James Gilligan

{{short description|American forensic psychiatrist and author on violence}}

{{Infobox writer

| name = James Gilligan

| image = Carol and James Gilligan P1010970.jpg

| caption = Carol and James Gilligan

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| occupation = Professor

| nationality = American

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| subject = Psychology, Violence, Crime

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| notableworks = Violence Reflections on our Deadliest Epidemic

| spouse = Carol Gilligan

| alma_mater = Case Western Reserve University School of Medicine{{Cite web|url=https://www.doximity.com/pub/james-gilligan-md|title = Dr. James Gilligan, MD – New York, NY | Psychiatry |website=Doximity.com}}

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James Gilligan is an American psychiatrist and author, husband of Carol Gilligan and best known for his series of books entitled Violence, where he draws on 25 years of work in the American prison system to describe the motivation and causes behind violent behavior.

During his career, Gilligan has served as director for the Bridgewater State Hospital for the criminally insane, director of mental health for the Massachusetts prison system and as president of the International Association for Forensic Psychotherapy. He now lectures at the Department of Psychiatry, New York University.{{Cite web|url=http://www.apbspeakers.com/speaker/james-gilligan|archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20111202030642/http://www.apbspeakers.com/speaker/james-gilligan|url-status=dead|title=APB Speakers' Bureau - Speakers|archive-date=2 December 2011|access-date=8 November 2021}} Gilligan is an adjunct professor at NYU Law and collegiate professor at NYU's College of Arts and Sciences.{{cite web|url=https://its.law.nyu.edu/facultyprofiles/profile.cfm?personID=32161|title=James Frederick Gilligan - Overview | NYU School of Law|website=Its.law.nyu.edu|access-date=2019-10-12}} He has been on the faculty at NYU since 2002.{{cite web|url=http://www.huffingtonpost.com/james-gilligan/|title=James Gilligan | HuffPost|website=Huffingtonpost.com|access-date=2019-10-12}}

Previously, Gilligan was a faculty member at Harvard Medical School, where he worked from 1966 to 2000. In 1977 he became the director of the Harvard Institute of Law and Psychiatry.

Gilligan was brought in as the medical director of the Massachusetts prison mental hospital in Bridgewater, Massachusetts because of the high suicide and murder rates within their prisons. When he left ten years later the rates of both had dropped to nearly zero.{{cite web|url=http://www.wavetrust.org/about-us/our-people/dr-james-gilligan-md|website=Wavetrust.org|title=The Wave Trust - Trustees|access-date=2019-10-12}}

Gilligan served as the psychiatric adviser to Martin Scorsese for the film, Shutter Island.