Confess in Confidence: Difference between revisions

 

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* Happens in [[Osamu Tezuka]]'s ''[[MW]]'', where Michio taunts Garai by confessing to many of his more horrible misdeeds in church.

 

 

* This is the central plot of [[Alfred Hitchcock]]'s film ''[[I Confess]]''.

 

 

* In ''[[Literature/The Gadfly|The Gadfly]]'', the protagonist loses all faith after he learns that his confessor leaked the secret to the police.

 

 

* A Catholic Priest hears a confession of a crime in ''[[A Touch of Frost]]'' that causes him some real difficulties.

* Subverted in ''[[Leverage]]'', when Nate (a mostly-trained former priest) uses the sanctity of the confessional to achieve his aims as a conman.

** In his defense, the plan he came up with as a result hinged on providing the confessor a chance to do the right thing and make the confession in public.

* ''[[CSI]]'' - A Catholic priest, bound by his confidentiality, at least tries to steer the investigators in the right direction.

* ''[[Highlander the Series]]'' - On at least two occasions evil Immortals use confessions as opportunities to gloat and the priests involved are unable to report their "confessions."

* [[Private Eye|Ian]] [[Have I Got News for You|Hislop]] has claimed in interviews that at one point during his long-standing feud with Piers Morgan, his vicar told him that the ''Daily Mirror'' had called wanting to know if he'd confessed "anything good."

* [[Zig Zagged]] in the Italian series ''Don Matteo''. The title character, a priest and amateur sleuth, is convinced that a man is a killer, and the man gets so annoyed of Don Matteo investigating that he goes to him in confession and says, basically, "Yes, I killed that bastard, and now you won't be able to do anything about it because of the secret of confession!". Don Matteo is stumped for a bit, but then tells the culprit that he would gladly be excommunicated if it meant putting the culprit behind bars. Then the culprit sees Don Matteo talking to the police and attacks him with a hammer, screaming "I'll kill you so you won't tell them I did it!". Don Matteo, however, wasn't telling on him, but simply [[Xanatos Gambit|having a nice chat with his policeman friend...]]

 

'''Wiggum:'''( ''pokes head out, cocks gun'') That's all I needed to hear! Boy, this thing works great. }}

 

 

* This has been invoked by many Russian tyrants, most infamously Ivan the Terrible, but he's not the biggest offender for this in Russian history. In late XIX and early XX centuries, before the [[Red October]], Russian imperial police required the priests to report any crimes, criminal or political, they learned about in confessionals.

* There was a scandal a few years ago where a priest was appointed to a Polish bishopric and was discovered to have revealed secrets he learned in the confessional to the secret police back when the Communists were still in power.

 

 

 

* In ''[[Judge Dredd]]'' there was a serial killer that had a psychiatrist who was trying to cure him that kept a confidence in this way. If he felt guilty about it however, he didn't say so.

 

 

* In the Billy Crystal/Robert deNiro film ''[[Analyze This]]'' and presumably the sequel, a mob boss-type character gets his psychiatrist involved in his shady dealings this way.

* In ''[[Grosse Pointe Blank]]'', the main character (a hit man)'s therapist tries to explain the loopholes in confidentiality and being required to report it when/if he knows his patient is going to hurt someone. The patient assures him that it's fine, he understands, and he doesn't want to make things difficult for him, and anyways he knows where the doctor lives…

 

 

* Referenced at the beginning of ''[[The Sopranos]]'': Tony Soprano's psychiatrist tells him that if he confesses to her any serious crimes, or suggests that someone is in physical danger (eg, that he intends to kill someone), then she is a mandated reporter and has to pass the info on.

** Also they used Doctor-patient privilege to have meetings with Junior in his Doctor's office while he was on trial, since the government could not wiretap the Doctor's office.

* Non-criminal example in ''[[Scrubs]]''. JD is smitten with a girl and unintentionally agrees to treat her boyfriend. He diagnoses a man with an STD and he confesses that he probably got it from a girl he was seeing on the side, then invokes doctor-patient privilege to force JD not to share the diagnosis or the fact that he is cheating. JD has to choose between warning the girlfriend or his professional ethics.

** This is averted in some jurisdictions, as sexually-transmitted diseases need to be reported to the local health authority and/or the patient's sexual partners. In this specific example, the girl and her boyfriend had not had sex yet so JD couldn't use this loophole to tell her anyway. Fortunately, she figures it out before sleeping with the jerk, when her coworker (who her boyfriend slept with) develops the same symptoms and gets diagnosed with Gonorrhea too.

* In an episode of ''[[Frasier]]'', the eponymous doctor finds a loophole in the psychiatrist/patient confidentiality agreement by becoming a patient to his brother (also a psychiatrist), allowing him to tell his brother his patient's troubles.

 

 

* In ''[[Heavy Rain]]'', Ethan Mars' shrink initially refuses to talk to the police, citing doctor-patient privilege. Detective Blake, a definite Bad Cop, just beats it out of him, and the stuff from Ethan's psychic evaluations turns out to be pretty damning.

 

* ''[[And Justice for All]]'' involves a lawyer being politically blackmailed into defending a judge (who he despises) who's been accused of beating and raping a young woman. {{spoiler|At one point the judge confesses to the crime.}}

 

 

* Subverted on ''[[The West Wing]]'', where it turns out the the White House Counsel is not actually the President's attorney:

'''Oliver''': You and I don't enjoy attorney/client privilege. }}

* ''[[White Collar]]'': Neal exploits the hell out of this when he gets framed and arrested in season 1. Since his attorney is his partner in crime Mozzie, they can use attorney-client privilege to keep the FBI from monitoring them while they plot Neal's escape.

 

 

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Medical Drama]]

[[Category:Mystery Tropes]]