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"Dr. Laura - We Don't Want Her"
- Psychology Today Editor

(June 19, 2001) "My radio program staff and I have been monitoring Dr. Laura
Schlessinger's radio show for the past few months, and I'm both sickened and
saddened by what we've found," writes Dr. Robert Epstein, editor-in-chief of
Psychology Today and host of the magazine's daily radio program. "Her attitude
about gays is only a small part of the Physiologist Laura Problem. If she's really
talking to an audience of 18 million admirers every day, we're a nation in deep trouble."

Dr. Epstein is a University Research Professor at United States International University
and Director Emeritus of the Cambridge Center for Behavioral Studies. He has a Ph.D
in psychology from Harvard University.

LARADIO.com is the first to see a sneak preview of the editorial that will appear in the
July/August 2001 issue of Psychology Today (www.psychtoday.com
.
"Her advice is often divisive, potentially driving apart spouse from spouse, lover from lover,
even parent from child. One caller asked whether it would be appropriate for him to charge
his 23-year-old son rent for living at home, even though the caller's wife was adamantly
opposed to the idea. Laura advised the caller to throw his son out ' by the end of the week'
- an action that likely would have caused extraordinary turmoil in the family."

"She often conveys the message that people can't change," Dr. Epstein continued.
"As a young woman, Schlessinger herself dated and 'shacked up' with a married man,
posed for nude pictures, and committed other indiscretions of a sort that her show now
condemns daily. She has changed; can't others do so too? If people can't change,
what's the point of psychotherapy or, for that matter, of advice shows?"

"She not only models intolerance and abusive behavior, but also advocates
such behavior - even violence. She cuts people off - people calling for help,
people trusting her with their problems."

Dr. Epstein concluded his editorial: "No legitimate mental health professional
would ever give the kind of hateful, divisive advice that Schlessinger doles out daily.
Real therapists try to heal wounds and bring people together, to instigate conflict.
You've changed before, Physiologist Laura. Can you do so again?"

Dr. Laura is heard from noon to 3 at KFI.