Clinical Scrutiny of Litigants' Self-Reports

As more psychotherapists enter forensic practice, fundamental differences between patients in treatment and patients in personal injury litigation require adjustment of clinicians' orientation toward patients. Therapists' traditional support, acceptance, and empathy toward patients in psychotherapy must be supplemented with increased objectivity regarding plaintiffs' self-presentation. Adopting a more investigative attitude toward patients' self-reports may represent for some therapists an uncomfortable transformation of the traditional therapeutic relationship. Awareness of the reasons for disparities between patients in these two roles can improve clinical judgment. Clinicians are advised to become knowledgeable about these issues and to adopt a more analytical, data-oriented attitude toward patients' self-reports when conducting forensic examinations.