Abigail Mack is a PhD candidate in the Department of Anthropology at UCLA. Abigail conducts her research in Los Angeles where she documents the means by which doctors and lawyers debate and negotiate care for involuntarily committed psychiatric patients.  With specializations in Psychocultural, Medical and Linguistic Anthropology, Abigail investigates the cross-institutional communication required when psychiatric patients contest their commitments, focusing on the many ways legal and medical professionals work collaboratively and sometimes adversarially as they debate the merits of involuntary psychiatric care for citizens of LA.