13 APPENDICES Appendix A: The IPA Confidentiality Committee Background
Psychoanalysis has been built on a number of fundamental principles, including the vital importance of confidentiality and the practise of sharing clinical cases to develop understanding and share best practice. The Boston Congress demonstrated that changing technologies and growing globalisation are altering the context in which psychoanalysis is practised. At the Prague Congress, there was considerable unhappiness when the IPA restricted access to sessions where clinical material was to be discussed. There are other profound changes taking place in the social landscape: to give one example, across the European Union there is a growing consensus that personal data are owned by the individual, not the clinician; that the individual should have control over their own data, especially "sensitive personal data" (a category likely to include much that emerges in analytic sessions); and that patients should generally give informed consent before their material is used. In the UK, where the IPA is registered, some breaches of data protection laws are now criminal offences. These changes could have direct implications, to take two diverse examples, for the reports that are prepared by Supervisors working at IPA Institutes, and for the use of VoIP technologies to conduct remote analytic sessions. The IPA should position itself to advise its Component Societies and Members on best practices in relation to these activities. Mandate 1. To conduct a comprehensive overview of the ways that confidentiality pertains to and impacts on the work of IPA psychoanalysts. 2. To draft documents on best practices re: confidentiality for the IPA Board to review and approve. 3. To advise the IPA Board on issues related to confidentiality for the IPA's 2019 Congress.
4. To consult with other IPA Committees as needed. 5. To consult with experts on specific issues as needed.
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