Setting record straight on confidentiality: Dear Abby: I have received ‘many phone calls since the appear- ance of Carol A. Tauer’s letter in your column. Her otherwise inter- sting and informative eter con ‘cerning the ethical implications of the Catholic Church's position on the seal of the confessional con- tained a of errors that I hhope you will correct. = It is well known in the Bay Area pean omni tat war tt logist (not psy- Smears? ‘Cowell Memorial Hospital on the University of Calfornia-Berkeley ‘campus forthe patient who mur ‘dered Tatiana Tarasoff. ‘Ms. Tauer, an ethics teacher in a Catholic college, said in her leter, “On appeal, the California ‘Supreme Court rejected the psy- chiatrist’s argument supporting ab- solute confidentiality, saying that a psychiatrist had a duty to war or protect an identifiable potential But Abby, I never argued for ‘complete confidentiality. When the patient told me of hs intention to ‘al Ms, Tarasof, 1 immediately in- formed the local police (in this cat, the Univer of Caliomia Campus Police Departme rot a legal eter of commitment (countersigned by the chief psychi- atrist of our department) with the intent of hospitalizing my patient, ‘This was exactly the procedure di- rected by law at that time (1968). ‘The campus police interviewed soll ert my rad point to my ers: You di, infact, warn the police on tet ocasons. You dd not rely upon any claim of confiden- tality to keep the threats seeret ‘The Supreme Court opinion cited by Ms. Tauer does not make ‘lear that you the matter Tenueee the patient committed and did not configenta