Joel Paris was born in New York City, but has spent most of his life in Canada. He obtained an MD from McGill University in 1964, where he also trained in psychiatry. Dr. Paris has been a member of the McGill psychiatry department since 1972. Since 1994, he has been a full Professor, and served as Department Chair from 1997 to 2007. Dr. Paris is currently a Research Associate at the SMBD-Jewish General Hospital. He is also Editor-in-Chief of the Canadian Journal of Psychiatry.

Dr. Paris' research interest is in borderline personality disorder, and is a Past President of the Association for Research on Personality Disorders. Over the last 20 years, Dr. Paris has been conducting research on the biological and psychosocial causes and the long-term outcome of BPD. Dr. Paris has 145 peer-reviewed articles, and is the author of 12 books and 25 book chapters.