[1] Sharfstein also received the Human Rights Award from the American Psychiatric Association in 2007.
Sharfstein was born in New York City and earned his bachelor's degree from Dartmouth College in 1964.
He graduated from Albert Einstein College of Medicine in 1968 and did his psychiatric residency at Massachusetts Mental Health Center from 1969 to 1973.
Sharfstein has been involved in several prominent issues facing psychiatry, including the medical ethics of psychiatrists assisting with detention and interrogation of terrorism suspects at facilities like the Guantanamo Bay detention camp.
[5] His son Joshua Sharfstein, also a physician, was appointed by Barack Obama as Principal Deputy Commissioner of the FDA in 2009.