If you have taken abnormal psychology, you may have heard of the Tarasoff case. If you have not, I will summarize the case for you below.
Prosenjit Poddar met Tatiana Tarasoff at a folk dancing class in the fall of 1968 at the University of California, Berkeley. That New Year's Eve, Tarasoff rang in the new year by giving Poddar a kiss. Since kissing at midnight is the norm on New Year's Eve, many of us do not take them too seriously. Poddar did, however. The kiss to him symbolized the beginning of a serious relationship between Tarasoff and himself. Poddar was crushed to learn that Tarasoff was not interested in him and was involved with other men which caused Poddar to enter into a state of depression. After much convincing, Poddar sought help from a psychologist on campus, Dr. Lawrence Moore. During one of Poddar's sessions, he told Dr. Moore that he planned to kill Tarasoff when she returned from her summer vacation. Dr. Moore thought that Poddar was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, both acute and severe. Dr. Moore suggested that the campus police civilly commit Poddar, which was done, but was shortly released because the police felt he had changed his mind about killing Tarasoff. Dr. Moore's supervisor, Dr. Harvey Powelson felt that Poddar was rational and instructed no further need for treatment.
The next October, Poddar stabbed Tarasoff to death with a kitchen knife at her house. Neither Tarasoff or her parents received a warning of Poddar's intentions.
This particular case had an impact on the law, especially when talking about patient-psychotherapist confidentiality. After this incident, the California Supreme Court ruled that mental health professionals have the duty to not only the patient, but also to anyone who is being threatened. Many states and even some places outside of the country have adopted this rule stating that mental health professionals have a duty to protect those who are threatened by one of their patients. Psychotherapists are now obligated to warn the potential victim in any way possible to prevent cases such as this.
After we talked about this in my abnormal class last semester, I asked my professor if this law also made it an obligation for therapists to warn potential victims about any physical harm that is threatened to them (i.e. any harm other than murder), and he told me that he is pretty sure that it only applies to threats of one's life. I thought this was kind of interesting, but I suppose that if therapists had to report every harmful incident brought up by a patient, they would be filing reports left and right.
(The above summary was based not only on information I learned in class, but also Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarasoff_v._Regents_of_the_University_of_California)
If you are interested in this case, there is a TON of information out there online about it. Feel free to post links to more information!
Prosenjit Poddar met Tatiana Tarasoff at a folk dancing class in the fall of 1968 at the University of California, Berkeley. That New Year's Eve, Tarasoff rang in the new year by giving Poddar a kiss. Since kissing at midnight is the norm on New Year's Eve, many of us do not take them too seriously. Poddar did, however. The kiss to him symbolized the beginning of a serious relationship between Tarasoff and himself. Poddar was crushed to learn that Tarasoff was not interested in him and was involved with other men which caused Poddar to enter into a state of depression. After much convincing, Poddar sought help from a psychologist on campus, Dr. Lawrence Moore. During one of Poddar's sessions, he told Dr. Moore that he planned to kill Tarasoff when she returned from her summer vacation. Dr. Moore thought that Poddar was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, both acute and severe. Dr. Moore suggested that the campus police civilly commit Poddar, which was done, but was shortly released because the police felt he had changed his mind about killing Tarasoff. Dr. Moore's supervisor, Dr. Harvey Powelson felt that Poddar was rational and instructed no further need for treatment.
The next October, Poddar stabbed Tarasoff to death with a kitchen knife at her house. Neither Tarasoff or her parents received a warning of Poddar's intentions.
This particular case had an impact on the law, especially when talking about patient-psychotherapist confidentiality. After this incident, the California Supreme Court ruled that mental health professionals have the duty to not only the patient, but also to anyone who is being threatened. Many states and even some places outside of the country have adopted this rule stating that mental health professionals have a duty to protect those who are threatened by one of their patients. Psychotherapists are now obligated to warn the potential victim in any way possible to prevent cases such as this.
After we talked about this in my abnormal class last semester, I asked my professor if this law also made it an obligation for therapists to warn potential victims about any physical harm that is threatened to them (i.e. any harm other than murder), and he told me that he is pretty sure that it only applies to threats of one's life. I thought this was kind of interesting, but I suppose that if therapists had to report every harmful incident brought up by a patient, they would be filing reports left and right.
(The above summary was based not only on information I learned in class, but also Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarasoff_v._Regents_of_the_University_of_California)
If you are interested in this case, there is a TON of information out there online about it. Feel free to post links to more information!
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