protect the patient (for possible complications concerning informed consent, see Section 3.1). ● When there is a programme, include a statement on confidentiality in it. ● Ask chairs to read a statement aloud before every presentation in which clinical material will be shared. Warn presenters and audiences that impromptu remarks can also breach confidentiality. (The statement used at the 2017 IPA Congress and two other representative statements are given in Appendix B.) ● Ensure that details have been changed to protect confidentiality and announce this. ● In large groups and any other groups in which not everyone knows everyone else, ensure that special precautions have been taken to protect confidentiality. Although informed consent is always complicated by transferential implications, in some jurisdictions, the presentation of clinical material may be legally safe only with the written consent of the patient. An alternative approach would be for the scientific committee or equivalent to review presentations in advance to evaluate the risks. ● Minimize the biographical details of the patient, revealing only what is absolutely necessary to the author’s claims. ● Disguise clinical material. This should be done so thoroughly in all clinical presentations that the patient could not be identified by others (or even, ideally, by the patient) 27 . ● Include in programme announcements and at the beginning of sessions containing clinical material that non-authorized video or audio-visual recording is not allowed. ● Invite each presenting analyst to consider presenting a brief statement justifying the strategy chosen for protecting confidentiality within his or her ethical framework. ● Candidates and colleagues are especially vulnerable when their personal analyses are spoken or written about by their analysts, given the risk of recognition. ● Consider the option of anonymous or pseudonymous authorship, or writing under the cover of a colleague's name. Psychoanalytic journals and e-journals ● Psychoanalytic journals and e-journals should review their editorial policies on confidentiality with the new digital and internet realities in mind. (We have provided some samples of statements on confidentiality currently in use by journals in Appendix B.) ● A survey should be conducted of all psychoanalytic journals and other outlets to determine current practices and collect current statements concerning confidentiality.
27 The Committee is aware that the idea of disguising material so that even the patient would be unlikely to recognise its origin may present serious and complex difficulties, and that it may not be appropriate in all circumstances.
35
Made with FlippingBook interactive PDF creator