Should I be saying the things that I do at this blog? Can I, will I, someday be prosecuted or persecuted for spilling my once-private and often-reprehensible thoughts into the public arena? What about my confessions?
Are there some things that should only be spoken about in a psychiatrist's office, or never spoken about at all? Why, exactly, shouldn't those things be talked about in public? Because it will embarrass me? Because it will make others feel angry or queasy or disgusted?
Is there anyone who can be helped by discussion suicidal ideation in public? Is there anyone who can be helped by discussing teenage sexual orientation confusion in public. Is there anyone who can be helped by discussing incestuous ideation in public, rather than keeping it quiet?
I've made, perhaps, a fateful decision, and I've caucused it with my wife: I'm going to talk about all of these things and more at my blog, because I can. As many of you know, I often think about suicide. If my time ever comes, I don't want people to wonder why. Why should they, when blogs are free and when I have fingers to type and time on my hands?
I want and need to write autobiographically. Either I will write honestly and fully about the conflicts of which I am aware, or I will write sugar-coated crap - or die without communicating at all.
Should people who have mental illnesses blog? Should they blog about what they think? What is what they think deals in issues the mere mention of which is socially unacceptable? For example, should a wife-beater write a public journal about his efforts to reform, or should he keep those efforts private, where other wife beaters can't see them?
Should a person who is suicidal write a blog? Or should he keep these "private thoughts" private, even knowing that some people WILL commit suicide and all record of what they thought will be lost - to their families and to society?
At worst, blogging is a social experiment and this blog is on the repugnant fringe of that social experiment. If so, it's a written record of the repugnant fringe.
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2 comments:
"Should people who have mental illnesses blog?"
Frankly, I think it depends primarily on if the person is attempting to encourage others in destructive behavior. Secondarily, it depends on the mental illness.
"Is there anyone who can be helped by discussion suicidal ideation in public?"
I suspect so, particularly if you also reveal coping strategies (i.e. how to prevent suicidal ideation from becoming suicide attempts). I'll note that suicidal ideation in particular is sometimes solved for that individual just by talking it out (of course, in the case of a mental illness, that just pushes it out one time).
"Is there anyone who can be helped by discussing incestuous ideation in public, rather than keeping it quiet?"
If you read very early Freud, you'll note that according to him at the time, most of his patients were victims of incest. Actual incest isn't that rare in most countries; I suspect that in any society with a taboo against incest (most), ideation is far more common than action.
In any case, I'd suggest that a manual on how to seduce one's child is not useful; information on how to try to stop such ideation and what works (or doesn't work) would be useful.
"For example, should a wife-beater write a public journal about his efforts to reform, or should he keep those efforts private, where other wife beaters can't see them?"
I'd guess that methods to reform would be useful (the most obvious one to me would be to leave, then seek therapy), but a manual on how to intimidate and/or brutalize and/or subjugate one's wife wouldn't be useful.
I agree with you about the differences between self-expression, providing helpful information and providing abuse encouragement manuals. I hope what I've written here doesn't sound like the latter, although I'm afraid that, to some people, it might.
I think that what you've said about self-expression "just pushing out one time" for certain people rings true.
Relationships are so challenging because the very intimacy that makes for a good, trusting relationship can also be misused, by devious, misguided and/or ill people, to take advantage of that intimacy.
And so learning to engage in intimate trusting relationships is a crucial part of life, while refraining from abusing the position of trust is also crucial, lest the relationship itself be betrayed.
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