ABSTRACT
Condentiality and testimonial privilege are critical factors in both psychotherapy and mental health assessment alike. Perhaps no other juxtaposition of concepts better represents the delicate interplay of clinical and legal issues that makes forensic psychiatry among the most conceptually challenging of the medical specialties. Although these two terms address what at times may seem like indistinguishable treatment of the same sensitive information, condentiality is an essentially ethical notion, while testimonial privilege is an essentially procedural one.
