Last night around midnight – I noticed that I had crossed
the 2 million reads mark on this blog.
The Google Blogger interface that I use is not very granular so
it is difficult to tell how many of those hits are actual reads as opposed to
something else. By something else I mean hackers, bots, and people trying to
use my blog for free advertising. The
products are typically illegal or barely legal drugs or psychiatric services outside
of the US. The increase in VPNs is also
probably a factor. Over the years the
number of hits per page has flattened out while the overall number for the blog
has increased. My assumption is that individual page reads with a VPN are not
counted, but they are counted for the overall blog.
I am reassured and very grateful for the readers of this blog and have
corresponded in detail with many of them.
They range from medical students considering a career in psychiatry to
very senior medical scientists with hundreds of research publications. In many cases they are advocating for a
specific viewpoint. In a few they want
me to change a blog post in some way.
That rarely happens because of my level of experience and the degree of
research I put into these posts.
Somewhere in the past I pointed out that one of my motivations for
writing this blog came from colleagues who asked me what I read, where I found
certain information, and how I came to know what I know. I hope I am successful
at getting that information out there.
I am also very grateful to the academics out there who share
their work and give me free advice. One
of the most striking examples was midnight correspondence with two philosophers
who wrote a book about diagnostic decision making in the late 1980s. I used it
to teach a course in not making diagnostic errors in medicine and psychiatry.
Both professors were retired and I sent them emails in a later time zone at
midnight. They gave me detailed responses within an hour. I don’t always get a
response, but when I do it is exhilarating to be a part of academic discussions
with some of the most accomplished people in the world.
It has not always been a walk in the park. I was confused about gaslighting initially
and tolerated too much of that activity before drawing a line.
I often wonder about why people read or do not read this
blog. The appearance is fairly basic
compared with other sites that offer better graphics. I think there is some reluctance or
resentment based on the idea that I am profiting from this blog. I can restate that this is completely
non-commercial and not-for-profit. I not
only have not made a cent writing this blog but have had to pay licensing costs
out-of-pocket for graphics and permissions.
A friend and colleague recently told me that he never thought about
reading blogs. The era seems to be one
of podcasts and TikTok video clips. I have always found reading to be a lot
faster. And unlike TikTok I am
intentionally not provocative.
One of the recurrent themes here on my blog is that there is no way to simplify psychiatry and do it well. A psychiatrist considering themselves to be primarily a psychotherapist or primarily a psychopharmacologist is not considering large areas of the discipline. The same is true of the psychiatrist who ignores medicine and neurology. To paraphrase Euclid (325 BCE - 265 BCE) “There is no royal road to psychiatry.” You must know it all to do good work. Complexity is good and necessary in human biology.
I currently have 123 folders in my References 2024 Folder
and it’s only March. I am
working on a protocol that will allow me to submit research papers and blog
them if they are rejected. At the rate I
am going I will write my own textbook in psychiatry in another 20 years. Stay tuned!
And Thanks again!
George Dawson, MD, DFAPA
