Confidentiality after Tarasoft
PSY / 305
June 30, 2014
Garen Weitman

In life a person learns to keep secrets at a very young age. As a person grows up and becomes an adult we choose paths that require us to keep secrets from other individuals, when we do this it no longer is known as a secret it is called keeping things confidential. Merriam-Webster defines confidential as a secret or private, showing that you are saying something that is secret or private, and trusted with a secret or private information. (Merriam-webster, n.d.)A psychologist has a tremendous responsibility in keeping this confidential, it is what allows a client to be truthful and not worry about others knowing their secrets. However some secrets are not always meant to remain a secret, for example when it involves the endangerment of a person’s life. The story of Prosenjit Poddar and Tatiana Tarasoff is a perfect example.
Prosenjit Poddar was being seen by a therapist by the name of Dr. Moore. One day Mr. Poddar informed his therapist he wanted to kill a woman upon her arrival from her vacation. Taking Poddar’s threat seriously Dr. Moore contacted his supervisor as well as the campus police. The police detained, questioned and then released him, determining that Prosenjit Poddar was rational and promised not to harm the woman. The woman later to be known as Tatiana Tarasoff returned from her vacation two month later, Poddar murdered her. Tarasoff family later sued Dr. Moore, Dr. Moore’s supervisor, the police, as well as the Board of Regents of the University of California. (Apollo Library, n.d.) The supreme court of California ruled in favor of the Tarasoff family; they believed that the therapist when informed that a potential act of violence was going to occur, the therapist should have warned the third party in this case the Tarasoff family or the police. There has been some debates on patient confidentiality and the effects this case might have on other patients trusting therapist.
Some believe that clients will no longer be able to trust therapist because they will not be able to keep things confidential. Like the Board of Regents of the University of California they argued that free and open communication between therapist and patients is essential to psychotherapy and that requiring therapist to warn would be a breach of patient trust. Although that is truth, there is a very thin line in regards to what therapist should keep quiet about and what they should speak up about. In order to help a client you have to be able to make sure the environment is there to help them get better, to help them live a better healthier life. The therapist can’t do their job if their client goes to jail for harming another human being. Therapist will come across violent patients who want to get better but circumstances won’t allow them to grow, if that happens the therapist should be allowed to break confidentially to a certain extend to help prevent an act of violence that will impact their client’s life as well as another individual. The most important decisions in life are never easy, and when dealing with someone who is mentally/emotionally unstable the therapist should be allowed to get help so that the client can have a chance on getting better, and not locked up in a prison cell. Before all the talking and opening up to a therapist occurs a client most first choose the therapist, once that is done the therapist will verbally inform the potential client of consent as well as provide a written consent form.
Consent is vital in a therapist field of work, it allows the client to know what they are getting themselves into. Consent is an agreement to do something or allowing something to happen. It also lets the clients know what the therapist can keep secret and what they cannot. For example a therapist might tell a potential client that anything said here will be confidential however if what is said can lead to a violent act he or she will be liable to report it. Refusing to accept the agreement or terms is the right of the patient.
Keeping things confidential is extremely difficult when it involves someone else’s life as well as your job. Do you lose your job and the person trust and tell someone what you just heard because you know they can hurt someone? Do you keep your mouth shut, and try to solve the matter yourself? What do you do? Doctor patient confidentially is very important, it is there for a reason, so that the client can go to the office and discuss issues they cannot tell anyone else. After to Tarasoff case, laws have been passed to help prevent that event from happening again. It gives therapist, doctors, etc. a way of reporting reasonable treats without having to deal with consequences.