Commentary: Thereby hangs a tale--the creation of tragic narratives in forensic psychiatry.

In my commentary, I suggest that the criminal court is a place where justice examines tragedy, as described by Aristotle in his Poetics. I suggest that there are strong parallels with Aristotle's account of tragic narratives and the concepts of representation and performance of forensic expert testimony, as described by Griffith and Baranoski-especially in relation to the creation of voice. On this account, the forensic expert's psychiatric court report acts as a tragic narrative that makes defendants come alive as people. Such performance is crucial for the criminal justice process, where there are competing accounts of the truth, and the expert narrative can articulate the voice of different parties. However, there are other legal fora where the role of the forensic psychiatric voice may be less clear. I close by suggesting that we continue to need rich and subtle exploration of these topics, as exemplified by the work of Griffith and Baranoski.