The Times piece set off in a firestorm in the blogosphere, made in good faith. Those who posted were justifiably horrified over the corrupting influence of drug money on psychiatry. If the most prominent psychiatrists could be bought, then how safe, as patients, were we?

Make no mistake. This is a life or death concern.

Many bloggers exploded in rage, as did a number of posters to this site. A fair number directed their anger at me, for defending Dr Goodwin. If you are one of these individuals - I don't blame you. You have every right to be angry. This is your life. People are messing with it, placing you in jeopardy. For obvious reasons, we need to monitor this site against inappropriate posts, but, again, I understand your anger.

But I do make one modest request: I ask you to respond to the piece in Slate, rather than the NY Times. The Slate report may cast Dr Goodwin in a bad light, but not an irredeemably bad one. It represents a fair marshaling of the facts. It provides the basis where we can all join together in a reasoned debate. If there is to be reform, it needs to be a patient initiative, and we need to work together.

The NY Times piece, on the other hand, makes out Dr Goodwin to be something he is clearly not. It casts him as the villain. It represents a complete misrepresentation of the facts. It makes us want to single out scapegoats rather than work together to achieve reform.

Please, we're above that. All of us.

I promise, unless something totally unexpected blows up, this is my last blog on the topic. I have been writing full-time about my illness (and yours) since 1999. Very quickly, I learned that what matters most to you is information you can use to gain insight into your illness and to improve your life. "Knowledge is Necessity" has been my mission since Day One. With self-knowledge, we take control of our lives, we take charge of our recovery. The producers of BipolarConnect share the same philosophy.

Starting next week, it's back to regular programing.

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Disclosure: Dr Goodwin authored the front cover blurb to my book, "Living Well with Depression and Bipolar Disorder" (HarperCollins, 2006).