Expanding The Horizon
Finding the right platform for the right content for the right person and for the right audience.
I have always craved a platform where I can express my sometimes simple sometimes convoluted ideas, pose provocative questions, and push interesting hypotheses. A long time ago, I tried Facebook but soon gave up when I realized the platform wasn't exactly ideal for heavy and funless stuff. Not to mention the often absurd writer-audience misalignment.
Then I discovered LinkedIn a few years later and I instantly fell in love with its professional if hypocritical character and tone. I suddenly realized I could be serious and formal without feeling weird and out-of-place. And unlike Facebook, the audience filter is a bit more tailored. But then I soon became greedy for more space than LinkedIn would afford for each normal post. I felt I had more to say and explore than LinkedIn could allow. Besides, I was already realizing that LinkedIn audience (for understandable reasons) prefer brief, pointed, bulleted, easily digestible, and/or pictorial contents. In addition, it privileges a style that's extremely show-offy, promotional, and self-foregrounding. Again, my personality put me at a gross disadvantage in effectively deploying this style. I could inconveniently adapt or explore yet another territory. I chose the latter.
I have been a long-time consumer of quality contents on Substack but somehow never thought of using it to platform myself until now. Substack is LinkedIn without the social and professional distractions. If LinkedIn is for lightweight intellectual activities, Substack is the heavyweight division. While I know that I'd mostly be punching above my weight in this new environment, I no longer have to feel a sense of transgression for the length and density of my writings.
I am going to be tackling a range of topics I find interesting mostly from my own point of view, and mostly around the subject of clinical psychology and psychotherapy, largely situating my discourse within the Nigerian context while linking it with what is going on in broader global contexts. Often, I would write from my own personal experience but also endeavour to enrich the content with multiple transpersonal experiences. I believe that there's so much untapped intellectual and experiential wealth in the Nigerian sociocultural space when it comes to the broad subject of psychology and its specific application in the clinical domain as well as how it intersect with our national sociopolitical realities. Occasionally, I'll do review of books I find interesting.
I welcome your critical engagement as my foremost reward from my readership base. You can also support my work by simply sharing with those in your circle you think would appreciate it. I would try my best to inject rigour and quality into my contents such that each minute you expend in consuming them won't wholly amount to a waste of time.