Saturday, January 10, 2009

The Images In My Head


I'm so glad ClinkShrink lived through jury duty....she was sending out 'bored and starved' distress messages.

So Novalis comments on our posts sometimes and I've visited his blog: Ars Psychiatrica. I wanted to add it to our blogroll, but once Roy has been somewhere, it's usually pretty complicated and I wasn't sure I could add something without blowing Shrink Rap to bits.

Now Novalis has visited and commented at times. In my head, he's been a "she." Why? I don't know, but I had this image of a female psychiatrist. Maybe it's the long hair in his profile pic. It wasn't until I started reading his blog that I suddenly felt some need to know: What gender? I went to his profile view, and discovered a fair amount about him-- first off that he's a HE and that he's a community psychiatrist (I like them). The North Carolina part didn't surprise me.

Sometimes our readers tell us about themselves-- their careers, their reason for an interest in mental health, where they're from, and maybe their names or their photos give away their gender (hi to Zoe Brain across the globe whose blog tells of his he-to-she journey)...sometimes I can glean their age, sometimes people just tell us or put it on their profiles. A few we've met: TigerMom and Sophizo met us at a conference.

Is there something about the mystery of it? Someone wrote a guess about us in our comment section recently: I was described as a cookie-baking mom with glasses and my hair in a bun. I bake cookies a couple of times a year, wear contacts, not glasses, and have never once, not even for a single hour, worn my hair in a bun.d

8 comments:

Unknown said...

Hi Dinah!

Pseudoanonymity is an interesting concept. We want to stay private, but cannot resist leaving tidbits about ourselves wherever we go.

DrivingMissMolly said...

Dinah,

A couple of years ago, I looked at Amazon at your book because I was thinking of buying it. There were parts you could read, and the back of the book, with a picture of you, was shown. It is no longer there. Did you have it removed? I remember that you had short hair and no glasses. You are white. Your hair then was light.

Also, I e-mailed you before you guys had a g-mail for the blog. That was when I ordered the ducks. I found out where you were an adjunct then and found your e-mail that way. I have often thought of sending a gift, I found some brain shaped chocolates, but feel it would freak you out.

I tried to look into the prison system in your city to find Clink, but the sheer magnitude of the prison system made it impossible. I know you have said in the past that she looks like a nun, so I have that image, but you can't climb wearing a habit, can you?

And Roy, I thought he was the Chairman of the Psychiatry department at Johns-Hopkins, but he's not, because I heard a video by that guy and that was not Roy's voice.

I'm harmless. But...

I know where my psychiatrist lives. I know how much his house is worth and have seen an aerial shot. I know how many children he has and where they are. I know where they went to schol and grad school and where one works. I know their first and middle names. I have seen the Facebook page of one of them. It matched a pic on his desk.

I know where they worship.

I know where his wife works and her e-mail address.

Am I interested in seeing his house in real life? No. Am I interested in his wife or kids? Not beyond the keyboard. Not beyond curiosity.

Lucky kids.

Lily

Dinah said...

Lily,
I loved the ducks, I was thinking about them yesterday, but please don't send gifts, not even chocolate.

I didn't know that Amazon took down the "look inside" version of my book. My hair is longer, I'm older, and last I checked, I was still white.

Roy is not the chairman of Psychiatry at Hopkins, however Ray (DePaulo) is, and he joined us for 2 podcasts. I'm not sure which numbers they were,but if you go to the MyThreeShrinks website, or search him on Shrink Rap, you'll find both posts and podcasts. Oh, and on Shrink Rap, I put up his photo, but he doesn't look like Roy. They are both nice guys.

And the weirdest thing, she really does climb mountains in a Habit. I'm waiting for ClinkShrink to start singing The Hills are Alive....

Tigermom--- with a name like Dinah, there is no anonymity or even pseudoanonymity. I think I'm safer this way, I worried that if my name wasn't attached to what I said, I'd get myself in trouble. Remember Flea, the anonymous psychiatrist in Boston who's blog was revealed during a malpractice trial-- he had to settle and made the front page of the Globe.

I keep my secrets off the blog and try not to be too glib or cynical. It helps that I love what I do and that I have terrific friends as co-bloggers.

Anonymous said...

I don't really like the "mystery" part of the internet. I'd rather know names and background stories and know the full picture of the people I "meet" on the internet. In fact I would like to meet in person. The internet is a distant second to face to face friends, but the advantage is the ability to meet people I would never cross paths with.

I understand the reasons for privacy because a blog goes out to the "whole world". I used to read a weight loss blog. The woman who wrote it revealed just about everything about herself except her name and location.

ClinkShrink said...

Aw, you're sweet. No mountains yet, just cliffs, but I do have a habit of climbing them.

Anonymous said...

(hi to Zoe Brain across the globe whose blog tells of his she-to-he journey).

That would be her he-to-she journey I believe.

Zoe Brain said...

Yes, anonymous is correct.

But one has to be relaxed about such minor errors :)

The thought was kind. That's all that matters.

Dinah said...

Zoe Brain:
My apologies, I re-read the post, saw the error and meant to go back and fix it, but got lazy (Clink can leave the dust bunnies, I can leave the blog typos). Then someone noticed it and I meant again to fix it. I will fix it now. I knew the facts, just typed too fast to get them straight.
Dinah