Tuesday, April 22, 2008

Psych Central, Trusted source of professional information, endorses calling women "Whores"


Over on Hamlet's blog several people have decided that vicious attack is the thing to do. It has now become something very public. Where a psychologist calls me "a whore." Now if that's the word you want to use, that's up to you. I will be called worse this week. But this is in a supposedly professional setting. He pretends to use references, though none of them are germane to his woeful misreading of my original post. However, you do have to ask, would any woman go to a man who blows up and calls her a whore because of an argument?

This is now an RL controversy, and as such it is wise for me to be careful, but no reading, however generous, of the word "whore" fits with any professional standard of conduct in the medical health fields. John M. Grohol, Psy.D, clearly believes that it is professional and acceptable to characterize people that way, so that is what we must conclude that Psychcentral believes, that people who dare to disagree with them must be called whores and abused.

Tell me, which countries is this considered good therapeutic practice in? Since Dr.Grohol is the CEO of psych central, there is no point in complaining to the management. Here is the advisory board of PsychCentral, and to each of them I have to ask publicly and on the record, whether calling people whores is accepted practice in an academic or professional setting in the places where they are licensed to practice.

* Holly Counts, Psy.D.
* Marie Hartwell-Walker, Ed.D.
* Gilbert Levin, Ph.D.
* Daniel Z. Sands, M.D., MPH
* John Schinnerer, Ph.D.
* John Suler, Ph.D.
* Clay Tucker-Ladd, Ph.D.
* Bonnie Wiesner, Ed.S., Ph.D.

I say they have endorsed this because, according to their editorial policy:


Psych Central’s publisher, John M. Grohol, Psy.D., sometimes in consultation with our Professional Advisory Board, decides which topics should be included on the website. A goal of our editorial process is to provide consumer mental health information that will address the most frequent inquiries. New topics are chosen based on consumer interest, new developments that influence current practice, advances in prevention and the prevalence of conditions.

Newly created material may originate from Psych Central or a staff or contracted writer, or a Professional Advisory Board member. All text pieces, graphics and tools are subject to a standardized review process.



So this use of the word "whore" as a way to engage in professional disagreements has their approval and has been reviewed, since it is a text piece.



I learned something my first week in Second Life. They only call you a whore, when you won't be their whore.

[Teissa posts an Amazing defense of me... I can't thank her enough. I've read the papers and books in question, and they don't support his argument. Which is why his post is doubly unprofessional, citations are used to be able to check the work, and his citations don't back up what he is saying.]

6 comments:

  1. You misspelled Central in the title ;)

    After typing another long reply, I just put it into another post.

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  2. I trust your research over his.

    But I bet he swallows.

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  3. Also Psych. Titles are a bitch.
    And I trust you over him. For what it's worth.

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  4. I don't know about trust, but this is not an acceptable move in discussion of what is obviously a tendentious issue.

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  5. I left a comment over there. I wasn't nice.

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  6. I just read this, Lillie. Please accept my apologies on behalf of the rest of the mental health professionals of the world for that person's behavior. Pad.

    ReplyDelete