Isha Deshmukh
Dr. Phillip McGraw is better known as America’s Resident Psychologist — Dr. Phil. First appearing on Oprah, Dr. Phil later got his own show and has been dealing with patients suffering from mental illnesses on air since 2002. 16 seasons in, the show has become another gateway into Hollywood, following in the footsteps of various talk shows like The Ellen Degeneres Show and Oprah.
The difference is that while talk shows have no purpose other than inviting people to talk, entertain and increase ratings by calling on interesting and possibly controversial guests, Dr. Phil advertises itself as a show to help people, primarily with issues of mental health and sometimes interpersonal conflict. Dr. Phil himself has a Ph.D. in Clinical Psychology and has cancelled his license in 2006, claiming to not practice psychology in his current work. But his show says otherwise, with him bringing on the most vulnerable of people with mental illnesses to “help” them and advising them on the basis of what he calls “things that would be troubling to me as a clinician”.
The show calls on people that send in entries, and Dr. Phil to advise them in the capacity of someone trained in psychology. The show claims to be “the most comprehensive forum on mental health issues” and that he “uses his teaching tools to make psychology accessible to the general public.’
But what actually happening is that he advises people in the capacity of a therapist. The case of a young girl engaging in self-harm with deep scars visible all over her hands is a perfect example. She runs a blog for on self-harm which has a substantial following of a few hundred thousand and has been cutting herself for at least six years. Instead of only advising her to visit a therapist — a step that should have been taken long before this interview — Dr. Phil tells her that he feels like she should continue her blog with the professional guidance of a therapist and also tells her his take on why she self-harms. He explains to her how he feels that the endorphins from cutting herself are no longer the only payoff and that the attention that she gains from her actions is a secondary payoff. His words have the potential to further harm the girl or trigger viewers but there is no consideration for that factor. He then goes on to advertise a company of therapists, one of whom is on the show to help the girl. This licensed therapist explains to the girl how she is “more than her scars” and she would like to help the girl “find her full potential” and makes some other generic statements. This segment is indication enough of how this show is more concerned about ratings and entertainment than solutions. Solutions to mental illnesses can’t be found in 8-minute tapings with no followups.
Further highlighting the show’s inclination towards sensationalisation is a taping of an alcoholic couple, in which the production team visits an alcoholic couple and films them while they are completely drunk and unable to consent to being taped. No one helps as the two throw up and fall over, and the entire taping is showed in a manner akin to tapings of haunted houses being explored.
The show films people that are at their lowest before providing an “intervention” in the form of Dr. Phil. It is almost as if these people are shown to make one feel better about oneself and not for the participants’ benefit.
Recent incidents further strengthen the shows hunger for ratings and its negative repercussions on the participants’. A 13-year-old, Danielle Bregoli appeared on her segment called “I Want To Give Up My Car-Stealing, Knife-Wielding, Twerking 13-Year-Old Daughter Who Tried To Frame Me For A Crime”, along with her frustrated mother. Danielle soon became a popular meme and subsequently got signed to a record label because of her famous line, “ Cashmeousside howboudah”. The girl earned fame and money, but never received the help she needed. The show has since become a gateway to Hollywood, with people claiming false symptoms and beliefs in a bid to get attention. Various other people like a spoilt rich girl and a black girl that “identified as white” have gained the attention they wanted, with the black girl also being revealed as a fraud by her sister.
The show has thus reduced metal health and its awareness into short segments of “weird, scary or controversial” and possibly highly vulnerable people.. It also reduces illnesses and solutions to a few generic statements like “you are more than this” and “find your potential, dig deeper.” Most detrimentally, it has perpetuated the stereotype of mental illnesses being mere cries for attention and that people are “faking it”.
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