Richard J. Rosenthal M.D.

Dr. Rosenthal is a professor of psychiatry and co-director of the UCLA Gambling Studies Program. A pioneer in the field of gambling studies, he co-authored the American Psychiatric Association's diagnostic criteria for gambling disorder, and has written about its phenomenology, course, complications, and treatment. The National Council on Problem Gambling awarded him their three highest honors, for lifetime achievement in research, advocacy, and treatment.

Throughout his career he has been curious about seemingly senseless, self-destructive behaviors and why people engage in them. In addition to his work on gambling, he has researched cutting and other forms of physical self-harm, described transitional phenomena in the treatment of borderline personality disorders, and published a series of literary studies, most notably about Dostoevsky. His poetry has appeared in JAMA, the American Journal of Poetry, The Sewanee Review, and elsewhere.