[WikiEN-l] psychosis and wikipedia.

[Fred Bauder]

>-----Original Message-----
>From: Christopher Thieme [mailto:cdthieme at gmail.com]
>Sent: Tuesday, January 9, 2007 10:43 PM
>To: WikiEN-l at wikipedia.org
>Subject: [WikiEN-l] psychosis and wikipedia.
>
>I'd love to see some psychology-oriented individual do a case study on what
>kind of people are attracted to editing on Wikipedia.  What psychological
>defects lurk behind the computer screens and the keyboards.  Why do I ask?
>Because in the last month (including right now), I've gotten in spats, edit
>wars, content disputes, with people who would be poster children for
>narcissitic personality disorder and one of several temporal lobe disorders,
>respectively.
>
>Something like that would probably explain a lot about the bitterness,
>control issues, the incessant desire to be "right", etc. that some people
>have when approaching the subject of editing.
>
>Just a crazy idea. (no pun intended).
>
>Regards,
>Christopher D. Thieme

No need to do research. Open to all, Wikipedia attracts its share, at least, of users with both mild and serious psychological problems. Certain psychoses are so debilitating that the symptoms preclude editing, but persons suffering from classic paranoia and sociopathy (these are not necessarily the correct current diagnostic labels) are certainly able to edit and, at times, do, as well as numerous users with a variety of neurotic problems (another term not currently in as a diagnostic label). These conditions lie behind much of the disruptive behavior seen on Wikipedia. We do not attempt to diagnose users; we deal with them based on their behavior. This may involve simple blocking of "vandals", drawn out arbitration cases, or calling the police.

There is an essay I originally wrote, Wikipedia:Wikipedia is not therapy, which explores some of these questions.

Fred