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Research ArticleARTICLES

On the Duty to Protect: An Evolutionary Perspective

Thomas J. Rudegeair and Paul S. Appelbaum
Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online December 1992, 20 (4) 419-426;
Thomas J. Rudegeair
MD, PhD
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Paul S. Appelbaum
MD
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Abstract

Psychotherapists' duty to protect potential victims from their patients' violence has evolved in recent years toward a narrower set of obligations. This reformulation of the duty appears to us to be consistent with a sociobiological analysis of the reasonableness of compelled altruism. Altruistic behavior (e.g., rescuing a potential victim) takes place rarely in the animal world, and even among humans usually occurs only in situations in which reciprocity is likely. The Tarasoff-like duty to protect violates this sociobiological rule by requiring therapists to place the interests of an unknown victim over a known patient, and even to subordinate their own interests to the victim's. This has never been a socially tenable position. Psychotherapists appear to have escaped from this situation by avoiding potentially dangerous patients. The changes in the duty to protect have mitigated this dilemma, by moving the duty in a direction consistent with the evolutionary theory of altruism.

  • Copyright © 1992, The American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law
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Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online: 20 (4)
Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online
Vol. 20, Issue 4
1 Dec 1992
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On the Duty to Protect: An Evolutionary Perspective
Thomas J. Rudegeair, Paul S. Appelbaum
Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online Dec 1992, 20 (4) 419-426;

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On the Duty to Protect: An Evolutionary Perspective
Thomas J. Rudegeair, Paul S. Appelbaum
Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online Dec 1992, 20 (4) 419-426;
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