Recently I sadly observed a discussion among therapists where one well-intentioned therapist was lamenting that a patient was asking that their record be turned over to attorneys for some involvement in a legal matter. It is becoming all too common for patients to request that their records be sent to their attorney or that some opposing attorney subpoenas mental health records. It is very important whether a patient is asking for their own records or someone opposing them in a legal dispute is demanding they be turned over. If the patient is asking for their own records there is not much a therapist can do in most jurisdictions. On the other hand if the records are subpoenaed by someone else the therapist may need to try to get the subpoenas squashed. It not always easy and this ploy may not succeed but that is part of the cost of doing business as a therapist these days.
However the therapist did not seem interested in learning about such fine points. Surprisingly few therapists offered actual technical assistance. Rather the therapist received words of support and sympathy which only seemed to garner more comments of frustration such as how she could no longer protect the patient and went on to describe all the lawyers involved as greedy sick and “vengeful sickos ”. Further the therapist expressed the fear that they might be sued by these attorneys.[2]
While not highly likely the possibly increases if a professional therapist publicly calls anyone, let alone attorneys vengeful sickos, or other disparaging terms that might suggest libelous or defamatory with malice. One could argue that such a person was attempting to create a self-fulfilling prophecy. It is at the least not exactly respectful stance for a profession that claims it is respectful and tolerant toward everyone. Lawyers and those in the mental health profession share a common desire or mission to help people with problems. On the surface it appears that that is where the similarities end. Notwithstanding the differences in status and income, lawyers generally assist with problems involving societal issues or conflicts with others. Mental health professionals as a rule deal with more intra psychic issues.
But on closer inspection one will find that a really good attorney needs to be a good judge of people and their motivations. Whether representing them or cross-examining them, they need to know to what extent someone is being candid or evasive even from themselves. They are advocates and sometimes need to seriously negotiate for client and be able to advocate forcefully and aggressively. However while they may be aggressive they are bound by a strict set of rules. For example they my not encourage clients to suborn perjury or give false testimony. While not always adhered to by all lawyers if detected the penalties can be severe.
Mental health professionals also must from time to time act as advocates and they too must adhere to a strict set of rules and standards. For example they may not use deception fraud or dishonesty in their professional dealings. Nor can they encourage a patient to use deception. While one can neither judge a lawyer or mental health professional on the outcome of any one case, consumers are entitled to some accurate information on their track record to make informed decisions. So both lawyers and mental health professionals do have some things in common. There are good and bad in both groups. One difference I notice is that with lawyers when one of their own breaks the rules the good ones will at least acknowledge that breaking the rules is a serious breach. With mental health professionals sadly too often when one of their peers break the rules, they pretend that it the rule does not apply.
[1] The audience must have doubled over in laughter at this. Far from "eliminating those who might stand in the way of a contemplated revolution" or portraying lawyers as "guardians of independent thinking", it's offered as the best feature imagined of yet for utopia. It's hilarious. A very rough and simplistic modern translation would be "When I'm the King, there'll be two cars in every garage, and a chicken in every pot" "AND NO LAWYERS". It's a clearly lawyer-bashing joke. This is further supported by the dialogue just afterwards (which is actually quite funny even now, and must have been hilarious when the idiom was contemporary): See http://www.spectacle.org/797/finkel.html
[2] See Pandora's Box. In the episode featuring Mara McWilliams therapist discuss their somewhat bizarre and useless practice of trying to coerce patients to sign wavers that will allow the therapist to disregard future patients requests for records.
