Psychiatric Treatment and Malpractice

A. B. Columbia College (1963), J. D. Case-Western Reserve University (1966); Member, New York and Ohio Bars; Assistant Professor of Law, City University of New York.

See Sander , The History of Professional Liability Suits in the United States , 163. JAMA 459 (1957); Bellamy, Malpractice Risks Confronting the Psychiatrist: A Nationwide Fifteen-Year Study of Appelate Court Cases, 1946 to 1961, 118 Am. J. Psychiatry 769 (1962); Annot., 99 A.L.R. 2d 599 (1965).

Hammer v. Rosen, 7 App. Div. 2d 216, 181 N.Y.S. 2d 805 (1959), modified, 7 N.Y. 2d 376, 165 N.E. 2d 756, 198 N.Y.S. 2d 65 (1960); Landau v. Werner (Q.B. March 7, 1961) in The Times (London), March 8, 1961, p. 5, col. 3, aff'd (C.A. Nov. 22, 1961) in The Times (London), Nov. 23, 1961 p. 5, col. 1.

Landau v. Werner, supra note 2.

i.e. sodium pentothal.

i.e. chlorpromazine (Thorazine), or reserpine.

i.e. antihistamines for treatment of allergies. See generally Williams Louiselle , Trial of Medical Malpractice Cases (1968), Sect. 3.10, p. 84.

See Horowitz , Insulin Shock Terapy; 2 American Handbook of Psychiatry 1485 ( Arieti ed. 1959; Kalinowsky, Convulsive Shock Treatment in 2 American Handbook of Psychiatry 1499, (Arieti, ed. 1959).

334 S.W. 2d 111 (Mo. 1960).

There are of course instances where full disclosure is not necessary. Certainly, an emergency situation where the patient is not able to determine or consent to a course of treatment is a recognized exception. Also, there are those instances where a disclosure of all risks attendant upon a treatment procedure may result is alarming an already apprehensive patient who may as result refuse to undertke surgery or a treatment in which there is a minimal risk or where such disclosure may result in actually increasing the risk by reason of the psychological effects of the apprehension itself. See generally Los Alamos Medical Center v. Coe, 58 N.M. 686, 275 P. 2d 175, Macaulay v. Booth, 53 Cal, App. 2d 757, 128 P. 2d 386.

24 A.D. 2d 771, 263 N.Y.S. 2d 591 (1965).

214 Cal, 472, 6. P. 2d 508 (1931).

40 Cal. 2d 503, 254 P. 2d 520 (1953).

Id. at 522.

Id. at 522.

Id. at 522.

25 Cay. 2d 486, 154 P. 2d 687 (1944).

Farber v. Olkon supra note 12 at 525.

Id. at 524.

Id. at 526.

259 N.C. 633, 131 S.E. 2d 297 (1963): See also Groce v. Myers 224 N.C. 165, 29 S.E. 2d 553 (1944).

251 F. 2d 917(D.C. Cir. 1958).

151 F. Supp. 345, 347 (D.C. 1957).

183 Tenn. 428, 439, 192, S.W. 2d. 992, 996, 997 (1946).

A curare-like drug, i.e. succinylcholine.

i.e. Pentothal (a short acting barbiturate).

English Finch , Introduction to Psychiatry, 551 (1954).

Id. at 555; See also Balint, On the Transference and Countertransference, 20 Int. J. Psycho-Analysis 223–230 (1939); Berman , Countertransference and Attitude of the Analyst in the Therapeutic Process; 12 Psychiatry 159–166 (1949).

See generally Freud, The Dynamics of the Transference in 2 Collected Papers 312–322 (1912); Freud , Further Recommendations in the Technique of Psychoanalysis: Observations on Transference-Love in 2 Collected Papers 377–429 (1915).

Dawidoff , The Malpractice of Psychiatrists 1966 Duke LJ , 696, 711. A considerable number of malpractice suits stem from faulty doctor-patient relationships, and from feelings of resentment which the patient develops toward the physician. See Heller, Some Comments To Lawyers on the Practice of Psychiatry, 30 Temple Law Quarterly 401 (1957) Mr. Dawidoff likens the duty of the psychiatrist to a patient to that of a fiduciary to his beneficiary. p. 702–3. This is a common but unfortunate aspect of legal thinking whereby new theories must be pigeonholed into safe areas of law. See especially Shankor, Strict Tort Theory of Products Liability and the Uniform Commercial Code: A Commentary on Jurisprudential Eclipses, Pigeonholes and Communication Barriers, 17 W. Res. L. Rev. 5 (1965).

See supra note 2.

See supra note a.

See generally Rosen , Direct Psychoanalytic Psychiatry (1961); Rosen, A Method of Resolving Acute Catatonic Excitement, 20 Psyc. Q. XI (1946), describing Rosen's efforts to apply Freudian techniques to psychotic patients. “The governing principle of direct psychoanalysis (is) that the psychiatrist shall be, in effect, a foster-parent to the psychotic individual who has regressed to infancy, and who must be brought up all over again.” Stone, Two Avenues of Approach to the Schizophrenic Patient, 3 J. Am. Psychoanalytic Assoc. 126 (1955).

(C.A. Nov. 22, 1961) in The Times (London), Nov. 23, 1961, p. 5, col. 1.

Perr , Liability of Hospital and Psychiatrist in Suicide , 122 American J. Psychiatry 631 (1965). See generally Noel v. Menniger Foundation, 180 Kan. 23, 299 P. 2d 38 (1956); Tissinger v. Woolley, 78 Ga. App. 18, 50 S.E. 2d. 122 (1948); U.S. v. Gray 199 F. 2d 239 (10th Cir, 1952).

Perr, supra note 33 at 431.

Id. at 433.

Id. at 438.

See for example Lexington Hospital Inc. v. White, 245 S.W. 2d 927 (Ky. App. 1952).