From an open letter to Dr Phil by Douglas Mesner at Examiner:
http://www.examiner.com/article/jour...-health-menace
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Specifically, it has come to my attention that you will be airing an interview with Judy Byington, author of a book entitled Twenty-Two Faces which purports to be the true story of one Jenny Hill, an alleged victim of the bizarre and controversial psychiatric condition known as Dissociative Identity Disorder [DID] (formerly listed as Multiple Personality Disorder [MPD]).
However dubious the legitimacy of DID, this diagnosis is by far the least of the problems with Byington’s book. Twenty-Two Faces is openly rife with archaic demonologies, and paranoid conspiracy theories being presented as root causes to the disturbances in Ms. Hill’s troubled mind. That Jenny Hill -- a former drug addict and prostitute with a history of mental illness -- is troubled seems indisputable, but Byington’s book seeks to expose an alleged satanic government plot behind Hill’s mental malaise that is tantamount to speculation upon who, exactly, is beaming voices into the heads of schizophrenics. Such an ignorant approach to therapeutic practice is harmful to mental health consumers, and your endorsement of such can hardly be of any positive value to your viewers... titillating though suggestions of hidden satanic conspiracies may be to a Halloween audience.
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To be clear, when Judy Byington talks of multiplicity and dissociative trauma, she is talking about a debunked conspiracy theory of satanic mind-control plots. That you should give such hysterical claims air-time -- allowing a conspiracy theory to be presented as a diagnosis -- on your widely viewed show is beyond irresponsible. It makes you a menace to the public mental health.
Just this week, Dr Phil was promoting the use of psychics in missing persons cases. Now this?!
The man is a menace, alright. Disgusting.