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Friending Your Therapist on Facebook Sounds Like a 2010 Seinfeld Scenario

by Amar Toor on April 28, 2010 at 10:40 AM

Whereas traditional therapist-patient relationships have always been restricted to the four walls of a shrink's office, doctors and patients alike have begun taking their camaraderie online. And, as the L.A. Times reports, the trend has raised the eyebrows of many medical ethicists, most of whom consider Facebook friendships or investigative Google searches a direct violation of the doctor-patient code of confidentiality. While most agree that googling your doctor is a great way to check his or her qualifications, others believe online exchange should stop there... before trust is irreparably broken.

Obviously, serious problems could arise if a therapist started snooping around patients' Facebook albums without telling them. The balance of knowledge between a psychiatrist and a patient has never been equal, but the two should at least start off on the same page. In the era of Facebook and Google, though, the once rigidly defined rules governing the doctor-patient bond have become decidedly more hazy. If a doctor knows something about his subject, or if a patient begins tailoring his responses because of what he's read on his doctor's music blog, the entire architecture of the doctor-patient dynamic begins to tremble.

Online personas have grown to play an increasingly important role in many people's everyday lives, and the average person's Facebook profile probably does contain at least a few nuggets of rich psychological material with which professionals could work. The issue simply comes down to transparency. If a patient decides to expand the borders of a relationship, or if a doctor thinks that glancing through a patient's Wall posts might help treat for depression, that's for them to decide, together. As long as online relationships are managed carefully -- and with an intent to help cure someone -- we don't see anything wrong with it. [From: Los Angeles Times, via: The Awl]

Tags: doctor, facebook, health, medical, medicine, psychiatrist, psychiatry, relationships, SocialNetworking, therapists, therapy, top, web

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