Harold J. Bursztajn MD

Psychiatry•Cambridge, MA

Forensic Psychiatry, Neuropsychiatry, Psychosomatic Medicine

Harvard Medical School Department of Psychiatry Associate Professor (Part Time)

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96 Larchwood DrCambridge, MA 02138
Phone+1 617-492-8366
Fax+1 617-441-3195

Summary

Dr. Harold Bursztajn is a psychiatrist in Cambridge, MA and is affiliated with Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. He received his medical degree from Harvard Medical School and practices psychodynamically informed clinical and forensic psychiatry & neuropsychiatry, teaches and mentors. His special interests include the treatment of suffering, grief,and helplessness and promotion of resillience throughout the life cycle and transgenerationally, epigenetics, medical ethics, neuropsychiatry, psychoanalysis, and personal and medical decision making under conditions of uncertainty.

Education & Training

Boston Psychoanalytic InstituteSpecial Graduate, 2005
Cambridge Health AllianceChief Residency, Psychiatry, 1981 - 1982
Mass General Brigham/Brigham and Women's Hospital/Harvard Medical SchoolResidency, Psychiatry, 1979 - 1982
Division of Family Medicine and Primary Care, Harvard Medical SchoolResearch Fellow, 1978 - 1980
Mass General Brigham/Massachusetts General HospitalResidency, Internal Medicine, 1978 - 1979
Childrens HospitalInternship, Transitional Year, 1977 - 1978
Harvard Medical SchoolM.D, 1977
Harvard Medical SchoolSpecial Fellow, 1975 - 1976
Princeton UniversityAB, University Scholar, Magna cum Laude, 1972 - 1976
Harvard Medical SchoolClass of 1976, cum Laude
Princeton UniversityA.B, 1972
Eastside High SchoolDiploma, 1968

Certifications & Licensure

NH State Medical License 1982 - Present
MA State Medical License 1978 - 2025
FL State Medical License 2012 - 2019
LA State Medical License 2015 - 2015
American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology Psychiatry

Awards, Honors, & Recognition

Top Doctor Castle Connolly, 2010
Nominee, Harvard Medical School Nominee for the AAMC’s National Humanism in Medicine Award 2008
Project Advisor Harvard Medical School Academy Mentored Student Casebook Project, 2008
A. Clifford Barger Excellence in Mentoring Award 2008
Nominee, Cynthia N. Kettyle Teaching Award 2007
Nominee, Harvard Medical School Prize for Excellence in Teaching (Years 3 & 4) 2006, 2007, 2007
Certificate of Appreciation for exemplary leadership and uncommon dedication to advancing the liberal arts and sciences Phi Beta Kappa Society, 2006
Guide to America’s Top Psychiatrists 2006by the Consumers’ Research Council of America, 2006
Cynthia N. Kettyle Teaching Award 2006
Faculty Advisory Board of Vision 2006
Who's Who in American Education 2006
Best Doctors of America list 2005
External Member Dissertation Committee, Boston College School of Nursing Graduate Programs, 2003
Mentor Harvard Medical SchoolAcademy Mentored Student Casebook Project, 2003
Harvard Medical School Alumni Council Representative Harvard University Alumni Directors, 2003
Twenty-Five Years Harvard University, Service Recognition Certificate, 2002
Nominated as Candidate for President Harvard Medical School Alumni Association by Harvard Medical School Alumni, 2002
Honorary mention Medical Negligence and Informed Consent in the Managed Care Era, The American College of Physician Executives, 1998
Second Place, Solomon Award Massachusetts Mental Health Center, 1983
Co-winner, Solomon Award Massachusetts Mental Health Center, 1981
cum laude Honors Thesis Harvard Medical School, 1977
magna cum laude Department ofPhilosophy, Princeton University, 1972
Phi Beta Kappa 1972
University Scholar Princeton University, 1968
Solomon Award Research Psychiatry Haravard Medical School
Clifford A Barger Award for Mentoring Harvard Medical School
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Publications & Presentations

PubMed

Legal and Ethics Concerns of Psilocybin as Medicine.
Stephanie M Schonholz, Jacob M Appel, Harold J Bursztajn, Mohan Nair, Michael R MacIntyre
The Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law. 2024-12-12
1 citations
Industry effects on evidence: a case study of long-acting injectable antipsychotics.
Lisa Cosgrove, Barbara Mintzes, Harold J Bursztajn, Gianna D'Ambrozio, Allen F Shaughnessy
Accountability in Research. 2024-12-01
2 citations
Industry influence on mental health research: depression as a case example.
Lisa Cosgrove, Elissa H Patterson, Harold J Bursztajn
Frontiers in Medicine. 2023-01-01

Journal Articles

Unexpected clinical features of the Tarasoff decision: the therapeutic alliance and the “duty to warn".
Wulsin LR, Bursztajn HJ, Gutheil TG, Am J Psychiatry
Subjective data and suicide assessment in the light of recent legal developments. Part I: Malpractice prevention and the use of subjective data.
Gutheil TG, Bursztajn HJ, Hamm RM, Brodsky A, Int J Law Psychiatry
Subjective data and suicide assessment in the light of recent legal developments. Part II: Clinical uses of legal standards in the interpretation of subjective data.
Bursztajn HJ, Gutheil TG, Hamm RM, Brodsky A, Int J Law Psychiatry
Malpractice prevention through the sharing of uncertainty: informed consent and the therapeutic alliance.
Gutheil TG, Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky A, N Engl J Med
The decision-analytic approach to medical malpractice law: formal proposals and informal syntheses.
Bursztajn HJ, Hamm RM, Gutheil TG, Brodsky A, Med Decision Making
Psychiatrists' thorny judgments: describing and improving decision-making processes.
Hamm RM, Clark JA, Bursztajn HJ, Med Decision Making
Process analysis of judges' commitment decisions: a preliminary empirical study.
Bursztajn HJ, Gutheil TG, Mills M, HammRM, Brodsky A, Am J Psychiatry
The multidimensional assessment of dangerousness: competence assessment in patient care and liability prevention.
Gutheil TG, Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky A, Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law
Clinicians' guidelines for assessing and presenting subtle forms of patient incompetence in legal settings.
Gutheil TG, Bursztajn HJ, Am J Psychiatry
Weighing religious beliefs in determining competence.
Pavlo AM, Bursztajn HJ, Gutheil TG, Levi LM, Hosp Community Psychiatry
Christian Science and competence to make treatment choices: clinicalchallenges in assessing values.
Pavlo AM, Bursztajn HJ, Gutheil TG, Int J Law Psychiatry
Participation in competency assessment and treatment decisions: the role of a psychiatrist-attorney team.
Gutheil TG, Bursztajn HJ, Kaplan AN, Brodsky A, Ment Phys Disabil Law Rep
Magical thinking, suicide, and malpractice litigation.
Bursztajn HJ, Gutheil TG, Brodsky A, Swagerty E, Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law
Beyond cognition: the role of disordered affective states in impairing competence to consent to treatment.
Bursztajn HJ, Harding HP, Gutheil TG, Brodsky A, Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law
Medical and judicial perceptions of the risks associated with use of antipsychotic medication.
Bursztajn HJ, Chanowitz B, Kaplan E, Gutheil TG, Hamm RM, Alexander V, Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law
Micro-effects of language on risk perception in drug prescribing behavior.
Bursztajn HJ, Chanowitz B, Gutheil TG, Hamm RM, Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law
Unanswered questions about the criminalization of therapist-patient sex.
Deaton RJS, Illingworth PML, Bursztajn HJ, Am J Psychotherapy
Vinal v. New England Telephone: admission of PTSD psychophysiologic test results in a civil trial.
Pitman RK, Orr SP, Bursztajn HJ, AAPL Newsl
The rebirth of forensic psychiatry in light of recent historical trendsin criminal responsibility.
Bursztajn HJ, Scherr AE, Brodsky A, Psychiat Clinics N Am
Authenticity and autonomy in the managed care era: forensic psychiatric perspectives.
Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky A, J Clinical Ethics
Clear, convincing, and authentic advance directives in the context of managed care?
Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky A, J Clinical Ethics
Reflections on my father's experience with doctors during the Shoah (1939-1945).
Bursztajn HJ, J Clinical Ethics
A new resourcefor managing malpractice risks in managed care.
Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky A, Arch Intern Med
Beyond the black letter of the law: an empirical study of a judge's decision-making process in civil commitment hearings.
Bursztajn HJ, Hamm RM, Gutheil TG, Bull Am Acad Psychiatry Law
Ethical and legal dimensions of benzodiazepine prescription.
Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky A, Psychiatr Ann
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Books/Book Chapters

Post-mortem organ donation: Cultural aspects of death and burial traditions.
Chapter: Teaching Ethics in Organ Transplantation and Tissue Donation: Cases and movies
Page 40 - 41Haque OS, Bursztajn HJ, Gopal AEditors: Schicktanz S, Wiesemann C, Wöhlke S.Goettingen University Press, Goettingen
Patients who sue and clinicians who are sued in the managed-care era.
Chapter: The Mental Health Practitioner and the Law
Page 237 - 249Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky AEditors: Lifson LE, Simon RI.Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Ethical and effective testimony during direct examination and cross-examination post-Daubert.
Chapter: The Mental Health Practitioner and the Law
Page 262 - 280Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky AEditors: Lifson LE, Simon RI.Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA
Medical negligence, lack of informedconsent, and choicelessness.
Chapter: 2000 Wiley Expert Witness Update
Page 239 - 264Bursztajn HJAspen Law Business/Panel Publishers, New York
Competence and insanity.
Chapter: Psychiatric Secrets
Page 485 - 498Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky AEditors: Jacobson JL, Jacobson AM.Hanley & Belfus, PhiladelphiaEdition 2nd,
The role of the mental health professional in employment litigation.
Chapter: Mental and Emotional Injuries in Employment Litigation
Page 50 - 71Deaton RJS, Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky AEditors: McDonald JJ, Jr, Kulick FB.The Bureau of National Affairs, Washington DCEdition 2nd,
A psychoanalytic perspective.
Chapter: Creating and Recreating Families in America Today
Page 315 - 330Bursztajn, HJ, Boersema, RREditors: Cath SH, Shopper M.Analytic Press, New York
Who Killed King Tut?
Chapter: Who Killed King Tut?
Page 11 - 16Bursztajn HJEditors: King MR, Cooper GM.Prometheus Books, Amherst, NY
FactitiousDisorder/Münchhausen Syndrome.
Chapter: The 5-Minute Clinical Consult
Page 468 - 469Coletsos IC, Bursztajn HJEditors: Domino FJ, Baldor RA, Ehrlich AM, Golding J.Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, PhiladelphiaEdition 16th,
Competence and insanity.
Chapter: Psychiatric Secrets
Page 501 - 515Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky AEditors: Jacobson JL, Jacobson AM.Hanley & Belfus, Philadelphia
Factitious Disorder/Münchhausen Syndrome.
Chapter: The 5-Minute Clinical Consult
Page 476 - 477Coletsos IC, Elder WG, Bursztajn HJEditors: Domino FJ.Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, PhiladelphiaEdition 19th,
Suicide.
Chapter: The 5-Minute Clinical Consult
Page 1262 - 1263Coletsos IC, Bursztajn HJEditors: Domino FJ.Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, PhiladelphiaEdition 19th,
Shared Paranoid Disorder.
Chapter: The 5-Minute Clinical Consult
Page 1200 - 1201Coletsos IC, Bursztajn HJEditors: Domino FJ.Lippincott Williams & Wilkins, PhiladelphiaEdition 20th,
Special considerations.
Chapter: Handbook of forensic assessment: Psychological and psychiatric perspectives
Page 145 - 170Goldstein AM, Bursztajn HJEditors: Drogin EY, Drogin F, Dattilio M, Sadoff RL, Gutheil TG.John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken, NJ
Divided Staffs, Divided Selves: A Case Approach to Mental Health Ethics.
Reiser SJ, Bursztajn HJ, Gutheil TG, Appelbaum PSCambridge University Press, Cambridge, U.K
Medical Choices, Medical Chances: How Patients, Families, and Physicians Can Cope With Uncertainty.
Bursztajn HJ, Feinbloom RI, Hamm RM, Brodsky ANew York: Delacorte, 1981; New York: Routledge, 1990, New York
Decision Making in Psychiatry and the Law.
Gutheil TG, Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky A, Alexander VWilliams & Wilkins, Baltimore
Psychiatric Ethics and the Rights of Persons with Mental Disabilities in Institutions and the Community.
Perlin ML, Bursztajn HJ, Gledhill K, Szeli EUNESCO Chair in Bioethics
Deciding for others; autonomy and protection in tension.
Chapter: Decision Making in Psychiatry and the Law
Page 133 - 152Alexander V, Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky A, Gutheil TGEditors: Gutheil TG, Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky A, Alexander V.Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore
The technological target: involving the patient in clinical choices.
Chapter: The Machine at the Bedside: Strategies for Using Technology in Patient Care
Page 177 - 191Bursztajn HJ, Hamm RM, Gutheil TGEditors: Reiser SJ, Anbar M.Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, England
Legal issues in inpatient psychiatry.
Chapter: Inpatient Psychiatry
Page 338 - 356Bursztajn HJ, Gutheil TG, Cummins BEditors: Sederer LI.Williams and Wilkins, BaltimoreEdition 2nd,,
Probability, decision analysis, and conscious gambling.
Chapter: Decision Making in Psychiatry and the Law
Page 37 - 52Bursztajn HJ, Hamm RM, Brodsky A, Alexander V, Levi LEditors: Gutheil TG, Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky A, Alexander V.Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore
Subjective assessment in clinical decision making and malpractice liability.
Chapter: Decision Making in Psychiatry and the Law
Page 53 - 68Bursztajn HJ, Hamm RM, Brodsky A, Gutheil TG, Alexander VEditors: Gutheil TG, Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky A, Alexander V.Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore
Affective disorders, competence, and decision-making.
Chapter: Decision Making in Psychiatry and the Law
Page 153 - 170Bursztajn HJ, Gutheil TG, Brodsky AEditors: Gutheil TG, Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky A, Alexander V.Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore
Managing uncertainty: the therapeutic alliance, informed consent, and liability.
Chapter: Decision Making in Psychiatry and the Law
Page 69 - 88Gutheil TG, Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky A, Alexander VEditors: Gutheil TG, Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky A, Alexander V.Williams & Wilkins, Baltimore
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Lectures

Prevention of Violence and Suicide by the High-Risk Patient.
Mount Auburn Hospital Grand Rounds, Cambridge, MA
The Clinician in Court: A Survival Guide.
Massachusetts Bar Association, Continuing Legal Education Course
Malpractice Prevention.
Brookside Hospital Grand Rounds, Nashua, NH
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder in the Courtroom.
Panel, American Psychiatric Association, San Francisco, CA
Psychiatry Issues.
Medical Malpractice Seminar for Office of Legal Education, Executive Office for United States Attor
Liability for Sexual Misconduct of Government Providers.
Thomas G. Gutheil, M.D., Workshop, Office of Legal Education, Executive Office for United States
Competency to Confess to a Criminal Act.
American Academy of Forensic Sciences, Boston, MA
Malpractice Prevention inHigh-Risk Doctor-PatientEncounters.
Lawrence General Hospital, Lawrence, MA
Forensic Psychiatric Assessment of Mental Damages.
Discussant, Panel, American Psychiatric Association, Philadelphia, PA
What is Forensic Psychiatry?
New Hampshire Bar Association Meeting
Diminished Capacity in the Criminal Justice System.
Seventh Annual Bridgewater, MA, State Hospital Conference
Fact vs. Expert Witness.
The Clinician in Court: A Survival Guide, Harvard Medical School Department of Continuing Education
Medical Choices, Managed Care and Uncertainty.
Medical Staff Conference, Emerson Hospital, Concord, MA
Behavioral Strategies for Malpractice Prevention in a Managed Care Era.
Medical Grand Rounds, Marlborough Hospital, Marlborough, MA
Violence Against Attorneys, Judges, and Litigants in the Family Law Courtroom.
Boston Bar Association, FamilyLaw Section
Violence in the Courtroom.
Annual Conference of Massachusetts Probate and Family Court Judges, Stockbridge, MA
How to be an Ethical and Effective Medical Witness, Post-Daubert.
National Expert Witness and Litigation Seminar, Hyannis, MA
Effective and Ethical Testimony for Mental Health Professionals.
Testifying and Consulting Experts, San Francisco, CA
Being an Ethical and Effective Medical Expert.
Testifying and Consulting Experts, San Francisco, CA,
Dimensions of a Forensic Psychiatric Home Page.
American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law, San Juan, PR
From the Shoah to Managed Health: What One Forensic Psychiatrist has Learned about Clinical Ethics.
YIVO Institute and New School for Social Research, New York, NY
Preventing Malpractice Litigation in Managed Health Care Settings.
Harvard Medical School Department of Continuing Education
Ethical and Effective Testimony for Physicians Accused of Malpractice.
Harvard Medical School Department of Continuing Education
Ethical and Decision Making Issues in Primary Care Medicine in a Managed Care Context.
Vermont Technical College, Vermont Ethics Network
Surreptitious LSD Administration: Ethical, Toxicologic and Psychiatric Impact on Product Liability Issues.
American Academy of Forensic Sciences
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Other

Gen Hosp Psychiatry.
Bursztajn HJ. Ethicogenesis
Liability prevention through informed consent with some new approaches for the clinician.
Gutheil TG, Bursztajn HJ, Brodsky A, Risk Management Foundation Forum
Flight: the eloquence of silence.
Bursztajn HJ, Harvard Medical Alumni Bulletin
The phobic in court.
Bursztajn HJ, Lawyers Weekly
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