In Treatment – Can a therapist be held responsible for a patient’s death?

In Treatment kicked off its second season this week, and they wasted no time getting back into the thick of things.

Paul gets slapped with a malpractice lawsuit over the death of Alex, whom he treated last season. Filed by Alex’s father, the $20 million suit claims that Alex wasn’t ready to fly, and that Paul let him leave therapy before he was ready to go. Alex died, and the suit claims he committed suicide.

First, I’m feeling really bad for Paul right about now. It takes a special person to be a therapist. Not only do you have to listen to others’ problems all day, but you also have to separate your work and personal life implicitly. If I was a therapist, I can only imagine I’d be grief-stricken over my patients’ problems all the time. And I can’t imagine how I’d feel if a patient died.

Now, on to my burning questions about this episode. I’m hoping a therapist will read this and offer some answers:

• Can a therapist be held responsible for a patient’s suicide?
• Can a therapist force a patient to stay in therapy when the patient wants to leave?
• And, can a therapist be held responsible for a patient’s death if the death resulted from the patient leaving therapy too soon by his own choice?

Paul told the attorney handling his side of the case that Alex hadn’t been in treatment that long. “It was his choice to leave,” explained Paul. “He said that he was ready to fly, and he told me not to screw up his life.”

Looking forward to hearing your thoughts on this.

Clacked by Jane Boursaw
on Apr 06, 2009 @ 16:00 EST5EDT