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I would like to welcome you all here today and to give you a little background as to how this conference has come about. Very soon after I became chair of the BCP, I had dinner with Don Campbell who was then President of the British Psychoanalytical Society. I asked him what he thought was the most important task of the BCP over the next few years and he immediately said, ‘Confidentiality’. He referred to the increasing trend towards disclosure of information and the profound impact this is having on our profession, especially in the USA where legislation has been much more comprehensive and, from the clinician's point of view, intrusive than in this country. Pip Garvey will tell you about how the profession in the USA has combated this in her presentation. As Don Campbell pointed out, there had already been several cases in this country of psychoanalysts whose records on patients involved in the judicial process had been subpoenaed by the courts. It is clear that at the moment as the law stands the right of the practitioner to withhold this information lies entirely within the discretion of the presiding judge. This strikes at the very heart of our practice - without being able to ensure confidentiality of the psychotherapeutic process our relationship with our patients is undermined and our work becomes untenable. It seemed to me that this was clearly an appropriate task for the BCP in its role of representing and protecting the interests of our members and ultimately of our patients.
Initially, following Don Campbell's advice, I contacted Rob Hale and Pip Garvey who had both been doing considerable work in this area. We were particularly concerned about two pieces of legislation, the Health and Social