Psychotherapists' Fear of Tarasoff: All in the Mind?

Abstract

This article analyzes the effect of Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California on the therapeutic community. It is the thesis of the paper that, in the long term, Tarasoff s effect is fairly limited. The Tarasoff doctrine should not overly concern the therapeutic community; it does not set a standard of care that is particularly onerous, nor does it stray from the underlying ethical standards of the therapeutic community. Tarasoff 's great service was to make explicit the duty that physicians and quasi-physicians owe to society. Tarasoff at one time galvanized therapists against legal encroachments upon their practice. Today it should be seen as an old dog whose bark is significantly more effective than its bite.