Bench & Bar July/August 2025

conducting forensic psychological evalu ations in jail and prison settings. It wasn’t long before a kindly and somewhat puzzled postconviction attorney pulled me aside— again, not by my throat, at least—and asked me just what in blue blazes (or did he say “no blue blazer?”) I thought I was doing. The picture counsel painted for me was one of a lonely, scared, and psychiatrically diagnosed inmate—otherwise, why would I be there?—who had waited seemingly for ever for their “lawyer” and their “doctor” to show up and do some expensive, high-level, and complex “lawyer” and “doctor” things. Instead, what did they get? An evaluator who looked like he was just stopping by on the way to McDonald’s on his day off. The lecture and its lesson stuck with me, and never again did I arrive for a scheduled appointment without a full mental jacket. Naturally, adoption of an appropriately lawyerly style does not inure solely to the emotional benefit of anxious clients. The advantages of cultivating and maintaining a suitably professional appearance extend well beyond competitive preening and smug foppery into realms more tradition ally associated with wellness. It will come as no surprise to readers of this column that social scientists have come up with a complex, tongue-twisting term to address notions residing at the inter section of style and wellness: “Enclothed Cognition” (not to be confused with my own proposed studies on “Unclothed Cognition,” which were shot down at the funding level). According to researchers at Northwestern University, “clothes can have profound and systematic psychological and behavioral consequences for their wearers,” in a fashion—as it were—that “allows for the explicit exploration of the importance of symbolic meanings in the relationship between physical experiences and cog nitive processes” (https://tinyurl.com/ nwest-style).

bps-ecog-style) that based upon their own literature review the concept has “brushed up well” (their version of “cleaned up well”) and was “cited more than 600 times and covered by more than 160 news outlets” in the last approximately dozen years. Okay, so researchers love to recycle each other’s inspiration in a gleeful orgy of tree-killing and Ph.D.-minting, but how do you know when you’ve really made it? When your psychological theory crosses over to the marketing mainstream. For example, this excerpt from an advertise ment by snazzy, upscale men’s clothiers Mizzen+Main (https://tinyurl.com/ encog-mizzen) describes how the potential customer can aspire to and ultimately attain “peak cognition”: Put very simply, enclothed cognition is how the way you dress impacts how you feel psychologically. It’s your mental and emotional state as a direct result of the clothes you’ve put on. You know when you’ve bought some thing new and you’re kind of excited to wear it? And when you are wearing it, you’re convinced that everyone knows that it’s new and is quietly in awe? That’s enclothed cognition. But more than a feeling, enclothed cognition can also change how you behave. You may find yourself sitting a little more upright in that sweater that everyone says suits you. You may be more likely to approach strangers at a bar when you have those tailored pants on. When we believe that we look good, we act with more confidence. Far from an incitement to mockery, this ad copy is proffered as a compelling example of how laypersons can be, to cop another Britishism, “spot on” when it comes to practical applications of wellness principles. Confidence not only lends momentum to a carefully honed legal argument; it also bolsters the human apparatus that delivers the message. Neuroscientist Ian Robertson was recently quoted as confirming (https:// tinyurl.com/conf-well) that: “When you feel confident, you are more likely to succeed because confidence activates brain circuits that produce an elevated mood, lower

anxiety and sharper thinking—all of which raise the odds of success.” Style is a concept that handily reflects the guidance proffered by the “National Task Force on Lawyer Well-Being” (the “Task Force”), an entity “conceptualized and ini tiated by the ABA Commission on Lawyer Assistance Programs (CoLAP), the National Organization of Bar Counsel (NOBC), and the Association of Professional Responsibil ity Lawyers (APRL)” and made up of several other “participating entities” from within and without the American Bar Association (https://tinyurl.com/ntflwb). The Task Force has identified six pillars or “dimensions” that combine to “make up full well-being for lawyers,” one of which is the “Social” dimension that involves “developing a sense of connection,” enhanc ing a sense of “belonging,” and otherwise strengthening ties to constituent “groups and communities” (https://tinyurl.com/ ntflwb-report). Whether leading the sty listic charge with a bold new ensemble or instead swimmingly cheerfully with the well-accoutered tide, lawyers can reap well ness advantages that run appreciably more than skin deep.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

DR. ERIC Y. DROGIN is a Norton Healthcare Louisville Hospitals Medical Staff member with clinical privileges in adult psychology. He teaches on the faculty of the Harvard Medi

cal School, where he serves as the Affiliated Lead of Psycholegal Studies for the Psychi atry, Law, and Society Program at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and participates in the Program in Psychiatry and the Law at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center and the Forensic Psychiatry Service at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. Proud to be a Kentucky lawyer for over 30 years, Dr. Drogin is a former chair of the ABA Science & Technology Law Section and a former president of the American Board of Forensic Psychology. Please contact him at eyd@drogin.net with your suggestions for lawyer mental health and wellness topics.

“Enclothed Cognition” has tick led the fancy of psychologists around the world. The British Psychology Society approvingly notes (https://tinyurl.com/

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