“Dr.” Laura – Letters: feedback
Thank you, on behalf of the mental health community, for your editorial exposing the illegitimate Dr. Laura. As a licensed marriage and family therapist, I am ashamed on behalf of my profession that such fakery has been foisted on the public. She is a sham and in fact does nothing but spread shame and humiliation. She has a Masters degree, yet holds herself out to be a doctor of psychology.
Sharon Duffy
Woodland Hills, CA
I don’t know what “monitoring Schlessinger’s radio show for the past few months” actually entailed. Anyone who has listened to Dr. Laura for long would never come away with Dr. Epstein’s shrill conclusions based on a total misunderstanding of the program. Rarely a day goes by that Dr. Laura doesn’t make clear her show is not about mental health, but rather moral health. She has been widely quoted as saying that radio psychotherapy is an oxymoron and regularly suggests that a caller might want to seek the help of a psychotherapist for a given problem.
But we were particularly amused by Dr. Epstein’s “survey” of New Yorkers. He tells us that 50 people he talked to “knew who Dr. Schlessinger was.” This, of course, has no bearing on whether or not they have ever heard her show. After the media frenzy of this past year, can there be 50 people in New York who don’t know who Dr. Schlessinger is?
We know that the 22 people who said they thought she was a psychologist or a psychiatrist have never heard the show, where she regularly and proudly talks about her credentials.
Such a prominent, scurrilous, personal attack on a fellow professional is surely unworthy of Psychology Today. This credentials argument has long since been settled. Dr. Epstein is simply using it as camouflage to attack her for beliefs he doesn’t agree with.
Keven R. Bellows
Senior Vice President,
General Manager
The Dr. Laura
Schlessinger Program
I have been a subscriber of Psychology Today for several years. Your editorial (“Physiologist Laura,” August, 2001) regarding Dr. Laura is excellent, and I am in total agreement with you. I will not listen to that brutal, cruel woman. I know she is not a doctor of psychology, but many people obviously do not.
Beverly Tuttle
via e-mail
I am so glad to hear of someone else who is absolutely appalled by Dr. Laura. My parents listen to her and it drives me nuts.
John Soltero
via e-mail
Thanks for taking the time to objectively examine the advice that “Dr.” Laura is dispensing. Often what she says has a “feel good” quality to it. However, when you take a closer look, it is truly frightening.
William Lippert
via e-mail
You resent and disapprove of Dr. Laura because she finds homosexuality abnormal, has personal problems of her own and sometimes deals with callers in a direct, abrupt manner. Most of all, you voice condescension because she is not properly credentialed.
In critiquing your profession, almost 10 percent of you admit to sexually abusing patient. Of medical professionals, you are least likely to have a successful marriage.
Dr. Laura makes far too much sense for elitists as you.
John Jaeger
Irvine, CA
I applaud you for the article on the alleged “Dr.” Laura. She is such a hostile, righteous person that it makes me worry about the masochism of the people who call her. I think she dispenses very hurtful diatribes–particularly to young women.
K. Davis
via e-mail
Bravo. Thank God for your willingness to stand up and speak out against the hateful “advice” that Dr. Laura pollutes the airwaves with every day. Though I never purposefully tune in to her show, I often switch on the car radio at just the wrong time. I liken your editorial to Edward R. Murrow vs. Joe McCarthy. And, yes, I think Schlessinger is just as dangerous as McCarthy was. It doesn’t take more than common sense to know that Laura is way out of line. Your editorial is the “voice of reason.”
Lin Stein
via e-mail
I wish to commend you for addressing Laura as a mental health professional. You are direct and specific in your critcisms and rightfully avoid addressing her with any other agenda than a psychological one.
Kathleen Quigley
via e-mail
You have lost all credibility in my opinion. Psychology Today is just another outlet for liberal views that lacks morality and accountability.
Irma Delgado
Los Angeles
COPYRIGHT 2001 Sussex Publishers, Inc.
COPYRIGHT 2002 Gale Group
