are running, swimming, and biking. Besides enjoying the exercise, I find that they often provide the time and space needed for spontaneous thoughts and insights to occur.

Will you share something personal that people don’t generally know about you?

As an only child of older parents growing up in a small town (Manchester, CT), my childhood experience was quite limited. My father was a carpenter and small builder who had an eighth grade education. My mother graduated from high school and worked as a bookkeeper. No one in my family had ever gone to college. Books of all kinds opened up new vistas to me and gave me a glimpse of human nature and experience outside my world. I was very fortunate that, in addition to my parents, a couple of high school teachers took an interest in my future and inspired me to go to college. I ended up at a large university [Yale]. Although I was not far from home, my four years there followed by law school were life-changing experiences that headed me toward a career in public service. I would add that I never imagined that I would be so fortunate as to live (these past ten years) in such a beautiful, welcoming community as Sachem’s Head. Waking up every day here is inspiring and uplifting.

Later on, personal experiences, such as all that Carol and I went through in raising a blended family of seven children and being part of the lives of our sixteen grandchildren, broadened my horizons beyond my wildest imagination. Three of our grandchildren are growing up in Nicaragua. This opened up a new world to me. It inspired me to developing a course in public health policy, law, and ethics in which we study public health problems in the developing world, especially Africa and Latin America. That led me to appreciate how many thousands of people – especially refugees in war-torn countries – are forced to live in unthinkably deplorable conditions. I have also been truly inspired by what my children and grandchildren, as well as Carol, have done with their lives, how they’ve overcome obstacles, and how

3 they contribute so much to the lives of their communities and society as a whole.