Fifth Anniversary Blog: Hooray!

It’s been 5 years and 45 days since the birth of this blog.  And I skipped a year, and even then, I’m 2 months late, but I thought it time to resurrect the sacred tradition of the Most Popular Blog list. You can see earlier versions here, here and here.

As with the last time (in 2021), I’ll give the top 10 list first followed by a list of the most highly viewed newbies from the last 2 years.

Here’s the new top 10 list:

1. The Failure Schema (2019). Previously 8^th most viewed in 2021.
2. Schema Coping 1: Overcompensation and Counterattack (2020). The 5^th most viewed in 2021.
3. The Punitiveness Schema: Self-Loathing and the Inner Critic (2019). Newcomer to the best-of series.
4. The Mistrust and Abuse Schema (2019). The 6^th most view in both 2020 and 2021.
5. Passive and Passive-Aggressive: The Subjugation Schema (2019). Newcomer to the list.
6. The Abandonment Schema (2019). The 2^nd placegetter in 2020 and 2021.
7. Fast Life / Foreshortened Future (2021). Newcomer to the list.
8. The Social Isolation / Alienation Schema (2019). The 4^th place getter in 2020 and the 7^th placegetter in 2021
9. The RAGE System: The Seat of Anger? (2021). Another newbie.
10. The Dependence / Incompetence Schema (2021). Yet another newcomer.

So, this list contained both surprising and the expected. Not surprisingly, the schema articles came out on top again. Most of my articles are not directly about schema therapy, but they probably should be (if popularity is the best guide for what to write about). Eight out of the 10 most popular articles are schema therapy related.

Surprisingly for me is how some of the early enduring favourites have fallen. The Unrelenting Standards Schema, The Emotional Deprivation Schema, and The Self-Sacrifice Schema, have all dropped out of the top 10. Unrelenting Standards and Self-Sacrifice barely scraped into the top 20 over the last 2 years.

What does it mean? Are my readers less conscientious to themselves and others (less self and future sacrificing)? Looking at the new most popular, are our newer readers more likely to feel a failure and be self-critical? Let’s stay tuned for the 2024 list for next year to find out if this pattern remains.

Most Popular Newbies

So, to the most popular Newbies. A clear pattern emerges. The peoples love my series on Neuroanatomist, Jaak Panksepp’s, emotional systems. Panksepp’s theory seemed to have fallen out of favour about 5 years ago. However, I’ve noticed more recently that his theory had been getting some favourable mentions. The top 6 newbies were all Panksepp related articles.

The remaining four were a mixed bag. One article on AI, one on antifragility, one on schema therapy and one on philosophy. A nice representative cross-section of my main themes.

Have a read of some of articles! I hope you enjoy:

1. The RAGE System: The Seat of Anger? (2021)
2. The SEEKING System: The Brain’s Reward Pathway? (2021)
3. The GRIEF System (2022)
4. The LUST System: The Evolution of Love from Lust? (2021)
5. The CARE System: The Source of Security? (2022)
6. The PLAY System: Experimentation, Joy and Preparation for a Social Life (2022)
7. Post-Human Thinking: ChatGPT and the Last Man (2023)
8. Toxic Security: Feeling Safe vs Being Safe (2022)
9. Beating the Inner Critic: Defusing and Parting Out (2021)
10. Phone Use vs Phonocentrism (2022)