Book contents
- The Legal Brain
- The Legal Brain
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The Impaired Lawyer
- 2 The Spectrum from Languishing to Flourishing
- 3 The Lawyering Culture
- 4 The Lawyer’s Brain
- 5 Memory, Knowledge, and Building Expertise
- 6 Motivation, Reward, and Developing Habits
- 7 The Impact of Stress
- 8 The Influence of Self-Medication
- 9 The Importance of Fuel
- 10 Optimizing Brain Health
- 11 Enhancing Mental Strength
- 12 Developing an Action Plan for the Neuro-intelligent Lawyer
- 13 The Neuro-intelligent Legal Organization
- Conclusion
- Select Bibliography
- Index
2 - The Spectrum from Languishing to Flourishing
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 08 May 2024
- The Legal Brain
- The Legal Brain
- Copyright page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction
- 1 The Impaired Lawyer
- 2 The Spectrum from Languishing to Flourishing
- 3 The Lawyering Culture
- 4 The Lawyer’s Brain
- 5 Memory, Knowledge, and Building Expertise
- 6 Motivation, Reward, and Developing Habits
- 7 The Impact of Stress
- 8 The Influence of Self-Medication
- 9 The Importance of Fuel
- 10 Optimizing Brain Health
- 11 Enhancing Mental Strength
- 12 Developing an Action Plan for the Neuro-intelligent Lawyer
- 13 The Neuro-intelligent Legal Organization
- Conclusion
- Select Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Research indicates that a segment of the lawyer population is impaired by mental illness, such as anxiety, depression, substance misuse, or suicide risk. A much higher number of lawyers likely fall on the languishing end of the mental health spectrum. If you are languishing, you may be at a higher risk of sliding into impairment. Mental health is assessed on a continuum, ranging from languishing to flourishing. Languishing has been described as feeling uninspired, joyless, and lacking the power to function at full capacity. And languishing may increase your risk of mental illness, such as major depressive episode, generalized anxiety, panic attacks, or substance use disorder. Lawyers may suffer from several obstacles to mental strength, including lack of self-awareness, perfectionism, imposter syndrome, social comparisons, trained pessimism, inability to regulate emotions, and inauthenticity from a failure to understand or leverage their temperament and personality strengths. Features of the lawyering culture may augment these obstacles and lead to lawyer languishing.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- The Legal BrainA Lawyer's Guide to Well-Being and Better Job Performance, pp. 26 - 42Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2024