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Comment by darawk | Hacker News Reader

It's standard practice in psychiatry to publish anonymized patient stories. Your issue is with the entire field, then.

I specifically had to sign a consent form before starting therapy, with exactly how my data would be handled and what could or could not be done with it. I think that is SOP in the field.

edit: This is in the EU

In the US, afaik, there is no such requirement, and publishing anonymized stories in pyschiatric journals is common practice, without any sort of consent.

Surely there is a difference between a professional journal with standards and peer review, and a public blog with a comments section that frequently features Steven Pinker and discussions about racial effects on IQ.

There are differences, obviously. Which ones do you think are relevant here?

Sorry, I got my online Steves confused and meant Steve Sailer, not Pinker. For one, there aren't any professional journals for which Steve Sailer's ideas about race, IQ or the Holocaust would meet their standards. Second, doctors often get consent for case studies on their patients, and only give pertinent details like sex, age, or complicating medical conditions if absolutely necessary. Case studies are meant for professionals to peruse in an effort to better advance the field they practice in.

A personal blog where a psychiatrist divulges his patients' sexualities and relationship issues to pontificate about polyamorism with his laymen blog readers, including Steve Sailer, is not the same thing as a case study in a professional journal.

I agree that they are not the same. But I don't really understand why it is different in a way that changes its moral character. Steve Sailer can read psychiatry journals if he wants to. As long as the stories are well anonymized, I don't really see much difference.

True however I am curious if professional ethics have an opinion on what kinds of publications are appropriate to share anonymized patient stories

Not on a random blog.

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