Biography:

Jeffrey A. Schaler, Ph.D., is a psychologist and professor in the Department of Justice, Law and Society at American University's School of Public Affairs in Washington, D.C. He received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Antioch College, Yellow Springs, Ohio. He attended the first satellite branch of Antioch, then called "The School for Social Research and Action," established in Baltimore and Columbia, Maryland (he graduated in 1973). He received his Doctor of Philosophy and Master of Education degrees in the Department of Human Development/Institute for Child Study, at the University of Maryland College Park. The title of his dissertation was "Addiction Beliefs of Treatment Providers: Factors Explaining Variance." Various parts of his dissertation were published in three different peer-reviewed journals and one book chapter. He developed two scales as part of his dissertation that are used by doctoral students around the country: "The Addiction Belief Scale" and "The Spiritual Belief Scale."

He has taught psychology for many years at Johns Hopkins University and Peabody Conservatory of Music in Baltimore, Montgomery College in Rockville, Maryland, and Chestnut Hill College in Philadelphia.

All of the courses he has taught over the years, plus student evaluations of his teaching, are available at http://www.schaler.net/syllabi.html .

Schaler was originally trained as a gestalt psychotherapist and was elected president of the now extinct Gestalt Institute of Washington, D.C., Inc., in the 1970s. His work as an analyst was deeply influenced through his relationship with the late William Groman, Ph.D., Richmond, Va., and Rabbi Amos Gunsberg of New York. He was in private practice as a psychotherapist and analyst for 33 years and no longer takes on new clients, devoting the bulk of his time to teaching and writing.

Schaler is the sole author of Addiction Is a Choice, published in 2000 by Open Court Publishers, Chicago. His edited volumes include DRUGS: Should We Legalize, Decriminalize, or Deregulate?, published by Prometheus Books, Amherst, New York, in 1998; and Smoking: Who Has the Right? co-edited with his daughter, Magda E. Schaler-Haynes, JD, MPH, also published by Prometheus in 1998.

Dr. Schaler is Series Editor of the "Under Fire" series, published by Open Court. The first book he produced in that series was Szasz Under Fire: The Psychiatric Abolitionist Faces His Critics (2004). The second book in the series was released in fall 2006 and is entitled Howard Gardner Under Fire: The Rebel Psychologist Faces His Critics. The third book in the series is tentatively entitled Peter Singer Under Fire: The Controversial Philosopher Faces His Critics. It is currently scheduled to appear in 2008. Schaler is also working on another book for Open Court on obesity and choice. The contract is signed and the book is likely to appear in the next year or so.

In July 2005 he was appointed Executive Editor of Current Psychology: Developmental, Learning, Personality, Social, by the President and Vice-President of Transaction Periodicals Consortium, at Rutgers University. Current Psychology is twenty-five years old, an international, peer-reviewed quarterly journal publishing both empirical studies and critical thinking on all aspects of psychology.

Professor Schaler is a frequent guest on national and international television and radio. He has been a featured guest on shows ranging from Voice of America, ABC News 20/20 with John Stossel, CBS 48 Hours, over fifteen times on the late Warren Steibel's hugely successful PBS series entitled "DEBATESDEBATES," and National Public Radio to The Ricki Lake Show and The Leeza Show. See his CV for a complete listing of his speaking, teaching, and writing at http://www.schaler.net/schalercv10152006.pdf.

His public service over the years includes six years on the Montgomery County Drug Abuse Advisory Council (1982 to 1988) where he served as elected chairman, and numerous pro bono public speaking events. He produced and owns The Thomas Szasz Cybercenter for Liberty and Responsibility, which is used worldwide to access the writing and ideas of Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus Thomas Szasz.

Schaler's hobbies over the years have included golf, endurance running and swimming. He received his third degree black belt in the Korean martial arts of kendo and iaido (kobudo, Myo Sim style) in 1988, from Master James Roberts, Sr., then in Springfield, Va., now retired in Hawaii.

Jeff Schaler was born in Alexandria, Va., in 1951. He grew up and went to school at Groveton High School in Fairfax County. His father was a diplomat in the U.S. Foreign Service, and took the family to live in Lagos, Nigeria and Ankara, Turkey for about five years. Schaler is married to the same woman for over 33 years, he has one daughter, one son-in-law, one granddaughter, and another granddaughter due to arrive in world in 2006. Schaler has two dogs, both black labrador retrievers. "Glory" is ten, "Mitzi," rescued and adopted at two, is four now.

Members of the media are welcome to contact him at the telephone number or email address listed below. He is an expert on the meaning of abnormal behavior and disease, including all forms of mental illness and addiction, the meaning of empirical findings used to explain abnormal behavior, and the relationship between explanations for abnormal behavior and various policies proposed and implemented to "do something about them," including social, clinical, and legal policies. He writes frequently on matters concerned with the union of medicine and state, aka the "therapeutic state," and the relationship between liberty and personal responsibility.

Campus telephone: 202.885.3667

E-mail : schaler@american.edu