Posted by used2b on April 14, 2005, at 0:03:37
In reply to Dr. Bob, you overstepped the boundaries, posted by Shy_Girl on April 12, 2005, at 18:46:15
I'm right with you on this, Shy. Only reason I haven't been over here backing you up is I've had my hands full confronting other problems at this same site.
I'm with you on crosstalk from the doc. Oddly, it's not just him now. His guest expert on the illegal pharmceuticals board wrote:
"You might want to examine where that message comes from (and I doubt that it comes from "society"); you might discover some addiction in your family that you have been responding to in a manner that you have not been aware of."And this expert is well versed in the difference in psychotherapy and group support i.e. therapy = crosstalk, support = no crosstalk.
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20050323/msgs/483556.html
http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/subs/20050323/msgs/483559.html
This board is not unlike the unsinkable Titanic, steaming full-speed ahead into a well-known danger area. Most boards have avoided these problems by excluding talk of suicide. Other issues, cross-talk, admin duties, well... you have better eye on that than I do at this point, I've been trying to sort out ambiguity in the "be civil" admonishment.
And then in this thread, I read:
>"If he must guard against both real AND imagined relationships...well, how could he, really? Real is one thing, and I think he's scrupulously careful, 99% of the time, not to interact in any ways that could lead to that."
By the way, when and where is the get together in Chicago? I might call the Tribune in case they want to send a photographer. I understand it is going to be in a public place, and this is a public forum, so it would seem to be newsworthy.
I don't want to go too far into the ethics on the suicide issue, but if he were to send somebody to my door, in a couple years, I might own his house. And if I intended to check out and was somehow instigated to use this forum to explain why, there is little chance he could do anything to stop it. I'm speaking strictly hypothetically, in my case, but not all death messages are cries for help. There are cries for help and there are strong statements set for post-mortem delivery. Most unfortunately, sometimes people involve other lives in their fatal messages.
I'm saying that not because I am inclined to do that, though I do hold a different view than most practitioners on the propriety of contemplating death. But in internet forums, it's another issue. There's the thing about harming "one's self or OTHERS". Now if it's others who might be harmed, there is nothing the admin could do. Homeland Security or any domestic law enforcement agency can get a warrant and everyone here could potentially be exposed if data gathered by the warrant became part of a court record. Should that happen to me, that my identity became exposed because of his management of the site, I would definately pursue a HIPAA complaint.
And Internet forums have been involved in suicide/homicide events. Recently.
Unfortunately, this project is a faith-based initiative and not one based on empirical evidence that it does more good than harm. A medical practitioner is establishing a precedent of practitioners pretending to be something other than doctors. Imagine if you were on an airplane, somebody had a heart attack and the only doctor on board made it his role to organize discussion to support the dying victim.
And if the administrative duties here don't require a doctor, why can't somebody else do them? That would certainly eliminate any possible inference that this guy they are going to visit face to face in Chicago is acting as a therapist and not as an administrator. And were admin duties performed by lay people, necessity would require that they codify protocols that go quite further than "I don't know it until I see it" in reference to what people can or cannot do. He can as well use his medical expertise to help qualified adminstrators, volunteer or otherwise, develop safe, reliable and consistent protocols for administering a site without implying the site is some sort of therapy group under a doctor's care.
To the rest of you, enjoy your days with your dear friend Robert Hsiung. There are more than one of us who hope some better arrangement will soon dawn, and specifically in reference to this board and his role.
If you don't get around to responding to this, you've done more than enough already, Shy. You'll be doing me a favor to let it go so I can conclude my business and get on with something that pays.
THE END.
poster:used2b
thread:483475
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/admin/20050323/msgs/483975.html