Medication and Confidentiality Issues

In the early days of psychoanalysis, analysts believed that treatment with
medication would interfere with psychoanalysis. Most modern psychoanalysts
believe that, although medicine can sometimes interfere, there are
times when it can be used in a helpful way in combination with psychoanalytic
psychotherapy or even with psychoanalysis.
“Confidentiality” is the termused to describe the privacy necessary for individuals
to be able to speak freely about all their thoughts and feelings. Responsible
psychoanalysts and psychotherapists agree to keep private everything
about their patients, including the fact that the patient has come for
treatment, unless the patient gives permission to release some specific information.
One exception is when patients are at risk for hurting themselves or
someone else. In Jaffe v. Redmond, an important case decided by the U.S. Supreme
Court in 1995, the Supreme Court confirmed that confidentiality is
necessary for the patient to speak freely in psychotherapy.