NAMI Leaders Issue Angry Response To TV Psychologist's Program

Television psychologist Phil McGraw, Ph.D., who says he has“ galvanized millions of people to `get real' about their own behavior,” has recently managed to galvanize mental health advocates and others in anger and outrage over remarks that they view as anything but therapeutic.

The battle lines were drawn after his September 22 television special titled “A Dr. Phil Primetime Special: Family First.”

Among the most vocal in condemnation was the National Alliance for the Mentally Ill, which charged that remarks he made about parents with mentally ill children were so irresponsible they had the “potential to [endanger] the lives of children with mental illness.”

NAMI Executive Director Michael Fitzpatrick wrote a blistering letter to Leslie Moonves, CEO of CBS, which broadcast the program, saying, “Not only did the show represent a breach of professional ethics, but also, in the opinion of many, malpractice.”

Blaming family members—as McGraw appeared to do—for the behavior of a child who shows clear signs of mental illness, Fitzpatrick wrote, “undermines all recent understanding of the biological basis of brain disorders and is not only insensitive, but also hinders a family or individual from seeking comprehensive treatment....”

The program's theme was showing, through videotapes of family interactions taken with hidden cameras, “out-of-control” families, including mothers and fathers making what he considers to be seriously misguided parenting decisions. McGraw is a Ph.D. clinical psychologist.

The segment that had NAMI members and others up in arms involved Eric, a 9-year-old boy who, McGraw said after seeing videotapes of his behavior, had nine of the 14 characteristics commonly evidenced by serial killers.“ Jeffrey Dahmer had seven,” he added. This occurred after his father dismissed Eric's behavior as the sort of things boys do, though the boy exhibited behaviors such as beating up his sister because he liked to watch her lip bleed, setting fires, abusing animals, and smearing his feces on the walls of his home. Eric interjected, “I don't like hurting them—I just can't help it.”

McGraw concluded, “This is not a behavior problem with a child. This is a manifestation of a family that's out of control.” A few minutes later, after Eric's mother asked for advice, McGraw suggested that the solution was “to take this child back to the nuts and bolts and re-parent him. I would begin by stripping his room totally. Take everything out of it except the bed. That's commando parenting.... You are in a power struggle, and the price of poker just went up.”

McGraw urged the parents to consider how “interconnected” all families are and how their son's behavior “is just a manifestation of what's going on in the family.”

In his letter to CBS, Fitzpatrick stated that blaming parents for the behavior of a child with mental illness symptoms in front of an audience of millions puts “children's lives now at risk,” since some parents will take McGraw's statements as a sign that mental health care may not be an urgent consideration for their troubled child as long as they adopt better parenting skills.

In a written response to NAMI, McGraw's executive producer, Carla Pennington Stewart, and the show's psychological consultant, G. Frank Lawlis, Ph.D., suggested that NAMI leaders' response was “the result of a lack of information,” and that McGraw did not blame the parents for their child's illness. “We never discouraged alternative treatments” for Eric, they said. “The parents ruled out potential biological causation through comprehensive evaluations with appropriate doctors. No treatment was available due to the absence of a diagnosable biological/organically based condition. Having exhausted all other avenues of intervention, they sought our help.” They added that the doctors who had assessed Eric “ruled out” the presence of a mental illness, “including bipolar and related disorders.”

NAMI's response to the Dr. Phil show can be accessed online at<www.nami.org/template.cfm?section=press_room> by clicking on “NAMI Blasts CBS....” Information about the“ Dr. Phil” program, including parenting advice, is posted at<www.drphil.com>.▪