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The Eggshell and Crumbling Skull Plaintiff: Psychological and Legal Considerations for Assessment

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Abstract

Forensic psychologists are called to assist judges and juries to understand the nature and extent of how particular psychological injuries manifest themselves for individual victims and how injuries impact the victims’ lives. In order to be most helpful, psychologists need to understand the legal frameworks, concepts, and rules by which tort claims are made and compensated. The psychologist’s work is particularly difficult and useful—when there is an interaction between old and new injuries and conditions, which invokes the legal concepts of eggshell skull, crumbling skull, and eggshell psyche. This article first provides a primer of the relevant legal concepts about which the forensic psychologist must be aware so that psychological data, observations, and interpretations may be presented in a way that is familiar and accessible to the legal audience. The article then proceeds to provide an evaluative framework to approach the difficult task of describing psychological injuries and explaining if and how new and old injuries and conditions effect the victim’s life and functioning. In particular, the article discusses somatic symptom disorders, factitious disorders, and malingering.

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  1. Private Practice, 2 W. Northfield Road Suite 209, Livingston, NJ, 07039, USA

    Eileen A. Kohutis

  2. Private Practice, 3041 Mission St. Suite 3001, San Francisco, CA, 94110, USA

    Shawn McCall

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Kohutis, E.A., McCall, S. The Eggshell and Crumbling Skull Plaintiff: Psychological and Legal Considerations for Assessment. Psychol. Inj. and Law 13, 354–369 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12207-020-09392-9

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