Consent for publication and the future of psychoanalysis

ABSTRACT The future development of psychoanalysis relies on our ongoing ability to make readily available our most recent clinical discussions and related theoretical developments. However, to publish ethically, we must also be aware of the ‘unboundaried’ nature of the current digital world, and the implication that what we write will be widely accessible, including being accessible to those patients we are writing about. The upshot of this is the need to seek informed and signed consent from those patients we write about and offer to provide them with a draft of what we write. This contribution considers the difficulties in seeking informed consent, and offers some suggestions for dealing with these difficulties.