ABSTRACT
Sanford Lewin reasoned, or claimed to have reasoned, that if women were willing to let down their conversational barriers with other women in the chat system, then as a psychiatrist he could use the chat system to do good. The obvious strategy of continuing to use the gender-neutral “Doctor” handle didn’t seem like the right approach. It appears that he became deeply intrigued with the idea of interacting with women as a woman, rather than using a female persona as a masquerade. The private conversation was actually under way for a few minutes before Lewin realized it was profoundly different from any conversation he’d been in before. Somehow the woman to whom he was talking had mistaken him for a woman psychiatrist. He had always felt that even in his most personal conversations with women there was always something missing, some essential connection.
