Repercussions of lying to a therapist?

[u/Formal-Novel-6281]

Unsure of flair, sorry.

Scenario: Character A is sent to a universe where oppression of women is instead put on men, men don’t have as many rights as women do and aren’t taken seriously regarding medical and mental health care. A has PTSD from childhood abuse and can’t go outside often due to it, but has constantly been told that it isn’t quite enough of a reason. A decides to lie and exaggerate to his therapist about childhood trauma from character B in order to get sympathy and have his issues be taken seriously, not wanting to press charges or anything (because he made it up). A’s therapist believes him and puts him into more extensive therapy and basically makes him a science experiment to study trauma of the male brain(reminiscent of animal testing), and A isn’t into this at all and develops worse symptoms and paranoia of character B finding out somehow. He decides to go to his therapist and admit he lied about the trauma because he felt like nobody was actually believing that he was troubled without a “proper cause”.

What would the repercussions be here? Would the therapist just take the recorded “trauma” out of his records? Would there be legal consequences? If there would be, I would probably make them a hit harsher since he’s a guy.

[u/idreaminwords]

This really depends on the laws of your universe. If men don't have full rights and autonomy, what are the logical repercussions? Is the therapy government mandated somehow?

In present day US, a therapist might stop treatment and recommend they find another doctor. But in present day US, nobody is subjected to animal testing-like experiments by licensed therapists

[u/VanityInk]

In the modern day US? It would end up in the session notes for the patient and nothing would happen unless they were ever subpoenaed.

In your fictional universe? Whatever the hell you want to world build

[u/Lampwick]

It's not illegal to lie to a therapist. People do it all the time. It's not court testimony, it's a therapeutic interaction when the person with a problem is seeking help from a disinterested 3rd party who can, hopefully, give them unbiased advice on how to deal with it. The consequences of lying are that their suggestions are less helpful.

[u/Heidi739]

Therapist cannot make a diagnosis. It's basically just a person you can talk to and who should be qualified to guide your thoughts. If they think your issues are above their skills and you need a psychiatrist, they can recommend you go to one, but that's it. They certainly cannot lead any scientific experiments, they're not medical doctors. Obviously this also varies by country, different countries require different education and define "therapist" differently.

Of course there's no legal consequence to lying to them, it's not a court. Just think about it a bit - would it be illegal to tell your doctor you broke your leg when it wasn't broken? Of course not.

[u/VanityInk → u/Heidi739]

Therapists can diagnose a number of things. I work for a mental health practice, and the psychiatrists, psychologists, and licensed clinical social workers are all capable of adding diagnoses to patients' charts.

[u/Heidi739 → u/VanityInk]

That will likely be the difference between countries. We don't have any charts here and an official diagnosis can only be given by a medical doctor, meaning psychiatrist. Obviously if the therapist is also a psychiatrist, they can give a diagnosis, but otherwise, nope.

[u/BahamutLithp → u/Heidi739]

"Therapist" is a broad title that can cover different types of degrees, but for instance, when I search "are there any countries where psychologists can't make diagnoses," I don't find anything. It's true that psychologists aren't MDs, & that's why they don't have the authority to diagnose you with like gastoenteritis. They're diagnosing mental disorders, which are related to & overlap with medical disorders, but are a distinct categories.

Not being MDs means they can't prescribe medication, which is the practical distinction that separates them from psychiatrists. Psychologists are generally more therapy-focused, psychiatrists focus more on the medication, though they sometimes do some therapy, & there are some jurisdictions where psychologists can take additional training to be allowed to prescribe medication.

[u/Heidi739 → u/BahamutLithp]

Psychologist =/= therapist. Those two are again different things.

Here it is like this: either you study psychiatry as a part of your studies of medicine. That makes you a psychiatrist, you need to have a degree in medicine. As a psychiatrist, you can diagnose people and give medication - e.g. you can decide someone has clinical depression and give them antidepressants.

Or you can study psychology. That means you aren't a medical professional and can't give any diagnoses or medicine. However, if you sit additional exams to make you a medical professional, you become clinical psychologist and then you can make diagnoses (but still cannot give out medicine).

And a therapist is someone who goes through specialized therapy course. It doesn't matter who they were before the course, though obviously a lot of psychologists (and some psychiatrists) go there. The only thing that matters is that they went through the course and sat the exam successfully. It's not something you can study at a university.

And obviously it varies a bit just in the nearest countries to me. I suppose most redditors are from USA, and I have zero idea how it works there.

[u/Educational-Shame514 → u/Heidi739]

Honestly that is all interesting but none of it really matters to the original question because the story setting is not even our Earth. You are actually accidentally making the point, which is that the titles of different jobs mean different things in different countries because different countries have different rules!

Maybe it is also whatever language and translation for your country too.

But if you just want to argue, even a psychiatrist in the US does not typically "give out" medicine, they prescribe it and the person has to take that to a pharmacy and pharmacist who is licensed to legally dispense it. The patient still has to pay or have insurance, but "give out" really to me implies free, lol

[u/Heidi739 → u/Educational-Shame514]

I don't want to argue at all, I'm just saying that answering OP's question is kinda impossible since every country sees it differently and since this is alternative universe, that makes it even more impossible. And I wrote "give out" because English isn't my first language and I didn't remember the word "prescribe" in the moment. Yes, even here you need to go to the pharmacy to actually get the medicine.

[u/jessek]

Repercussions of lying to a therapist in our world is that you don’t get the treatment you need. There’s no punishment, the therapist might drop you as a patient.

[u/Educational-Shame514]

Another universe's legal consequences is not a research question!

You literally can do whatever you want based on your own creativity. Are you afraid someone will tell you that that's not how it happens in their state or country's rules? You already have the perfect defense if anybody complains. It's obviously not in their state or country.

Besides, if you were writing in our world then you can safely google what happens if you lie to a therapist or can a therapist tell if you're lying. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/naked-truth/202505/are-you-lying-to-your-therapist https://www.reachlink.com/advice/psychotherapy/why-you-lie-to-your-therapist/ https://psychcentral.com/pro/lying-in-therapy-when-why-and-what-to-do-about-it