Robert Weinstock, MD, 40th President of AAPL: Elder statesman of forensic psychiatry and rebel with a cause.

“Ambiguity is exciting.” One doesn’t often hear those words uttered; in fact, I’ve never heard them said before. However, this sentiment may help to explain Dr. Robert Weinstock’s passion for ethics, forensic psychiatry, and the intersection of the two. Clarifying ambiguity seems to provide him with a significant intellectual challenge. I have known him for over 14 years, and during that time he has been instrumental in fostering both my personal and professional development. He has functioned as a principal mentor to many others and to me. For me, the relationship began during my postgraduate medical training and my early postfellowship career. Knowing him as I do, I shouldn’t have been surprised by his saying those words. In some ways, he may have been better suited to be a philosopher than a forensic psychiatrist, but the field of forensic psychiatry would have been much poorer for it. He came from relatively humble East Coast roots, the elder of two children who were born in Brooklyn, New York, and reared in a lower middle-class Jewish neighborhood. His parents, with whom he was close throughout their lives, were both children of immi-