Family Values -- Dr. Phil's opportunistic parental-advice franchise

[HuckleB]

Family Values -- Dr. Phil's opportunistic parental-advice franchise

http://slate.msn.com/id/2107226

"Let me tell you something, Mom," Dr. Phil lectured an "out-of-control" mother on a two-hour CBS special last week, taking his daytime doctor act to prime time. "You need to stop, and stop it right now." He was right; she was a family menace. But at least she knew it. You can't say the same about Dr. Phil in his new incarnation as the nation's "commando parenting" expert. There's a term for a guy who publicly humiliates not just parents, but kids, bombarding viewers with a high-decibel spectacle of real-life family dysfunction—all in the service of flacking a new book, Family First, that promises domestic joy and peace. It's a term Dr. Phil uses a lot: abusive.

Inside last year's antiobesity crusader—Dr. Phil's Ultimate Weight Solution soared to the top of the best-seller lists—it turns out there was a "reparenting" missionary dying to get out and indulge in some super-nannying. Entering his third solo TV season, Oprah's former sidekick was ready with a back-to-school bonanza: the CBS special heralding his new focus on the family (move over, Dr. Dobson). What more opportune moment than the launch of a book to burnish his child-rearing credentials and give viewers a mega-dose of the parenting turmoil he's now made the theme of his daily show? "Please help, Dr. Phil," is the regular plea of his frazzled guests. But when it comes to families, the truth is that Dr. Phil is an interloper who adds to the trouble.

Parenting success requires that you be consistent, according to the doctor—which is just what his book and his show aren't. Family First is supremely cool-headed. The guiding assumption of Dr. Phil's "step-by-step plan" to help parents become "system managers" at home is that families are just that: systems, in which everybody—from hubby on down to baby—has a role to play. In place of Spockian empathy, we have corporate efficiency for the dual-income family whirlwind. The manual features seven parenting "tools," checklists to fill out, "audits" to conduct—and even a downloadable "behavioral contract" so parent and kid can spell out a disciplinary deal, in the hope that neither will get angry or whiny when a party fails to comply. "Accountability" along with "consistency" are the watchwords of the behaviorist approach. The Family First ad campaign touts the originality of the doctor's strategies, but don't be fooled. The book is yet another version of the managerial parenting approach that was born 40 years ago in Carl Rogers' communication techniques and has since blossomed into business guru Stephen Covey's Seven Habits of Highly Effective Families (1997) and countless knockoffs. All paperwork and plans and no anecdotes, Family First is pallid (except for the revelation of Dr. Phil's new trauma credential: His father, heretofore hailed as his hero, was an alcoholic). Between covers, Dr. Phil loses not just his Texan twang, but his tang.

...

And Dr. Phil's style of setting his hapless participants straight hardly inspires confidence. By now we're all used to watching adult volunteers getting prodded, scolded, and shamed in public (on Dr. Phil's upcoming docket are both presidential candidates). But the participants on Dr. Phil's shows aren't just another crop of reality show contestants, psyched for the exhibitionistic thrill of going through contortions in front of a huge audience and then getting their comeuppance (or the jackpot). You'd think Dr. Phil might ask himself whether addressing parents as if they were impulsive 2-year-olds is a good way to convey his message that regaining parental authority entails maturity. The spectacle of adults being bullied and breaking down doesn't seem particularly edifying for kids—especially if what they need most, as Dr. Phil suggests, is to be able to respect, and rely on, parental guidance.

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For more on Dr. Phil and his daily doses of malpractice, check out this thread:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=104x2441522

[JohnOneillsMemory]

1. Mass malpractice and war crimes make fer good TV!

The Jerry Springer-ization of public discourse is comprised of heated blaming and public anguish.

'If it bleeds, it leads' for humanoid chimps who struggled to survive wild animals for the last 7 million years. Now we are excitement junkies exploited by propaganda industries.

[watercolors]

2. Dr Phil arrogant A-hole

need I ay more!

[ixion]

3. here here

well said. ;-)