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Tarasoff decision

the 1976 California Supreme Court decision in Tarasoff v. Regents of the University of California, which placed limits on a client’s right to confidentiality by ruling that mental health practitioners who know or reasonably believe that a client poses a threat to another person are obligated to protect the potential victim from danger. Depending on the circumstances, that protection may involve such actions as warning the potential victim, notifying the police of the potential threat posed by the client, or both. The decision was based on a case in which an individual confided to his therapist that he intended to kill a friend and later did so. See also duty to protect; duty to warn.

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Psychology term of the day

January 26th 2025

congenital oculomotor apraxia

congenital oculomotor apraxia

a condition, present at birth, in which a child is unable to fixate objects normally (see oculomotor apraxia). It is characterized by the absence of saccades and smooth-pursuit eye movements in the horizontal plane, but vertical eye movements are preserved: Children with this condition are often mistakenly thought to be blind. Between the ages of 4 and 6 months, they develop thrusting, horizontal head movements, sometimes blinking prominently or rubbing their eyelids when they attempt to change fixation. The cause of congenital oculomotor apraxia is unknown, but there is usually an improvement with age.