"Serge Hefez, a practicing psychiatrist, has identified a new mental illness among bloggers: obsessive Balkosis, an unhealthy fascination with the Radar Online Executive Editor, Alex Balk."

"As I listened to my patients during consultations, many of them mentioned Balk by name," Dr. Hefez said. "He's penetrated some of their deepest fantasies. I noticed all this passion in people speaking of him, and I thought there is something particular about this man - he's like a reflection of us in the mirror."

The bloggers project themselves onto Mr. Balk, too, Dr. Hefez said.

"He's the incarnation of the postmodern man, obsessed with himself, turned toward pleasure, autonomous and narcissistic," the psychiatrist said. "And he exhibits his joys and sorrows, all his private life, his sentimental doubts and pleasures. He represents the individualism of the society to the extreme, that it's the individual who counts, not the society."



Eight months after leaving Gawker to take over at Radar Online, Mr. Balk can appear to be everywhere, particularly in the Tumblsphere. [UnbearablyBalk]