Conceptualizing the forensic psychiatry report as performative narrative.

Forensic psychiatry has evolved into a recognized specialty. Two core competencies, often overlooked but commonplace in forensic psychiatry, are the constructing of forensic reports and the presenting of oral testimony. This article concerns the written forensic report and conceptualizes it as performative writing. We first review the development of the forensic report's structure over the past 30 years or so and then apply constructs from other disciplines as we propose a process for creating narrative forensic reports. Such writing is grounded in the discipline of psychiatry, relies on ethics-based principles of respect for persons and truth-telling, and uses language to tell a story that persuades the legal audience. We examine the impact of voice, pitfalls to avoid, and the concepts of witnessing and labeling, as we describe the process of formulating the narrative through the voice of the forensic expert.