Writing About Patients

An important new study of the clinical conundrum surrounding the publication of patient material.

The publication, presentation, and discussion of case studies are essential to the dialogue of psychoanalysis. However, presenting patient material to the public by either disguising the patient’s identity or asking for the patient’s consent presents a clinical dilemma. In a series of interviews, Judy Leopold Kantrowitz asks 141 analysts not only to describe their thoughts about disguising a patient versus asking a patient’s consent to appear in a paper, but also their perceptions of the clinical ramifications of a patient reading the material, whether by accident or design. In first-hand accounts, both analysts-as-patients and patients who are not themselves analysts relate the experience of reading about themselves, and reflect on the impact that reading had on their view of their analysts, themselves, and the analytic work.

Ethical concerns about confidentiality and decision making are examined both in theory and in the context of their clinical effect. Throughout the book, Kantrowitz examines the conscious and unconscious motives for analysts in writing about a patient, ultimately demonstrating that the conflict between the need to preserve patient privacy and the need for a literature including clinical material is not easily resolved.