Spying on Psychiatrists: Surreptitious Surveillance of the Forensic Psychiatric Examination by the Patient Himself

Abstract

Lawyers have argued that surveillance of the forensic psychiatric examination is often necessary to protect clients' rights and assure more accurate reporting of the findings. This paper reports a new phenomenon which adds a disconcerting dimension to the current controversy over surveillance of such examinations, namely, surreptitious recording by patient/examinees of their own forensic examination. Their motivations range from psychotic delusions to perceptions that they are acting to protect their legal interests. Neither legal nor ethical code prohibitions in any way serve to bar such conduct. Moral arguments for and against secret recording by patient /examinees are explored, and its relationship to other techniques used to monitor professional practices in the health fields (such as pseudopatient studies) is discussed.