Customer Reviews

Dr. Laura: The Unauthorized Biography

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1 star:		(6)

 

 

Great read! I found the information in this book to be fairly presented and without the snide comments the subject is famous for. Very interesting that "the most famous mother in America" was working after her child was born, verified by college pay registers listed in the appendix. Also interesting that she (1 had affairs with a married men(Bill Balance, Lew Bishop); 2) cohabited prior to marriage with Lew Bishop; 3) was trying to get pregnant while not yet married to Bishop; 4) Bishop was a dead-beat dad who had to be taken to court by his ex-wife to support his then 16-year old child. Puhleese! Although I don't dislike Dr. Laura entirely, I find her obnoxious when she tries to sound like a prophet from the Old Testament. This book captures the real Dr. Laura.

This book connects the dots and shouldn't come as a surprise to people who have followed her radio show. Whatever else one wants to say about Dr. Laura the truth is she's passionate and manichean (only recognizes shades of black and white). Now we know why. Every time she berates a caller it seems she's harping on some aspect of her past life which, she feels in hindsight, was unworthy. In this she resembles most authors who write popular self-help books (eg. Barbara DeAngelis, John Grey, it's quite striking).

Emile Zola once wrote how every autobiographer, from Saint Augustine down, is at least somewhat intrigued by his or her sins. I suspect we're not going to get a memoir from Doctor Laura, who is too ashamed of her past. This book could have been written better but the author captures her subject. Those who think such books are "unfair" would have a point if Dr. Laura hadn't turned the Disneyland version of her life into a cottage industry.

While I think Dr. Laura's advice, stripped of meanness and sanctimony, is still generally on the mark (with a few glaring exceptions), what the sum of her life shows, ironicly, is that a women who does the ten stupid things she wrote about in a previous book isn't destined to ruin. Some become quite successful. Some even get nationally syndicated radio programs.

When this book was written, Dr. Laura was a rising radio star. Schlessinger's show was still on its way to a zenith of 470 radio stations across the United States and Canada. Controversies had erupted here and there, but nothing that stayed on national radar. The only place those sorts of things were discussed was the Usenet newsgroup alt.radio.talk.dr-laura (still going strong after 7 years). Leslie Bennetts had written a critical piece in Vanity Fair, and other cover stories also raised eyebrows with suggestions that the Queen of Preach, Teach, and Nag did not Do As She Said.

The Bane bio, written without any contact with Schlessinger or her husband, brought in all this backstory. Bane met with plenty of Schlessinger's former colleagues who were willing to complain about their run-ins with Schlessinger. The result paints a very disturbing picture of the woman who had the second biggest radio audience after Rush Limbaugh. Read the book for some fascinating insight into Dr. Laura Schlessinger, but realize that the juiciest bits happened well after the book went to press.

If you are a big fan of "Dr" Laura and you do not see her short comings, read one of Schlessinger's autobiographies, for you have something in common with the subject. I found Mrs Bane's book to be very thorough, and fair. Mrs Bane states that she was comissioned to write the book about the good physiologist before she knew anything about her. I think this allowed her to be more objective. I did not find the book to be overly harsh against the subject, but layed out dozen's of friends/acquantances and ex-friends perspectives/stories and memories of Schlessinger. It appears she has left many people in her wake as she ambitiously made her way up to the top. The book is a real eye opener about the number of "indiscretions" committed by Dr L. I was able to do some research on the internet and find much supporting information to substantiate several of the book's stories (enter "Dr laura" in a search engine like Google and you will be amazed at the amount of data you will get). Even if you are a fan of Schlessinger and are aware of some of her neurotic behaviors, you could enjoy this book.

I've always been fascinated by people who move to California to "become" what they felt they couldn't back in their home town. Those who set out to reinvent themselves seldom fully succeed--and proof positive of this fact is Dr. Laura Schlessinger. Vickie L. Bane interviewed a great many people and carefully researched other press and anecdotal accounts of Schlessinger's rise to radio stardom.

The picture isn't pretty, and time after time, Dr. Laura's own life completely refutes the ideas that she presses forcefully on her callers to her radio programs, some of whom appear acutely masochistic, if not unrealistic to believe that they can "fix" what ails them in a three-minute phone chat, often laced with sarcasm, hostility or even abuse from Dr. Laura.

Dr. Laura doesn't believe in divorce, pre- or extramarital sex, or writing off one's family members, and yet she has done every one of those things: She became estranged from her father, mother, and younger sister. She dumped the nice Jewish orthodontist she married and never mentions. She engaged in an enthusiastic affair with Los Angeles radio legend Bill Ballance (who speaks very candidly with Bane), who helped her get into radio. Dr. Laura lured her current husband, Lew Bishop, away from his wife and three children, had her tubal ligation reversed in order to conceive out of wedlock. Eventually she and Bishop married and produced a child as goopily extolled (and, to my mind, as exploited) as Kathie Lee Gifford's kids Cody and Cassidy. Child of a Jewish father and Catholic mother, Dr. Laura converted to Orthodox Judaism, a choice that she uses as a bludgeon to people that she perceives as less "committed" to her brand of situational morality.

Bane neatly debunks Dr. Laura's "I'm My Kid's [Full-Time] Mom" shtick by documenting how and when Laura returned to work after her son's birth. As a child, Deryk ran wild in the hallways of KFI. For quite awhile, Dr. Laura used her visibility as a radio shrink as bait for prospective patients, one of whom details a disturbing breach of professional ethics, that of respecting strict boundaries of behavior between therapist and client. This former client was also a "friend" to Dr. Laura, and went shopping and lunching with her, as well as babysitting for Deryk.

This book, though complete as is, would benefit from an update with events that also reflect upon Dr. Laura's post-publication life--such as the failure of Dr. Laura's television show, her defection from Orthodox Judaism, and the fact that her mother, to whom Laura had not spoken for years, died alone in her apartment in Beverly Hills and wasn't found for days.

Isn't it funny-peculiar how right-leaning cheerleaders for their own definition of morality extend the statute of limitations on their own personal "youthful indiscretions" well into their forties? Schlessinger is no exception(...)

It was interesting to read what I had suspected of Dr Laura but the writing style was rather stilted. Is it necessary to list the middle name of every contributor plus their current employment status? This information plus facts established in previous chapters were again re-iterated as if it would have to stand alond in future quotes. I kept wishing that someone else with a better style was writing but the content kept me reading to the end.

The writing is often confusing, as noted by others, with episodic non-chronological writing and confusing references to names.
For instance, two different explanations, in different chapters, are given as to why it's improper and misleading for Laura Schlessinger to call herself "Doctor" when giving relationship advice. One explanation refers to a statute. How much effort would it have taken for the author to give the reference -- if not in the text, then in the notes or bibliography?
On the positive side, there's a wealth of attributed on-the-record comments by those around Laura Schlessinger, in the present and past, back to Schlessinger's college days and before. It's a balanced presentation, recounting not only the times Schlessinger backstabbed others, but the times she stood by friends.
What's interesting is what is NOT covered in this book, which supposedly took 14 months to research and write. There's no mention of the nude photos of Schlessinger which were posted on the internet, which she first denied were hers and then sued to censor. Bane reports that Schlessinger coerced a patient of Schlessinger's into babysitting her famous son Deryk, but there's no report of the inconsistency this presents with Schlessinger's public claims that she never used a babysitter for Deryk.
There is some, but not much, discussion of the source of Schlessinger's "moral positions": "She reacts to callers based upon her own problems, her [own] childhood ... countertransference... [as when a therapist transfers their OWN] feelings toward a significant person in their past onto the patient." (p.218)
But Bane provides almost no examples of this. Bane doesn't mention that Schlessinger, now of the nuclear family, insists that others essentially mimic her public face: if you're a single parent, don't you dare date until your child grows up; if you're divorced, the non-custodial parent must visit the child at the custodial parent's home ONLY because this helps the child feel the child has a "home" -- this given by Schlessinger who has no degree in psychology, and whose MFCC license has lapsed, despite the near-unanimous advice of professionals to the contrary.
There's no example of the many times Schlessinger contradicts herself on the air, for instance berating a caller for "seeking easy answers," while running a radio show purporting to solve moral dilemmas in free two-minute phone calls.
The Author's Foreword is especially puzzling: Bane reports her interview with Schlessinger's mother (whom Shlessinger hasn't talked with for 14 years), but agreed to not publish any of the mother's stories. So instead we are treated to a strange account of the mother's eyeshadow, the mother's bird, and the mother's carpet. What purpose except "look who I met!" does it serve for Bane to report an interview while noting "I cannot share her stories" ??

Initially, when Dr. Laura first came to prominence, I was very much in favor of her no-nonsense, take full responsibility message. I have read one of her early books and a fair number of her other writings, so I can definitely say I'm familiar with both sides of this story. I generally avoid these tell all "unauthorized" biographies as they tend to be salacious, sensationalized, mean-spirited, and overtly one sided against whoever the subject matter is about. I did not find this to be true with this book (surprising, considering the author writes for People, not the most highbrow publication out there)! Any dirt slinging or positive comments for that matter, are done by people who know or worked with Dr. Laura, not by the author, who simply reports it, and I felt, let the reader make of it what they would. Adding to the credibility of the sources is that most of them are quoted by name and specific circumstances, dates, etc., with the obvious exceptions of former patients. I won't bother wasting space extolling the examples of hypocrisy, nastiness, and other little known facts you'll discover here. I imagine if you're researching this book, you've already figured out on your own, like myself, that Dr. Laura is not the paragon of virtue she originally seemed to be.

I've listened to "Dr" Laura over the years, and noticed her becoming more vicious, condescending, and cruel. This book fills in the blanks of "Why would she act like this?"

The book does not take undocumented pot-shots, nor does it conflict with any of the other written materials I've seen or what I've heard on her show: it portrays her as energetic, quick, and far too eager to believe in her own supremacy.

An enlightening read.

As a local listener, I have been increasingly concerned with the strident, and unnecessarily harsh manner which she treated callers. This book provides more background on why.

I was sad to see that the harsh, self-righteous pronouncements made in the guise of advice were based in the life of a harsh, self-righteous person. More disturbing to me was the ungrateful manner in which Dr. Laura seems to have treated people unfortunate enough to have come in contact with her during her career. Other hosts have made oblique references to her personality and how she has acted in the past, and this book confirms what had been a gnawing impression that Dr. Laura is not all that she wishes to project.

While I support some of the stands which she has made in the defense of children and responsibility, I fear that her actions may yet do more harm than good to her causes.

I've switched to Jazz in the afternoons.