Scenario 2a: a woman contacts her therapist about a friend of her son's "martyrdom mission.".

A woman contacts her psychologist from whom she has been receiving therapy for the past year for bouts with depression. She reports that she has just learned that a friend of her 19-year-old son appears to be recruiting her son for a martyrdom mission. This friend has voiced some fundamental Islamic beliefs that are very anti-American. The woman has overheard worrisome conversations between her son and his friend but had tried to discount their significance until her son revealed today that he was asked to become a Martyr for an unspecified attack against the United States. He is very concerned that his friend is involved in something that may be planned for the near future. They are afraid to report this to the police because her son has a juvenile record and he is somewhat anti-American himself. They are naturalized citizens of the United States after having moved here from Iran many years ago.

Problem: This situation is not covered explicitly by the American Psychological Association's (APA's) Ethical Principles of Psychologists and Code of Conduct. Pertinent portions of this Code are as follows:

 
   5.05 Disclosures. 
 
   (a) Psychologists disclose confidential information without the 
   consent of the individual only as mandated by law, or where 
   permitted by law for a valid purpose, such as (1) to provide needed 
   professional services to the patient or the individual or 
   organizational client, (2) to obtain appropriate professional 
   consultations, (3) to protect the patient or client or others from 
   harm, or (4) to obtain payment for services, in which instance 
   disclosure is limited to the minimum that is necessary to achieve 
   the purpose. 
 
   8.01 Familiarity With Ethics Code. 
 
   Psychologists have an obligation to be familiar with this Ethics 
   Code, other applicable ethics codes, and their application to 
   psychologists' work. Lack of awareness or misunderstanding of an 
   ethical standard is not itself a defense to a charge of unethical 
   conduct. 
 
   8.02 Confronting Ethical Issues. 
 
   When a psychologist is uncertain whether a particular situation or 
   course of action would violate this Ethics Code, the psychologist 
   ordinarily consults with other psychologists knowledgeable about 
   ethical issues, with state or national psychology ethics committees, 
   or with other appropriate authorities in order to choose a proper 
   response. 

Comments (Robert Kinscherff, Director of forensic training at the Law and Psychiatry Service of the Massachusetts General Hospital; senior forensic psychologist for the Boston Juvenile Court Clinic; member of the faculty of Harvard Medical School, communication to Susan Brandon, May 5, 2002):

 
   I do not believe that the Ethics Code explicitly mentions mandated 
   reporting of child abuse, elder abuse, etc. Rather, the Code handles 
   it by obligating psychologists to be aware of and to utilize 
   whenever appropriate or mandated the exceptions to confidentiality 
   found in the law. This is partly because most of the relevant law 
   is state law and these laws governing confidentiality and 
   permitted/mandated exceptions to confidentiality differ in their 
   specific details. The law that permits or requires a psychologist to 
   break confidentiality in order to protect third parties from 
   potential violence is the closest body of law to the scenario. 
   However, this law contemplates that it is the client/patient who 
   poses the serious threat of harm to a third party; it does not 
   contemplate violation of the confidentiality of the client/patient 
   if the client/patient is not the source of the risk of harm. 
 
   There is no specific mention of national-security related issues in 
   the Code, and I am unaware of any APA policy document or guidelines 
   document that refers to national security issues as they might arise 
   in the practice of psychology. 
 
   The Code as currently worded would actually permit breaking of 
   confidentiality despite the patient's/client's wishes in the 
   "national security risk from a third party" scenario BUT ONLY IF 
   there were applicable state or federal law that MANDATED the 
   breaking of confidentiality or PERMITTED the ...