I used to listen to her at work a couple of years ago. While I certainly didn’t agree with everything she said I did often times agree with the advice she gave people. Oddly enough I most often agreed with her for completely different reasons.
Marc
Jimbo, there is a difference between a counsellor or coach giving us a swift kick in the rear in the right context. A therapist, as far as I know (and I am not one) should not do this. L.S. may disclaim being a therapist once a show, but she also calls herself “doctor” many times a show, indicating that she is healing, when she is in fact entertaining a la the Circus Maximus.
Should a coach or counsellor do what Dr. Laura does? No. Dr. Laura has no ongoing relationship with her callers, she does not have their best interests in mind, and even though some dressing downs by coaches may occur before teammates, they do not ever occur before national audiences. At least they are not supposed to.
This woman is making money by lecturing/mocking whatever you want to call it, people in distress for the entertainment of others. It is a sin. No amount of money, or other inducement could get me to do what she does for a living, any more than you could pay me to be an assassin. The fact that it is legal doesn’t detract from its deep immorality.
This is the same immorality of making up a religion, or insincerely practicing as part of an established one, in order to fleece the flock of money. Any fool can legally do it, but it is wrong.
One of her credentials from her website says “Post-Doctoral Certification in Marriage, Family and Child Counseling…”
Since her doctorate is in physiology, why connect it to the certificate in counseling? Wouldn’t it be more appropriate and less misleading to say, “Doctorate in physiology, certification in marriage, family and child counseling…”?
To me that is evidence that she misuses her PH.D. credentials to “suggest” that her doctorate is in counseling.
How much training is required to be certified as a counselor?
Why use the title “Dr. Laura”? If she is smart then she must know that it misleads.
For the sake of argument, I will concede that most of her advice is somewhat reasonable. What happens to the those who are given bad advice and follow it anyway since, well, “she’s the doctor”? What about those who are so open that they allow themselves to be hurt by her words?
I have seen much sounder and certainly more gentle advice offered here at SDMB.
Finally, I think that she is probably a very, very angry woman. I’m very sensitive to that in other people. In addition, I think she is more than a little narcissistic.
I have a question about her. Does she advise the use of “tough love” on people other than children?
“The Doctor Is Out To Lunch” in my opinion.
Plus, she constantly cuts people off, calls are screened rigorously.
I’ve also heard that little Derek is a spoiled brat.
Don’t forget that Dr. Laura isn’t just giving advice to the person calling. She’s giving advice to everyone listening as well. For every person who calls in with their sad story, there are probably a thousand others listening who are in the same circumstances. Hopefully, a little of her message will sink in with them.
Dr. Laura’s basic message is, “Be responsible for your life. Think before you act. Bad decisions have consequences, and you will have to live with them. Be a good person. Take responsibility for your mistakes. Your children are your first priority. Don’t be a jerk.”
This should not be a controversial message.
[10 yr old voice] there’s nekkid pictures of her!!![/10 yr old voice]
There’s no such thing as a “post-doctoral” certification. She just got some cheap, meaningless certificate after she finished her doctorate in Phy. Ed. or whatever it was.
If she were a real psychologist she would have lost her license already. Her brand of “advice” violates several ethical standards. It is extremely unethical, for example, to pollute her advice with her own religious views, to shame or pass moral judgements on people, and her views on homosexuals are in direct contradiction to all medical and psychological standards on the subject.
Can you say the “C” word in Cafe? This woman justifies it.
Good thing she doesn’t claim to be a psychologist. She gives moral advice not psychological advice.
Marc
I think she tries to give the IMPRESSION that she has some sort of professional authority behind her advice, when she is really no more qualified than anyone else.
Dr Laura Speaks…
"I’ll get you, and your little dog too!"
"Give me those ruby slippers!"
Detestable woman! :wally
What on earth is wrong moral advice, and how is it different from psychological advice? Would not any true psychological judgement be moral? Would not any true moral judgement be psychologically sound?
And these attacks about her being homophobic are overdone. I have heard homosexuals call her show for advice about relationships and be treated with respect, and not at all be singled out from other callers.
Her doctorate from Columbia University’s College of Physicians and Surgeons is in physiology, a major branch of the biological sciences, not in physical education.
From the Encyclopaedia Britannica:
Specialties in physiology include:[ul]
[/ul] [ul]
[li]Cell Physiology[/li][li]Renal Physiology[/li][li]Heart and Circulatory Physiology[/li][li]Gastrointestinal and Liver Physiology[/li][li]Endocrinology and Metabolism[/li][li]Regulatory, Integrative and Comparative Physiology[/li][li]Lung Cellular and Molecular Physiology[/li][/ul]
A Nobel Prize is given in “Physiology or Medicine”.
Laura Schlessinger received her post-doctoral Certification in Marriage, Family and Child Counseling, from the Human Relations Center at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles. She is licensed by the State of California Board of Behavioral Sciences (BBS) as a Marriage, Family and Child Counselor (MFCC).
In 1999, the State of California’s Board of Behavioral Sciences changed the Marriage, Family, and Child Counselor license title to “Marriage and Family Therapist” (MFT).
Requirements for the California MFT license include: completion of a specified program of graduate-level course work and training resulting in at least a master’s degree in an acceptable area, 3,000 hours of supervised counseling internship (1,700 of which must be after receipt of the master’s degree), seven contact hours of training and course work in child abuse assessment and reporting, and passage of both the state written examination (multiple-choice) and oral tests coordinated by the BBS.
The fact that the California Board of Behavioral Sciences accepts an advanced degree in physiology as a prerequisite for the Marriage and Family Therapy License gives further credence to Laura Schlessinger’s using the title “Dr.” in her functions as a therapist (not a psychologist). A comparison can be made to the medical studies required to be a psychiatrist. In both cases behavioral study is rooted in biological study.
If that were her message, that’d be fine.
What her message actually is is “Shut up and do what I say”. Too often she cuts people off before they can get the whole story out and Dr. Laura’s advice based on incomplete data is hilariously bad.
Fer example (I personally heard this one): Some woman called in saying that her brother-in-law and sister were staying with them and the woman found nude pictures of her brother-in-law with another woman in her computer.
Dr Laura started shrieking about “hackers” and how DARE the woman judge her brother-in-law until she had all the facts. Dr L. told the woman to go to a computer security expert to see if the hackers had planted those photos and if the photos were doctored.
All the while, the woman was trying to say that the pictures were in her e-mail’s Outbox (or Sent Messages) folder.
Dr. Laura, so anxious to shriek, A) Didn’t listen to the problem, and B) never actually resolved the problem (Should the woman talk to the sister or the brother-in-law or what?)
And THEN she hung up on the woman, who was still trying to explain that there was no secret conspiracy of hackers, with a snotty comment about how the woman was in denial.
and the problem is: this is typical. She won’t shut up long enough to actually hear what the person’s issue is. (And she’s a moron…“Hackers took photos of your brother-in-law and some bimbo and planted them in your outbox!” Uh-huh.)
Plus, while a kick in the ass is fine, it can be done politely, without the shrieky, condescending voice. And without the pouty “Well FINE, then. Jerk 
:mad:” tone she gets when someone’s dubious about her advice.
Fenris