The authors present a case report and discuss the clinical effects of
the Tarasoff decision on the therapy of a potentially violent patient. They
emphasize that the patient's ambivalence toward the intended victim can be
used to foster the therapeutic alliance. The therapist's legal duty to the
victim and therapeutic duty to the patient, they assert, can then be
synergistically applied with an unexpected benefit: the patient's capacity
to make choices is enhanced.
Abstract Teaser