George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
The things you lean on / are things that don't last
User ID: 107
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
9hr ago
It isn't an accusation, just a question. I remember that William Carlos Williams story The Use of Force and never felt he had betrayed some confidentiality (and as you say it was probably at the very least fictionalized.) But maybe he did.
I tend to write about real people to a degree, and though I do fictionalize, unless I'm writing for historical record, Im only bound by the somewhat less mystical rules of social politeness, not the Hippocratic oath.
George_E_Hale
insufferable blowhard
10hr ago
Very entertaining. I will ask, however, where you may stand ethically, writing publicly about such patients? I'm not sure of the standards.
Again I am faced with what is probably a fundamental difference between you and I. Could be generational. You seem often to seek out the snark; I'm far more traditionalist. And it's hard to know how seriously you take something when reading comments online. A lot of the people who post here, for example (here being the Motte in general) seem extremely hostile and angry in ways that have only become normal since the late 90s or whenever it was and phpBB.
I guess my larger point was not "will you get in trouble?" rather "Do you have second thoughts?" from the viewpoint of integrity as a doctor. Within an hour after my first and only substack post I had at least one person sending me a message saying "It's her, right, this is her?" with a name--all because I had posted the first name of a person and enough context that, in 2025, identifying real people from internet descriptions is relatively simple. I felt slightly bad about this, but my readership is not significant enough that it would matter. Probably. The southern women I know don't actually like anyone to know anything about them at all, but that may just be my social circle.
Anyway, carry on.
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