Mail Call: Has Dr. Phil Gone To Your Head?

You either love or hate Dr. Phil, the self-help, tough-love guru featured in our Sept. 2 cover story. On his own now, out from Oprah's shadow and with a television show in the works, he gave some viewers pause. "If Oprah likes him and I adore everything that Oprah stands for, does that mean I have to love Dr. Phil as well?" a reader asked. But others will be tuning in for doses of his straightforward medicine. "Dr. Phil has moved me to look at my life with greater honesty," said one reader. "I anticipate his new show will be well worth my time." Another added: "After the succession of blame-it-on-society-or-someone-else psychological fads, [his] doctrine of personal responsibility sounds positively refreshing. I hope our country gets the message." Not mincing words of disaffection, one reader sniped, Dr. Phil "is a snake-oil salesman making millions off the falsehood that deep-seated problems can be solved in a few minutes with ample time left over for commercial breaks."

Therapy TV Style

At the age of 93, I find that my means of getting where I wanted to be in life coincided with those of Phil McGraw ("Paging Doctor Phil," Sept. 2). His brief but direct approach to a problem is generally on target and provides wise counsel for overcoming it successfully. Basically Dr. Phil is urging people to help themselves: to persevere and not be intimidated by what seems impossible. Let him know that there is someone with a little life experience who thinks as he does.
Murray Shaw
Phoenix, Ariz.

When I was a private therapist, most days I was tougher on my clients than Dr. Phil could ever dream of being. However, the key is to know when to be tough, and to balance it with other methods. Therapists should employ different techniques with their clients depending on where they are and what they need. What Dr. Phil dishes up to people across the board may not necessarily suit everyone. Although every patient needs to be told to "get real" at some point and many need a gentle push, it must be delivered at the right moment or it can be devastating. To attempt to engage in sound-bite therapy is dangerous.
Susan J. Elliott
Certified Grief Counselor and Former Crisis Clinician
Antioch, Calif.

Every so often a self-help guru like Dr. Phil comes along and sells the idea that his "unique" brand of therapy can fix everyone's complex emotional problems in 30 seconds. What astounds me are the people who buy into this nonsense. Dr. Phil knows one thing for sure: most people are followers who will eat up anything spoon-fed to them by the current flavor-of-the-month therapist.
Don Cestone
Encino, Calif.

When men were from mars and women from Venus and we were all asking about the color of our parachutes, I was OK and you were OK. Sure, things might have been a bit touchy-feely, but nobody got hurt--and nobody believed that he or she was paging the "doctor" either. But now we have Dr. Phil and the teleprompter. The good doctor claims that what he gives isn't therapy, "[it's] education. It's a wake-up call." Education in what? Unbridled arrogance or the transient imperfections of capitalism? The cloying need for ratings approval and the lust for money masquerading as altruism remind me of something my Irish grandfather once said: "Talk's cheap. Good whisky costs money." With every two steps forward in this effort to help and to educate, a Jerry Springer-like approach to mental health takes us one huge step back.
John P. Farrell
Minneapolis, Minn.