About Phil McGraw.

Please recall, I did not say or suggest Phil McGraw’s firm, has not put forth efforts to give aid to anyone, anytime. In fact, I did not speak of the ‘firm’.

Sorry, I disagree with your comment – “Give up fighting insurance companies to host a network TV show? Hell yes, in a heartbeat.”

I have studied psychology / sociology myself. The first textbook placed in my hand was: “Are You REALLY a Helper”. It was intended to not only aid in defining (or not) our passion to the profession, but define whether our passion to help the human race is so great, that being paid had nothing to do with it. A bit of time…even a year waiting for an insurance cheque, when (as you say) McGraw’s business was “highly successful?” Then, its a non-issue and borders on contrary.

‘Grandstanding’ is not a respected initiatve when it comes to certain professions and this is one. Arrogance has no place in mental health. Most important though is this: The man is hired as an entertainer and has implimented a grand disregard to the profession. To sit the accute matters of the mind in the same arena with ‘entertainment’ is simply a bad act.

With his analytical dissection of guest(s) , McGraw implies (globally) that by watching, YOU TOO can be cured in just one hour through your TV set and I am told, many interpret it as exactly that.

a) Disrespects the profession
b) The implication that mental health can be ‘cured’ or directed through a TV set is degrading to the business of medicine and to the millions who would NOT trade in their passion, nor patients, for a dollar
c) Guest’s mental profiles are disrespected, and global viewers are drawn, (subliminally), to believe perhaps they ‘may’ not only relate, but could also have actual issues. I have personally seen relations crumble because of the directives of the show. In speaking with several physicians here, there have been more relationship breakdowns cropping up since McGraw aired, than have been in years.
d) Through a barrage of, more often than not, condescending remarks and personal interpretation – at times an outright analytical smear campaign, the end is also an often arrogant summary with suggestive remarks that if the guest (and we all) follow McGraw’s advice, then life might even be livable, but if not….then “oh well…don’t say I didn’t tell ya,” as McGraw often says. Unremarkable indeed.

Perhaps if the show began and ended with “The following (or preceding) is classified as entertainment only and is not intended as a professional cure for matters of mental health.”

All that said…really, the bottom line is this: Much overstepping of boundaries has taken place, whereby a profession respected for centuries if not millennia, has been made out to be a superficial matter, corrected by a big guy on a TV screen, hired to entertain the masses and bring in more doe, rae, me. The only thing securing the railing to the stairs are prudent legalities and the almighty dollar.

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Karen, I hate to burst your balloon, but Phil McGraw, Ph.D., practiced psychology for many years, branching out into forensic psychological consulting, which is how he met Oprah Winfrey. His firm was consulted for their expertise when she was sued in Texas for “insulting beef.” No, I am not making that up. She was sued by the beef producing industry for comments she made about eating red meat on her television program.

Dr. Phil McGraw was a highly successful clinical psychologist in Texas and did indeed walk away from that. Thanks to the insurance companies making it increasingly difficult for psychologists and psychiatrists to get paid, many of them left the field for other work. For example, one psychiatrist I know went into emergency medicine. Phil now makes more in a week than many psychologists make in two years. Give up fighting insurance companies to host a network TV show? Hell yes, in a heartbeat.

And oh yes, with Dr. McGraw’s able assistance and some good lawyers, Oprah won her case. The rest, as they say, is history.

I wonder…why do the Americal people seem to need someone to follow by the masses at all times and it is always any new figure who appears on TV or a church pulpit.

This certainly does not happen in Canada and certainly never would to this degree. We may be known as quiet and passive, but perhaps that is because we listen, think and work out what is right or wrong..authentic or just opinion.

No reputable professional, of any kind, leaves or simply walks away from a passion they spent years in university for or the obvious passion to help others, just for fame and money.

All therapists, doctors, psychatrists and psychologists take an oath to maintain doctor-patient confidentiality, meaning even with a court order, it is difficult to break that oath.

THINK..just think is all one has to do.

OPRAH, although bouyant, has a degree in communication and performing arts (acting) ONLY. She is a good talker and comes across as aggressive and a good pusher, however, it all still remains HER opinion. Are we all not worthy of our own opinion? Yes, it is fun to listen perhaps…but to follow? That is quite another thing.

The bottom line is, it is all simply entertainment and classified as such for a very good reason.

What kind of people want the world to know their personal problems is the first place. This should be the question here.

Karen Maxwell, Freelance Writer for Sun Media

this is why i always pick my nose….