Tarasoff v. Regents of University of California. Prosenjit Poddar In 1968, college student Prosenjit Poddar met Tatiana Tarasoff at a dance class in California. Sure, he must have been unhinged but the triggers for the imbalance could well lie in the desperation to belong in an alien culture. Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California, own comments after the Tarasoff decision was handed down, late to the game but here's my 2 cents nonetheless, My Therapist Shared My Secrets, and Other Horror Stories, Mental Health Experts Advise Duties to Warn and to Protect, The Limits of Trump's and Your Own Medical Confidentiality, The patient says he is going to go home tonight and stab his wife in the arm. After consulting with his psychiatrist supervisor, Dr. Harvey Powelson, they wrote a letter to campus police advising them of the death threats. Caught between his indebtedness and his monstrous pride, he decided to kill his family. Killers who act in an impetuous moment, yet without marked psychopathic features. Tatiana Tarasoff is a prime example of a stalking victim who did not have the proper laws in place to protect her. Except, Prosenjit Poddar is still around to tell his tale if he wanted to which, for understandable reasons, he is loath to. Additionally, a lot of folks who have spent decades in mental health treatment who are still suffering tremendously. Firstpost - All Rights Reserved. The court instructed in terms of second degree felony murder, the purported underlying felony being assault with a deadly weapon. In an effort to establish better patient-client relationships in this field, there needs to be better, reliable treatment options, with proven outcomes. Poddar has already been in America one whole year before he could gather up courage to come down and attend one of these evenings. The welfare of the public should come first, the client second. One day he went and got himself a gun and played with it in his room. There are numerous inaccuracies referred to in this article. They dated briefly but she rejected him. There have been later cases which have modified many of the conditions of the Tarasoff decision and therapists are usually urged to seek legal advice before breaching patient confidentiality due to the complicated legal picture involved. Bersoff also pointed out that warning Poddar that his threats would be reported to the police made him terminate his therapy sessions and left him more isolated than ever. Overall it is a good summary but the details are not not factual. If mental health professionals could in any way, shape, or form, guarantee the success of their treatment, I might consider their arguments against the Tarasoff warning valid. He arrived at the University of California at Berkeley n17 and resided in the International House. Some of the scenarios might be covered under Tarasoff laws since they involve actual physical violence (despite not being life-threatening) but not necessarily. THE PEOPLE, Plaintiff and Respondent, v. PROSENJIT PODDAR, Defendant and Appellant. On October 27, 1969, Prosenjit Poddar killed Tatiana Tarasoff. It is a cautionary tale, a caution that still seems relevant almost half a century later. The client's best interest is always the priority in treatment. Should a threat to property be treated in the same way as a death threat? In 1968, college student Prosenjit Poddar met Tatiana Tarasoff at a dance class in California. An exceptionally bright--some would say genius-- exchange student from the lowest caste in India, his socioeconomic situation and dedication to his studies had left him little time to think of girls. n18 In the fall of 1968, he met Tanya Tarasoff while she was attending folk dancing classes at the International House. If the psychologist had accepted the view of absolute, inviolate confidentiality, he might have been able to have kept Poddar in treatment, saved the life of Tatiana Tarasoff, and Patient confidentiality prevented the doctor from warning Tanya and her family about the possible danger she was in but he did tell the police that Poddar could be a threat to others. Example 1: In the fall of 1969, Prosenjit Poddar, a citizen of India and naval architecture student at the University of California’s Berkeley campus, shot and stabbed to death Tatiana Tarasoff, a young woman who had spurned his affections. What if the patient threatened to destroy someone's house or car? No therapist can totally predict if someone will become violent or not, they can definitely err on the side of caution and are always encouraged to do so. Again, like Poddar’s, Sarkar’s family too will probably believe that it was all the doing of those shameless, loose firangi hussies who entrap their innocent ladlas and lead them astray. Prosenjit Poddar. Mainak Sarkar, the aerospace engineer who killed himself on Thursday after shooting dead his girlfriend in Minnesota and his PhD supervisor at the University of California in Los Angeles or UCLA, could have been the 21st-century reincarnation of Prosenjit Poddar. Popular gadgets including laptop, tablet and mobile specifications, features, prices, comparison. Bersoff also suggested the following scenarios: When presented to his students or colleagues, Bersoff reported that he often received varied responses on how the Tarasoff law should be applied in these different situations. Confidentiality is one of the pillars of therapy and is insanely important to upkeep; the special relationship between a client and their therapist is built upon trust. Tanya had met her killer, Prosenjit Poddar, a 24-year-old graduate student from India, a year earlier. A young lawyer just starting out on his career (he is a reputed corporate lawyer in California now) took on his case pro bono and got him a mistrial on a technical ground. In Bank. Prosenjit Poddar was a patient of Dr. Lawrence Moore, a psychologist at UC Berkeley's Cowell Memorial Hospital in 1969. His is a name that medical and legal circles there are fully aware of. Despite attempting to plead guilty to manslaughter, Prosenjit Poddar went on trial for first-degree murder and was found guilty of second-degree murder instead. In their time together, Poddar expressed to Moore that he wanted to kill Tarasoff. Tanya was a flirtatious young woman of mixed … I have just finished reading BAD KARMA which was authored by a fellow student at Berkeley at the same time. June 03, 2016 22:54:01 IST. His is a name that medical and legal circles there are fully aware of. Read honest and unbiased product reviews from our users. The patient says he is going to go home tonight and just cut off the tip of her pinky (on the non-dominant hand). The court decision based the concept of a "special relationship" between therapist and patient on the responsibility that physicians have in protecting society from dangerous patients (such as a violent patient escaping from a psychiatric hospital). And, who can say, they could all be correct. Dr. Moore requested campus police to detain Mr. Poddar and expressed the view that Mr. Poddar had paranoid schizophrenia. At Berkeley, he met Tatiana Tarasoff at a folk dancing class. Prosenjit Poddar was one such scholarship holder. Breaching confidentiality is a serious matter and can severely undermine the trust that patients have in their therapists. Might he have overcome his obsession with Tarasoff if he had stayed in therapy? In fact, the “duty to warn” was the direct outcome of Tarasoff’s savage murder in Berkeley, California in 1968. When, as was to be expected, she lost interest in him after a few months – an American teenager she did not see herself spending the rest of her life with him which is what he envisioned – Poddar became morose, withdrawn, lost interest in his studies, stayed locked up in his room, listening to his taped conversations with Tanya over and over again, not even having a bath and stinking to high heaven. Sign up for a weekly curated briefing of the most important strategic affairs stories from across the world. Poddar was taken into custody but, after satisfying the officers that he was of a rational mind, was released on his promise to stay away from Tarasoff. They gave him a deal: stay away from America and you are free to do what you want; come back and we will prosecute you. Why Do Antiheroes Appeal to People With Dark Traits? Poddar confided his intent to kill Tarasoff. He was from Durgapur, a couple of hours drive from Kolkata; he was from Balurghat, a small town in north Bengal, close to the Bangladesh border, which had no rail connection till a few years ago. If the ground beneath his feet trembled, it was, surely, only to be expected. 16502. He began seeing a therapist, Lawrence Moore. Prosenjit Poddar was born into the Harijan (untouchable) caste in Bengal, India. The obsessed Poddar began … The gunman was identified as Mainak Sarkar, an Indian-born 38-year-old former UCLA Ph.D student. The Americans decided to cut their losses. I believe the anger has been misdirected in this case. They allege that on Moore's request, the campus police briefly detained Poddar, but released him when he appeared rational. The same precaution is owed to the victims of violent threats. But America hasn’t forgotten Prosenjit Poddar. His atrocity was not wholly in vain. You be the judge. Prosenjit Poddar and Tatiana Tarasoff were students at UC Berkeley. His therapist wanted to commit him to hospital, but Poddar convinced campus police he was not dangerous. Prosenjit Poddar was a patient of Dr. Lawrence Moore, a psychologist at UC Berkeley's Cowell Memorial Hospital in 1969. They gave him a deal: stay away from America and you are free to do what you want; come back and we will prosecute you. Plaintiffs, Tatiana's parents, allege that two months earlier Poddar confided his intention to kill Tatiana to Dr. Lawrence Moore, a psychologist. Consequently, although Moore sought to have Poddar involuntarily committed, the campus police disregarded Moore’s recommendation and Poddar remained free. Tatiana Tarasoff and Prosenjit Poddar met in 1968 as students at the University of California, Berkeley. By admin on June 3, 2016 . After returning to her home, he called police. The Americans decided to cut their losses. Tarasoff was no longer interested in a serious relationship thus she broke up with Poddar. Level 6. In Ireland the defendant shot and killed his wife. Nevertheless, Sarkar evidently found it as difficult to fit into the America of the 2000s as did Poddar in the late Sixties. Guided by the court decision, the state of California later passed a law stating that all therapists have a duty to protect intended victims by either warning victims directly, notifying law enforcement directly, or taking whatever other steps to prevent harm might be needed. When Poddar denied making any death threats and assured police that he would stay away from Tarasoff, he was released and Dr. Powelson ordered all therapy notes destroyed. Therapeutic counseling still had a long ways to go and still has a long way to go, as do most forms of medical treatments. In ruling on the case of Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California, the court determined that the need for therapists to protect the public was more important that protecting client-therapist confidentiality. There is so much of Sarkar’s life in America that is as yet unknown. Poddar stated to the university health science psychologist that he intended to kill an unnamed woman, who was identified as Tatiana Tarasoff. Dr. Moore requested that the campus police detain Poddar, writing that, in his opinion, Poddar was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia, acute and severe. When Tatiana rebuffed him, Poddar began stalking her and underwent an emotional crisis for which he began psychological counseling at the university medical centre. In a 2013 presidential address by Donald N. Bersoff of Drexel University (who was then-president of the American Psychological Association), he argued that the decision is "bad law, bad social science, and bad social policy.". Not someone who had set IIT on fire but still good enough for America. Plaintiffs, Tatiana's parents, allege that two months earlier Poddar confided his intention to kill Tatiana to Dr. Lawrence Moore, a psychologist. [1] Plaintiffs, Tatiana's parents, allege that two months earlier Poddar confided his intention to kill Tatiana to Dr. Lawrence Moore, a psychologist employed by the Cowell Memorial Hospital at the University of California at Berkeley. Poddar interpreted the kiss as a symbol of the seriousness of their relationship. Coparenting With an Ex: Battleground vs. Common Ground. Do a Google search and Prosenjit Poddar’s name will dredge up 19,500 entries in .45 seconds, mostly because of the legal implications of what he did to Tanya Tarasoff. That was until he met Tanya Tarasoff, a fellow student at the University of California, Berkley, at an international student dance on campus. Lonely and awkward, he soon found himself spellbound by pretty, young Tanya, formally known as Tatiana Tarasoff, a second generation offspring of Russian immigrants who hoped to join college herself the following year. 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