4 ms·

I am not sure what the fuss is about. The NYT hasn't actually published anything yet, Alexander self-cancelled himself in a fit of _something_ and managed to dr

I am not sure what the fuss is about. The NYT hasn't actually published anything yet, Alexander self-cancelled himself in a fit of _something_ and managed to drum up quite a bit of publicity for himself and his blog in the process. Clever. I must admit I am somewhat on the side of the NYT being able to use his real name. Alexander's blog is related to his work, by staying anonymous (but not really) he is trying to have it both ways: "Hear my words, for I am an experienced psychiatrist with insights and stuff. I'm just not going to tell you which one. I will bask in the glow of accolades but am anonymous to critical articles." I think it is in the public interest for the NYT to state that Alexander is who he says he is, especially since some of his comments have attracted controversy. It would be different if this was some underground blog about model trains or something, but Alexander is a licensed professional. He likes that his words carry weight based on that or else he would go by AnonMemberOfThePublic375.

SilasX 6y ago
> "Hear my words, for I am an experienced psychiatrist with insights and stuff. I'm just not going to tell you which one. I will bask in the glow of accolades but am anonymous to critical articles." Huh? I don’t think he has ever used his status as a psychiatrist to claim credibility, nor do I think his readers care about that beyond the occasional anecdote. People (including me) were drawn to his writings long before they were aware of that aspect about him. When he moved to SSC c. 2013 he even made a post about just staring his residency, which isn’t “experienced”.
- AndrewStephens 6y ago
  I can see why Alexander might desire anonymity but even his list of reasons why he is deleting his blog post contains several pieces of potentially identifying information - far more than the hypothetical NYTs article would have contained, including details of his housing situation. I find his response confusing. Full marks on managing to get of lot of publicity off the back of the NYT not writing are article though. He is really getting is very-slightly-obfuscated name out there.
  - SilasX 6y ago
    Did you mean to respond to someone else? My comment was about your point on whether his writing unfairly benefits from his author’s claim to be a psychiatrist, and now you’re talking about something else and repeating some general claims. Are you not defending the above point anymore?
    - AndrewStephens 6y ago
      I am just going by my experiences but Alexander being a psychiatrist is literally the only thing I know about him from the last time I heard mention of him. He mentions his job several times in his "goodbye" article. It is a big part of his online persona that he has deliberately put out there for his own reasons.
bnjms 6y ago
I disagree on your latter points. Of he had known he might become (semi) famous he might have kept his me properly anonymous or down to initials. Didn’t we lose The Last Psychiatrist to de-anonymizing? And he was definitely anonymous. His coverage for being a psychiatrist was that he wrote in a way a psychiatrist would.
- mijoharas 6y ago
  I've noticed this mentioned somewhere else, but I'm not aware of "The last psychiatrist". I tried googling around and I don't see much information on what happened. Why was he deanonymised? Could you give me a quick rundown of the situation?

SilasX 6y ago

> "Hear my words, for I am an experienced psychiatrist with insights and stuff. I'm just not going to tell you which one. I will bask in the glow of accolades but am anonymous to critical articles." Huh? I don’t think he has ever used his status as a psychiatrist to claim credibility, nor do I think his readers care about that beyond the occasional anecdote. People (including me) were drawn to his writings long before they were aware of that aspect about him. When he moved to SSC c. 2013 he even made a post about just staring his residency, which isn’t “experienced”.

AndrewStephens 6y ago
I can see why Alexander might desire anonymity but even his list of reasons why he is deleting his blog post contains several pieces of potentially identifying information - far more than the hypothetical NYTs article would have contained, including details of his housing situation. I find his response confusing. Full marks on managing to get of lot of publicity off the back of the NYT not writing are article though. He is really getting is very-slightly-obfuscated name out there.
- SilasX 6y ago
  Did you mean to respond to someone else? My comment was about your point on whether his writing unfairly benefits from his author’s claim to be a psychiatrist, and now you’re talking about something else and repeating some general claims. Are you not defending the above point anymore?
  - AndrewStephens 6y ago
    I am just going by my experiences but Alexander being a psychiatrist is literally the only thing I know about him from the last time I heard mention of him. He mentions his job several times in his "goodbye" article. It is a big part of his online persona that he has deliberately put out there for his own reasons.

bnjms 6y ago

I disagree on your latter points. Of he had known he might become (semi) famous he might have kept his me properly anonymous or down to initials. Didn’t we lose The Last Psychiatrist to de-anonymizing? And he was definitely anonymous. His coverage for being a psychiatrist was that he wrote in a way a psychiatrist would.

mijoharas 6y ago
I've noticed this mentioned somewhere else, but I'm not aware of "The last psychiatrist". I tried googling around and I don't see much information on what happened. Why was he deanonymised? Could you give me a quick rundown of the situation?