re: #186 Dark_Falcon

That last is a judgement American society has made, that protecting individual privacy holds the priority. If the rules were to be loosened, those who have mental issues and know they need help might be deterred from seeking it by the specter of the police being told about some dark dream they shared with their therapist. Such a disclosure could hold dire consequences in the hands of a prosecutor or detective who saw an opportunity to gin a charge of a murder plot, gain favorable publicity and pad their conviction rate.

Admittedly, that last line takes things a bit overboard, but its the kind of thing changes in favor of disclosure would have people thinking. And that sort of abuse likely would occur at some point, even if only as an isolated case.

And instead we’re left with a situation where everyone around the guy can see that something’s wrong upstairs, but nobody can do anything because the law protects him until he decides he needs help. Such that when he finally does act out and harm others, the lack of action seems less like prudence and more like indifference.