Back in the day my wife was a big fan of Oprah Winfree and would watch her show every day. I think Dr. Phil became a sometime guest on her show before landing one of his own. It seemed like a reasonable premise, having a mental health professional (I guess?) work with guest’s problems in real time. I gave him the benefit of the doubt for a while, though I sometimes scoffed at the snap judgements/diagnoses and treatment plans he would make for them in a few minutes of program time (I worked in the field before retirement).
Later, it seemed he would steer his guests into programs that he just happened to promote on his show. It soon became clear to me that he was just another money-chasing TV host.
Now this butt-kissing interview with Donald Trump and the conciliatory comments about him, that proceeded it. That Trump’s conviction was purely political and that Biden was behind it, without once touching on the evidence surrounding the case or linking the President to it in any way.
Above all, his refusal to recognize that Donald Trump is clearly personality disordered and a danger to this country, and not simply another politician vying for high office.
His beady-eyed veneer of “I’m listening” covering for the money-grabbing, publicity seeking, Trump shill that he actually is. As big a fraud at Trump himself.
As a former psych major with a keen interest in the field, I agree with you. I’ve always been suspicious of armchair psychologists and dismissed them as quacks or worse, but this guy takes it to a whole new level of stupid. How does he remain licensed (if he ever was)? I’m betting that Oprah regrets elevating this dipshit to national attention.
He doesn’t; he allowed his Texas license to lapse in 2006 and he has never been licensed in California (in spite of the fact that that is where his show is produced). The state of California actually ruled that he didn’t need a license, due to the fact that his show is considered entertainment and not actual psychiatry.
Dr. Phil has always been somewhat of a jackass, but he definitely has started to lean into it more in recent years. I guess he figures that’s where the money is to be made.
He’s just trying to position himself for a spot on Don’s cabinet by being another yes-man. Complete and total sell out (which he did years ago). These people would set their own mothers on fire and feed them to wild dogs if there was a few bucks to be made. Deplorables doesn’t even begin to describe them.
He’s not a real psychologist or anyone with any degree of knowledge about human psychology beyond the stereotypical conservative “tough love” shtick. He’s such an asshole, he’s bullied teenage rape victims on his show. Big Joel has a good takedown here where you can really see what a manipulative bastard he is and always has been.
That he’s jumping on the Trump bandwagon in no way surprises me.
I worked at NIH several months ago and attended the new Director introduction. I made the joke that what if Trump gets re-elected and appoints Dr. Oz as Director?
Drs. Phil, Oz, or Carson, it doesn’t seem so farfetched anymore.
Not that UNT is really where I’d choose to go for a doctorate (I think I’d rather just not get one if it came to that), but it’s an accredited university and all that good stuff.
What I get out of him is that he’s basically an asshole who’s more interested in being famous and making money than he is at actually being a psychologist or helping anyone.
Since this is a thread to shit on Dr. Phil (which I heartily endorse), I want to add this fun factoid; in college he had a football scholarship and played linebacker for Tulsa for a year. And he played when his team lost a game 100-6, one of the biggest blowouts in college football history.
That’s of course not all his faut but I still find it amusing.
Another fun fact; the TV show Bull, which starred NCIS’s Michael Weatherly and ran for six seasons, was loosely based on Dr. Phil (he was a co-creator). It’s a show about a psychologist who runs a jury consulting firm (which Phil did for a number of years).
This is where we get into how easy it is to bullshit your way through therapy. I don’t understand how someone with a clinical psychology background could turn their backs on their research roots, but they do it all the time. There are a lot of people with PhDs in clinical psychology doing whatever the fuck they want with clients and calling themselves experts without actual training in those subdomains. Also, not every clinical psychology program is evidence-based.
It’s important to keep in mind the number of charlatans practicing with real degrees.
My husband has always been interested in behavioral psychology and the depth of his research experience actually held him back from getting his clinical internship for a couple of years. It thus took him 6 years to get his PhD. He’s never strayed either from his research foundation or his training, and he refuses to call himself a specialist in anything he isn’t trained on. He says to be leery of anyone claiming expertise in a multitude of domains.
The upshot of this is that there are some clinical psychologists I respect a lot. But there are many I don’t. There’s no rule saying that clinical psychologists have to use research to inform their practice, which is IMO a huge problem.
Between this and Jordan Peterson I am kind of sick of these pop culture psychologists.
All I was getting at is that we can’t really say he’s not a real psychologist; he does have a doctorate from an accredited university and has practiced. Now whether he’s a good psychologist, an up to date psychologist, or a total fraud otherwise, I can’t say.
I don’t like Dr. Phil; I feel like the #1 thing you have to keep in mind when watching him, or any other show like that, is that it’s not there to help you, it’s there to sell ads/subscriptions, and any actual help you get is incidental to the entertainment they’re providing.
That’s not how they’re presented, but that’s what they are. It’s like fast food- it’s not there to be nutritious, it’s there to taste good and be fast. Nutrition is incidental.
I concede that point, within the context of the fact that not all psychology programs are created equal. I can’t speak to the university in question, but it may well have come down to who mentored him.
Even if he isn’t licensed to practice in California or anywhere, he has a PhD which I don’t think was ever revoked, so he’s a real doctor. He may be hiding behind his title as he peddles harmful nonsensical bullshit but the title isn’t fake.
