What do people call "Dr." Laura?

In My Humble Opinion
1

I’ve tuned into this radio show from time to time, and it seems that it’s almost invariably the same type of discourse. It goes something like this:

Dr. Laura: Hello, you’re on the Dr. Laura show.

Caller: Hello. Thank you for taking my call.

Dr. Laura: How can I help you?

Caller: Well, I have a problem with my husband.

Dr. Laura: What’s the problem?

Caller: Well, when I—

Dr. Laura: You have to form a simple question.

Caller: Well, he gets viol—

Dr. Laura: Why can’t you just form a simple question?

Caller: I wanted to expl—

Dr. Laura: It’s not important what you wanted. Are you the man or the woman?

Caller: The woman, of course.

Dr. Laura: Well, don’t you think, then, that maybe you’re the one who’s wrong? That maybe you’ve been neglecting your duty as a parent?

Caller: Um, not really.

Dr. Laura: “Not really” is not really an answer.

Caller: Hum. I guess you’re right.

Dr. Laura: Caller? Caller? Haven’t you been denying that fact that you really are the problem? I’m not saying anything that you don’t already know.

Caller: Well, but—

Dr. Laura: Caller? Tell me what I’ve told you that isn’t right….

Caller: Hmm. Yeah. I guess you’re right. That’s what I was thinking all along. You’re so right, Dr. Laura. Thank you so much. Your show is great.
It’s like clockwork. I don’t know if they simply screen out any caller who isn’t insecure and ultimately cloying, or if that simply is the type of person who naturally calls a show like this. But it makes me feel kind of queasy every time I hear it—it has a kind of Orwellian feel.

2

That was supposed to be “why.”

3

Look up the word “masochist” sometime. :smiley:

4

What do people call her would be more entertaining. :slight_smile:

5

And certainly make for a potentially longer thread…

6

She’s still on the air? Haven’t heard hide nor hair of her since her TV show got deepsixed. I don’t remember if PFLAG was behind it but whomever it was earned my undying respect forever. Thank you, Dr. Laura Haters, for limiting her exposure to the rest of the world!

Some people are ninnies who need to be yelled at before they do anything active in their own lives. This is the purpose she serves.

Oh, and I hate that “I’m my kid’s mom” schtick she always says. With that kind of shit, I understand why some people have derogatory views of the cult of the child…

7

Of course, sil, I just didn’t wan’t to load the question…

8

I didn’t know she was still on, either. Nobody in this neck of the woods carries her. She used to be sort of entertaining and somewhat helpful, until she went uber-Jewish and started applying some brand of her own biblical reasoning to her advice. Then she went off the deep end. I quit listening to her the day when she ranted against rock music. “You know in that Rolling Stones song, where it says, ‘I can’t get no girlie action?’” Hey, ya freakin’ moron, he’s saying “gut reaction.” Then she went on to inform the nation that in the Beatles song, “With A Little Help From My Friends,” that “you know what those friends are? Pills!” This was the same woman who excoriated me in public in two countries for even thinking about coming here to marry my wife. Yeah, well, pbbbbbthhtththththt to you, too.

9

Schlessinger has a Ph.D. in Physiology, with a post-graduate thingy in couseling. Calling her Dr. Sclessinger is correct, if a bit gratuitous. If she were working in a medical school or academic environment, it might make sense to “Doctor” her. Using the “Dr.” title on the radio with only her first name is rather stupid. But it is a real, earned Ph.D.

10

I, too, had no idea she was still on the air. I hadn’t heard of her in years. I wonder how she does it when it sounds like her M.O. hasn’t changed in the least.

11

[hijack]
Really? I thought it was “girl reaction,” as in, “the girls don’t pay any attention to me.”
[/hijack]

12

The few times a listened to her, she was doing the radio show for two hours a day, you figure 2-4 hours prep time for the show, she was taking karate classed, she was taking Judaism classes. I couldn’t help but think, exactly when is she “her kid’s mom”? From 9:45-10:05 PM every day? What an incredible hypocrite.

13

Okay, first off, she’s backed off her Orthdox Jew religion. She’s expressed frustration that she didn’t find the peace and solace in it that she was expecting.

One of her jobs is to keep you tuned in so you’ll listen to the commercials. If that means getting to the gist of the question, she’ll cut you short. I think the OP has highly exaggerated one of her calls…I listen to her on the way home from work, and while I do roll my eyes a bit sometimes, I do not find that she always blames the woman. A recent call had a man and his wife call in, and the man had been having an affair. He claimed it was over, and Dr. Laura said in order to begin to repair the marriage, he had to be completely honest with his wife. He refused, however, to give his wife his mistress’s phone number and wouldn’t explain why he was refusing.

Dr. Laura told the woman to pack her husband’s things and put them on the curb.

14

{slight hijack]I lost a good bit of respect for one of my co-workers when I saw she had one of Dr. Lauras books on her desk. I tell myself it must have been a gift, she’s smart enough to have not bought it herself…at least I’d like to think so :smiley: [/slight hijack]

15

WHAT?? I don’t think I’d want to give my wife the phone number of my ex-mistress for any reason. That’s a weird request.

I used to tune into her show every now anad agian. I didn’t always agree with her, but I though there were a bunch of people out there who needed some sense knocked into them. However, the mosre I read about the woman, the more I think she has some serious issues. I think it goes waaaaaay beyond hypocricy. It seems to me as though it is very likely that Dr. Laura has made up a persona in an attempt to generate numbers. I dunno. Something isn’t quite right there.

16

I don’t remember the whole phone call, but the man claimed he wanted to save his marriage, etc etc, but refused to give his wife his ex-lover’s (who was also married, by the way) phone number. I think it was a matter of trust, “Why, of course, my love, I told her it was over. What, you don’t believe me? Here, call her yourself.”

Since he refused, one could assume he might not have been entirely truthful about ending the affair. He could also have wanted to avoid the whole ugly confrontation scene, but if you’re going to cheat on your spouse, you have to accept any ugly consequences.

I do agree she gets somewhat impatient with callers sometimes, and I do think she cuts them off without getting the whole story, but I do think she makes some valid points, treating your spouse with respect, not trying to get something out of your parents emotionally that they are not able to give, etc.

17

Exactly. If you read any of her books, you’ll discover that, if you can cut through her preachiness, she does give on-target sensible advice.

[sub]Sometimes I wonder if the people she depicts in her books have any gray matter, but that’s another story…[/sub]

I don’t have a cite at the moment, but a few years back when her mother died, Dr. Laura publicly admitted that she hadn’t spoken to her in around 15 years because, as she put it (and I’m paraphasing), “She had a lot of issues and I had to cut her out of my life.” Makes me wonder of the old adage that the acorn doesn’t fall very far from the tree.

18

She wants the wife to have the phone number of her husband’s ex-mistress? Dr Laura is an idiot. It’s funny, I’ve heard her show and even when she’s not blaming the woman automatically, or bashing gays, she still amnages to give the absolute worst advice possible. “Make it possible for me to harass that slut you were seeing, or the marriage is over!” Great advice.

19

Sean Hannity’s show competes with her in the same 3 to 6 eastern post-Limbaugh time slot and he drove her out of alot of markets. Dr. Laura doesn’t have a catch phrase like “hannitize” so that has hurt her.

20

My theory is that a lot of these people who call her themselves have come already to a similar conclusion as to what tough decision they have to make to straighten out in their lives, but are abdicating it to Dr. Laura’s “advice”. In that sense I can understand the impatient tone of some of her responses, it’s like *"Look, you KNOW you want to dump the loser. You just want ME to be the one who says it out loud. So here you go: dump the loser; NOW will you go ahead because someone else told you so? " * .

However this does not excuse her insufferable preachyness and her atrocious view of gender roles.