Dr. Phil Lays Down the Law
by Wentworth Sutton,assistant vice-principal, Mitchell Hepburn Collegiate Institute, Don Mills, and president emeritus, Semiologico-Hermeneutic Institute of Toronto.
We here at NEW IMPROVED HEAD remain fascinated by Dr. Phillip C. McGraw, known popularly as Dr. Phil. Of course, the rest of the press is fascinated with him, too, but for reasons which are different from ours. They actually are impressed by the guy.
In fact, they're infatuated with him. Friendly coverage abounds. He's treated as if his ideas are actually intellectually respectable.
As we said in the earlier article to which a link is provided above, Dr. Phil probably does help people, but it's unlikely that his ideas do. He probably has a knack for helping people himself, but the advice he gives people for helping themselves is stunningly clueless.
How vacuous is it? Well, let's look at what he calls his Life Laws. We found them on the Oprah Winfrey site. Interestingly, there are ten of these Laws. See – we told you he was selling religion.
Anyway, the first law is You either get it or you don't. Dr. Phil expands on this by saying "This means that you either understand that YOU are your top priority or... you don't." How true, eh? Can't argue with that. Dr. Phil then provides an example. He states that if you let men abuse you physically and emotionally, then they will abuse you. So, let's see what help this law offers us.
Well, none. Is Dr. Phil seriously arguing that someone who understands that she is her top priority (whatever that may mean) can never end up being abused by men? That makes as much sense as saying that someone who makes herself her top priority will never be attacked by a mugger. And is he seriously arguing that someone who is being physically or emotionally abused is at liberty to make herself her top priority? Apparently.
Anyway, the second law is, believe it or not, You create your own experience. "Whether life treats you fairly or unfairly," Dr. Phil asserts, "you will always be in control of your reaction to it." Has Dr. Phil never heard of neurosis? Has he never heard of depression? As we are constantly reminded, Dr. Phil has a doctorate in psychology. How did he get it without hearing about neurosis or depression? Is he arguing that someone who is clincally depressed is in control of her reactions? Again, apparently he is. Is he arguing that someone with a phobia is in control of her reactions? Again, apparently he is.
We all know how much everyone hates people who are relentlessly negative, so we are pleased to announce that we are going to be positive about his third law. It is People do what works. Here Dr. Phil reveals his acquaintance with the principles of behavioural analysis. "Even the most destructive behaviours have a pay-off," he writes, translating the principles of behavioural analysis into a reasonable approximation in everyday English. The problem is that he goes on to say "Figure [your payoffs] out or you're like a puppet on a string." In other words, analyze your own behaviour.
Doctor, if people could objectively analyze their own behaviour, they wouldn't have problems! As Dr. Phil should know from the people who appear on his show, many people whose problems are caused by their behaviour have considered the possibility that they are and rejected it. Some people have even considered the exact behaviours which are causing their problems and rejected the idea that they are causing them. That, doctor, is, like, part of the problem.
To make a long story short, Dr. Phil's advice, as expressed in the Life Laws, boils down to "Pull yourself together and get on with it." He writes: "The road to happiness is paved with action;" "If you perceive yourself as weak and vulnerable, you will be;" "We teach people how to treat us." Well, none of those statements is true.
Action may bring happiness, but so may inaction. Action often just brings more unhappiness, especially to people who are mistaken about why they're unhappy in the first place. As a trained psychologist should know, people's self-perceptions have little to do with their behaviour. In particular, thinking of yourself as strong and invulnerable definitely will not make you strong and invulnerable. And people often treat us abusively because they know they can get away with it, not because we've provoked them to it.
The assumption underlying Dr. Phil's advice is that you are the author of your own misfortune. That is, of course, the advice traditionally offered to women, and what makes it make it palatable to contemporary women is that it is dressed up in the language of empowerment – you're the author of your own misfortune, but you can supposedly also be, unaided, the author of your own stunning success.
The idea that you are the author of your own misfortune is also, of course, the advice traditionally offered by the Christian religion – your life would be perfect if you just stopped sinning. All Dr. Phil has done is come up with a new definition of sin.
Christ told us first to love God with all our hearts, minds, souls, and strength, and secondly to love others as we loved ourselves. Dr. Phil tells us to love ourselves, and that obsession with self, ineffective and narcissistic as it may be, is probably what makes him popular.
Posted October 24, 2002
Dr. Phil Lays Down the Law © John FitzGerald, 2002
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