Avak Howsepian, MD, MA, PhD
Clinical Professor
Psychiatry - Fresno
School of Medicine

He completed his residency training in Psychiatry at the University of California, San Francisco Fresno Medical Education Program (UCSF FMEP). Dr. Howsepian is board certified in Psychiatry by the American Board of Psychiatry and Neurology and is a member of the American Neuropsychiatric Association, the International Society for ECT and Neurostimulation, and the American College of Psychiatrists. He is also Staff Psychiatrist and Director of Electroconvulsive Therapy at the Veterans Administration Central California Health Care System, Health Sciences Clinical Professor of Psychiatry at UCSF Fresno, and has a private consultation practice primarily in forensic psychiatry, with special interests in legal insanity, nocturnal violence, capital case mitigation, sex offenses, false confessions, malingering, and religious themes in forensic psychiatry. His clinical interests include neuropsychiatry, psychotic and dissociative disorders, disorders on the bipolar spectrum, and psychodynamic psychotherapy. Dr. Howsepian conducts weekly individual supervision with UCSF Fresno psychiatry residents in addition to teaching courses in Psychopharmacology, Electroconvulsive Therapy, Paraphilias and Perversions, Sexual Dysfunction, Psychiatric Ethics, Psychiatry and Religion, and Forensic Psychiatry. He also teaches Psychopharmacology at CSUF and has taught various Philosophy classes at Fresno Pacific University. He has been awarded multiple UCSF teaching honors, including the George Sarlo Prize, the Haile T. Debas Academy of Medical Educators Award for Excellence in Teaching, and the Henry J. Kaiser Award. Dr. Howsepian's over 50 academic publications can be found in Psychiatry, Neurology, and Philosophy journals and book chapters. His current projects include papers on free will, sexual ethics, counterpossibles, various topics in the philosophy of psychiatry, diverse topics in philosophical theology, and book length manuscripts on psychotherapy’s capacity both to heal and to harm, conceptual problems in the foundations of psychiatry, and the intersection between Christian theology and psychodynamic psychiatry. He is on the editorial board of The Journal of Medicine and Philosophy and The Journal of Human Sexuality and is a peer reviewer for several psychiatry and philosophy journals. Dr. Howsepian is married to psychologist and educator, Barbara A. Howsepian, Ph.D., with whom he has a son (named after Aristotle), Aris — a musician, composer, and lyricist. Dr. Howsepian enjoys chess, tennis, ping pong, music, film, theater, cooking (and eating), sumo wrestling, traveling, and cheering on both all Wisconsin sports teams and all of one Indiana school’s sports teams, viz. the Fighting Irish of the University of Notre Dame.

• Is Christianity Bad for Your Health?
  Christian Research Journal 2015 A.A. Howsepian
• Hugh LaFollette (EIC) International Encyclopedia of Ethics
  "Brain Death" 2013 A.A. Howsepian, Hugh LaFollette (EIC)
• Moral Injury and Spiritual Repair in Post-traumatic Stress Disorder
  Christian Research Journal 2013 A.A. Howsepian
• A Psychosomatic Symphony in Four Movements
  California Association of Marriage and Family Therapists - Central San Joaquin Valley Chapter Newletter 2012 A.A. Howsepian
• Mental illness and firearm violence.
  JAMA 2011 Howsepian AA
• On describing "seizure length" in electroconvulsive therapy.
  The journal of ECT 2011 Howsepian AA
• Persons, Moral Worth, & Embryos: A Critical Analysis of Pro-Choice Arguments. Stephen Napier (Ed.)
  "Fetal Pains and Fetal Brains" (Chapter 10) 2011 A.A. Howsepian, Stephen Napier (Ed.)
• The Ethics of Organ Transplantation. Steven J. Jenson (Ed.)
  "Consciousness and Aesthetics in Decisions Concerning Organ Donation Using Anencephalic Neonates" 2011 A.A. Howsepian, Steven J. Jenson (Ed.)
• Domain-Specific Associations between Burden and Mood State in Dementia Caregivers
  Clinical Gerontologist 2010 Matthew J. Wright (PhD), Matthew A. Battista (PhD), Debra S. Pate (PhD), Robert Hierholzer (MD), Jeffrey Mogeloff (MD), A.A. Howsepian (MD, PhD)
• Controversies about brain death.
  JAMA 2009 Howsepian AA
• On Referring
  Ethics & Medicine 2009 A.A. Howsepian
• Summa Psychopathologia: Psychiatric Nosology in the Light of Aquinas
  Edification 2009 A.A. Howsepian
• Four queries concerning the metaphysics of early human embryogenesis.
  The Journal of medicine and philosophy 2008 Howsepian AA
• What's So Good About Libertarian Free Will?
  Philosophia Christi 2008 Mark Hodges, A.A. Howsepian, Timothy Donovan
• Childhood Sexual Abuse Indicators (SAI) for Differentiating Genuine from False Alegations
  American Journal of Forensic Psychiatry 2008 Howard B. Terrell (MD), Brian E. Terrell, Anthony Capozzi (Esq.), Hon. Victor N. Papadakis (Ret.), Hon. H.N. Papadakis (Ret.), Kathy Sullivan (PhD), Mark Hodges, A.A. Howsepian (MD, PhD), Timothy …
• The Pain of Depression and the Spirit of Christianity "Viewpoint"
  Christian Research Journal 2008 A.A. Howsepian
• The DSM-IV-TR 'Glossary of Technical Terms': a reappraisal.
  Psychopathology 2007 Howsepian AA
• Cerebral Neurophysiology, "Libetian" Action, and Euthanasia
  Ethics & Medicine 2007 A.A. Howsepian
• Compatibilism, Evil, and the Free Will Defense
  Sophia 2007 A.A. Howsepian
• Must Physicians Always Act in their Patients' 'Best Interests'?
  Ethics & Medicine 2006 A.A. Howsepian
• Very Quiet People: Ethical, Medical, and Theological Perspectives on those in 'Vegetative' and other Hypokinetic States
  Christian Research Journal. [Reprinted in Incapacity and Care, Helen Watt (Ed.) Linacre Center for Healthcare Ethics] 2006 A.A. Howsepian
• Fetophilia: A Study in the Metaphysics of Pregnancy
  Philosophia Christi 2005 A.A. Howsepian
• Clinical Gerontologist
  Caregiver Reports: A Systematic Method of Comparison with Clinical Impressions 2004 Matthew Battista, PhD (first author), Debra Sue Pate, Robert Hierholzer, A.A. Howsepian, Jeffrey Mogelof
• A Libertarian-Friendly Theory of Compatibilist Free Action
  Southern Journal of Philosophy 2004 A.A. Howsepian
• Sexual modification therapies: ethical controversies, philosophical disputes, and theological reflections.
  Christian bioethics 2004 Howsepian AA
• Switching from Chlorpromazine to Quetiapine Relieves Chronic Headache and Reduces Dangerous Adverse Effects in an Elderly Patient with Long-Term Schizophrenia
  Primary Care Psychiatry 2004 A.A. Howsepian
• Treating homosexuality: a response to Yarhouse.
  Christian bioethics 2004 Howsepian AA
• Toward a general theory of persons.
  Christian bioethics 2000 Howsepian AA
• In defense of whole-brain definitions of death.
  The Linacre quarterly 1998 Howsepian AA
• Palliative options at the end of life.
  JAMA 1998 Howsepian AA
• Invoking natural law
  Hastings Cent Rep. 1998 A.A. Howsepian
• Post-traumatic stress disorder following needle-stick contaminated with suspected HIV-positive blood
  Gen Hosp Psychiatry 1998 A.A. Howsepian
• Are Advance Directives an Advance?
  Ethics & Medicine 1998 A.A. Howsepian
• Sowing the Seeds of Christian Anthropology: Contributions from Scripture, Philosophy, and Neuroscience
  Ex Auditu 1998 A.A. Howsepian
• Lockwood on human identity and the primitive streak.
  Journal of medical ethics 1997 Howsepian AA
• Central Pontine Myelinolysis Related to Lithium Toxicity [letter] co-authored with Aman U. Khan & Fen-Lei Chang
  General Hospital Psychiatry 1997 Aman U. Khan, Fen-Lei Chang, A.A. Howsepian
• Cinematic Realism and Right to Die Legislation
  International Journal of Applied Philosophy 1997 A.A. Howsepian
• Reductionism Revisited: Return of the Biomedical Model
  Biopsychosocial Approaches in Primary Care: State of the Art and Challenges for the 21st Century, Hoyle Leigh MD (Ed.) 1997 A.A. Howsepian
• Sin and Psychosis
  Limning the Psyche: Explorations in Christian Psychology, Robert C. Roberts and Mark R. Talbot (Eds.) 1997 A.A. Howsepian
• The American Psychiatric Association's Guidelines Regarding Possible Conflict between Psychiatrists' Religious Commitments and Psychiatric Practice: A Conceptual Critique
  Ethics & Medicine 1997 A.A. Howsepian
• Military position on homosexuality
  Am J Psychiatry 1996 A.A. Howsepian
• The evolution of the serotonin-dopamine antagonist concept
  J Clin Psychopharmacol 1996 A.A. Howsepian
• Are Mormons Theists?
  Religious Studies 1996 A.A. Howsepian
• Some Reservations about Suicide
  Ethics & Medicine. [Reprinted in Timothy J. Demy and Gary P. Stewart, eds. Suicide and the Christian Community: An Ethical Dilemma] 1996 A.A. Howsepian
• The 1994 Multi-Society Task Force consensus statement on the Persistent Vegetative State: a critical analysis.
  Issues in law & medicine 1996 Howsepian AA
• Tardive pain.
  Neurology 1995 Howsepian AA
• Refusing lifesaving treatment
  Am J Psychiatry 1995 A.A. Howsepian
• Book Review of Jonathan L. Kvanvig's 'The Problem of Hell'
  The Philosophical Review 1995 A.A. Howsepian
• Book Review of Malcolm Jeeves 'Mind Fields: Reflections on the Science of Mind and Brain
  Ethics and Medicine 1995 A.A. Howsepian
• Philosophical Reflections on Coma
  Review of Metaphysics 1994 A.A. Howsepian
• The family physician and adolescent homosexuality.
  American family physician 1994 Howsepian AA
• Middle Actions
  International Journal for Philosophy of Religion 1993 A.A. Howsepian
• Who or what are We? Rev Metaphys
  1992 A.A. Howsepian
• Is God Necessarily Good?
  Religious Studies 1991 A.A. Howsepian
• Philosophical Contributions to Psychiatry [letter]
  American Journal of Psychiatry 1988 A.A. Howsepian
• Response to Stanley Fahn, M.D., letter concerning the management of Neuroleptic Malignant Syndrome
  Seminars in Neurology 1987 A.A. Howsepian