L'intimité psychique dans le champ de la psychologie clinique et de la psychopathologie : enjeux et perspectives éthiques

The focus of this article is to describe the major ethical issues raised by the respect for intimacy in the practice of clinical psychologists, psychoanalysts, university teachers and researchers in psychology. We describe the complex issues about the “shared secret”, the potential disclosure of the intimate relating to presentations of clinical cases during lessons, the need to not ignore that a manifest complaint may mask a mental suffering. Finally, we note that in the field of research the principle of feasibility not always implicate the principle of beneficence, cornerstone of any research involving human beings. We postulate that the respect for intimacy can be sustained by principles ethical and deontological but also by “the tact” and the “analytic neutrality” as a guideline for the clinician, the teacher and the researcher.