You know, I get pretty tired of reading so many therapist and doctor blogs in the blogosphere and when I go to read up about who the person writing the blog is, I find they are blogging “pseudonymously.” They won’t say much about who they are, where they practice, their experience, or — most importantly — their names.
If you’re a doctor or therapist and want the rest of the world to take you or what you have to say, well, seriously, stand behind your words with your identity. If you’re saying things on your blog you’re afraid you shouldn’t be saying for patient confidentiality reasons or because your patients might not think as highly of you, well, maybe you shouldn’t be blogging that stuff. Anybody who is ashamed of their blog (e.g., “I wouldn’t want my patients to read this!”) should probably re-evaluate what exactly they’re blogging.
Now, if you’re hiding behind a pseudonym for some legitimate reason (not sure what that might be, but if you’re blogging from China, that might be a good reason), that’s cool. But to find so many so-called “doctor’s blogs” hiding behind anonymous veneers makes me wonder about (a) whether the person is a really a doctor or therapist and (b) whether what they’re writing is of value.
This is one of the reasons real journalists have a hard time with some bloggers calling themselves journalists, because journalists are accountable for every word they write.
Bloggers, apparently, are less so.
(7 votes, average: 5 out of 5)
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4 Comments to
“Why Are So Many Docs Afraid to Blog Under Their Names?”
I’m not sure that it is fair to jump from ‘many doctors don’t blog under their real names’ to ‘many doctors are afraid to blog under their real names’. There could be reasons other than fear for why they don’t blog under their real names.
One issue is that if you are posting your opinion about the virtues of drug x over drug y then you don’t want a person taking drug y to misunderstand you, take drug x instead, and then sue you when you have an allergic reaction. I suppose this could be construed as fear but I think of it more as ‘good clinical sense’ to ensure (to the best of your ability) that people not think that you are diagnosing or offering prescription reccomendations AS A LISENCED MEDICAL DOCTOR when you are posting over the internet.
Another issue is that if you are a psychiatrist who is of a psychoanalytic orientation where therapists neutrality is important to you then you simply don’t want your clients to find out personal information about you (information about your views on politics or medications or anything at all really) as that will potentially limit the kinds of transference options that are available to them.
With respect to the value of what is said I’m the kind of person who thinks that one should read what is said, have a think about it, and take it on its merits. For me, the thing that warns me to take what is said with a grain of salt is when someone keeps on about how they provide the BEST resource the most TRUSTED resource and so on and so forth. Saying those kinds of things is kind of redundant if true (people will draw this conclusion for themselves) and it is a strategy that has negative associations for me because it is more tied up in advertising (biggest! best! fastest!) than science.
So… Well done you for using your real name on your blog. But please… Is it really that hard to attempt to project yourself into the shoes of another and see some of the reasons why they might choose not to do this?
Is it really?
I think you make some excellent points here about credibility and professionalism.
For the record, I used to work in state and federal penitentiaries with max. security inmates. And those darn vendettas are just so irritating I figured I’d better use my Dr. Ding moniker rather than risk marring my pretty shrink face after getting shanked.
I suppose the reader has a responsibility too. If there’s no identification ¿why should I trust the information? The fact about Internet is that the blog could be written by Claudia Schiffer’s dog. Maybe Dr. Grohol had something like that in mind.
I think Dr. Grohol has tghe very right idea.
You know, doc, physicians who do post under their true names are really not much better.
I’ll ask something like: “What do you think….?”
And the answer is: “Only your doctor knows best what is best for you. I advise you get your doctor to answer your question as only he is qualified to answer.”
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Last reviewed: By John M. Grohol, Psy.D. on 29 Jun 2007
