In 1978, Prosenjit Poddar moved to Berkeley, California, from Bengal to study. He encountered Tatiana Tarasoff from Russia while attending a dance class. Tatiana did not show any romantic interest. Prosenjit started stalking her and started showing signs of mental stress.
During counseling, he told his therapists that he wanted to kill Tatiana. The counsellor did not warn Tatiana. Because their conversation was legally confidential. Unfortunately, Prosenjit killed Tatian after a few weeks. This caused huge controversy and shook the foundation of psychotherapy.
The professionals claimed confidentiality is the basis of their work. They also said that if others were not bound to report such conversations. To warn potential victims then why are only they expected to do it? There was a lot of public pressure. Even the court agreed it would have been better to warn Tatiana. Many states in The US made laws on this. About half of American states require the psychotherapist to inform the potential victim.
Prosenjit’s case fell through due to technical issues and he was sent back to India. No information is available on this case after this. Now that psychotherapy is in focus in India. We should also have laws relating to these issues.
