Newsweek took on Oprah this past week with a cover story calling out her promotion of some of her guests’ health claims, which are usually not based upon scientifically sound principles. …
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I noticed you did not even mention Dr Shill, er, Phil, and we in the mental health field know how wonderful and accurate this man has been portraying mental health needs. NOT!
You watch though, one day Oprah will back something so ludicrious and someone will be harmed, and a good lawyer may be able to tie Oprah to the process, who is the money player in a law suit anyway. Then, maybe, she will learn to present truth and facts, and not just be sensational. Wasn’t Tom Cruise and the couch dance her show?
Skillsnotpills
Skills — Dr. Phil is a whole ‘nother post! Again, someone who has the power to really bring a lot of empirically-based information to a mainstream audience, and again, someone who would rather go for something that gets better ratings. But that’s the nature of the business they’re in, too, so it’s no wonder they choose the topics and guests they do. As I mentioned in the post, how interesting would the shows be if they actually talked about the data and science behind it?
John: please do provide us with this ‘nother post. Dr Clay has made some good points about the weaknesses on Dr Phil in the first chapter of his book.
I think that it is perfectly legitimate and appropriate to make principled criticisms of these people who enjoy such wide-spread renown that they are almost seen to represent self-help itself.
When you are bigger than the field you took an oath to serve, you are truly lost. Dr Phil is just a symptom of a bigger issue, the quick fix, which is so wrong in the field of mental health. If only a therapist could meet with a patient one or two times and then say “your issue/mistake/misread was ____, so just change it”, then, we wouldn’t need therapists, would we?
Kinda what psychotropics have been mistakenly sold as, eh? Biochemical imbalance. BUNK!!!
Does Oprah have any affiliation with Scientology?
Skillsnotpills
Great article, John! I was just having this very discussing with my mom the other day. She was asking why more depression experts aren’t on the show, and I told they were … but not the ones touting mainstream and researched venues. The likes of Rhonda Byrne (The Secret) are mental health experts. I remember reading criticism about the show on bipolar disorder, when she did give Kay Redfield Jamison like maybe three minutes before going to to some other guy with a much sexier story that didn’t involve those horrible psych drugs. I’m glad for articles like yours raising this important issue.
I think your article suffers for using the Discovery Channel as a place one would find honest documentaries. It is as much entertainment as Oprah. How about changing that example to PBS?
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