Family Forum / Marriage / Divorce / March 2005

I think he talks a lot of common sense. He seems to be able to cut to
the root of the problem.

I have used his suggested ideas a couple of times to help me with
problems in my life.

Patricia
"Eat less; move more."

Lessee, that was either book number one or book number two I read when
the stuff happened.  The other one was the Mars Yeranus one.

Actually, I liked them both (it's been debated in here a bunch, usually
with titters of "I can't believe you'd read that crap").  It helped to
address some things that I needed to incorporate into my life anyway.

That said, Ed, I get the feeling that it might kinda of be too late for
this.  I mean, never say never, but I'd be careful of getting yourself
emotionally hooked if there is slim chance.  Just a thought.

As an aside, you could kind of have tracked the demise of my marriage by
what I was reading.  It was in this order (save for the first two):

- Men are from Mars, Women are from Venus
- Relationship Rescue
- Controlled Seperations
- Rebuilding
- Mom's House, Dad's House

There might have been some others in there, but I read those in the four
weeks before the marriage went 'poof.'

Rambler

I'm a big Dr Phil fan, I think he makes a lot of sense. But when I
bought his book, Self Matters, I was disappointed. I don't think he (or
his ghost writer) writes all that well, and I had trouble getting
through the book because I kept getting stuck on the poor writing.
YMMV, of course.

If you're interested in learning more about him and his methods, I
highly recommend his web site, www.drphil.com. I don't watch t.v. much,
but I confess I routinely check out his site to catch up on his show.
It's a lot quicker to read through the daily slide-show, which I can do
in minutes, rather than sit through the whole hour. And, for me, it's
more helpful to see how he applies the advice in his book to real-life
situations.

jen

I use his line:  "and is that working for you?"  all the time at work (Human
Resource Manager).

Elisa

I like Dr. Phil's "no BS" approach. I think he's sold himself out badly in
the past couple of years, but I also don't think that alters the validity of
his approach or his advice.

At this point in the game, you might find "Life Strategies" more valuable
than "Relationship Rescue."

Hola back at'cha, Edwardo...

I think Dr. Phil  gives generally good advice, but it's not advice that
I haven't heard other people give for years and years.  Basically, he
has no original ideas, he's just mastered re-packaging the same old
time-tested truths.  That doesn't make him a bad guy, necessarily, just
not the wonderful guru some seem to think he is.

As others have said, he does have a good show with good advice.
Maybe some is reused/repackaged, but it's good. Although in his shows
sometimes he used to says some truths about men that women don't want
to hear. I don't know if he dropped those, to increase ratings.

I found (and you being from outside the USA may notice), Dr.Phil does
have a weird stream of thoughts that are anti-nakedness, any nakedness
is always bad because I'm sure he things only perverts think the human
body is something that can be seen by anyone outside your doctor, and
the bathroom wall.
If you see someone naked you are emotionally scarred for life!
But that is standard American culture beliefs on what is "proper",
it's quite prudish.