David Bedrick - Talking Back to Dr. Phil: Alternatives to Mainstream Psychology

David Bedrick takes on Dr. Phil in a intelligent, sensitive way that readers will find enlightening and validating. He uses Dr. Phil as a foil to give expression to a deeper, more comprehensive understanding of hot issues like race, gender, diet, sex, and power relationships. Here is the Anti-Dr. Philat last, someone who can stand up knowledgeably to Dr. Phils suave bullying.

Robert W. Fuller, Ph.D.

Former president of Oberlin College and author of Somebodies and Nobodies and Religion and Science

At last someone is taking on Dr. Phil with good sense and great humor. Life isnt a sixty-minute show where people just come in for the laying on of hands. Life is about working it all out with family, community, and love. Good for Mr. Bedrick to decide to pull off the gloves and have an emotional slugfest with an over-the-high-school bully. Talking Back to Dr. Phil is a must read. But not at dinnertime youll be laughing too hard to eat.

Nikki Giovanni

Poet

David Bedrick understands that real change or transformation requires challenging accepted dogma and then approaching problems with compassion and curiosity. A great advocate for stopping the madness of body hatred and dieting.

Jane R. Hirschmann and Carol H. Munter

Authors of Overcoming Overeating and When Women Stop Hating Their Bodies

In Talking Back to Dr. Phil, David Bedrick contrasts mainstream mental health and psychology with a new approach based on love and radical belief. Main stream psychology tells us we are sick, bad, or wrong. But for Bedrick our fatigues, aches, pains, anxieties, low moods, and even the difficulties we encounter in our jobs and relationships, are all educational and growing opportunities with out which we would not develop more awareness. I agree with Bedrick that our sickness deserves our love because it contains the medicine toward our wholeness and well-being.

Pierre Morin, M.D., Ph.D.

Coauthor of Inside Coma and clinical director of Lutheran Community Services

In Talking Back to Dr. Phil, David Bedrick gets it right. He isnt talking back just to Dr. Phil but to a whole century of normative psychology, an approach to mental health that has more to do with socialization than with well-being. Bedrick adds a crucial missing piece to the equation: love. Not just ordinary love but love of our uniqueness, diversity, and strugglesa kind of love sorely missing in mainstream psychology. A modern-day Walt Whitman, Bedrick sings the beauty of our humanity and exhorts us to do the same, to prize the deepest levels of our diversity and express the many wonderful, crazy, and colorful ways there are of being human.

Julie Diamond, Ph.D.

Organizational consultant, coach, and coauthor of A Path Made by Walking

David Bedrick has written an articulate and thought-provoking book challenging the conventional applications of mainstream psychology. His writing introduces the reader to a love-based psychology that embraces personal challenges with care and consideration and offers the possibility that insight can be gained through exploring the difficulties themselves. His work is a valuable and refreshing contribution to the field of psychology and is an invitation to each of us to embrace all that we are and, in so doing, become all that we may be.

Stephen Schuitevoerder, Ph.D.

International consultant and president of the Process Work Institute

When it comes to domestic violence, the silence of physicians, therapists, counselors, clerics, parents, and even prosecutors and judges must end. Mr. Bedricks plea for seeing this complex familial problem with clarity and genuine compassion is indispensable to any progress in helping victims protect themselves rather than our current practice of blaming them.

Elizabeth

Welch Senior Circuit Court Judge, Portland, Oregon

This groundbreaking book demystifies mainstream psychology by calling out Dr. Phil, showing not only the limitations of his approach, which seeks to restore and maintain normal behavior, but how it perpetuates a mode of psychologizing that reinforces the very pathology it purports to heal. David Bedrick reveals symptoms as allies assisting in growth and insight rather than as signs of sickness or deviations from a norm. And rather than focus only on individuals, he demonstrates how society fosters disturbances that, when processed, contribute to transforming not only the individuals but their relationships, groups, and potentially society itself. As such, Bedrick offers new directions for addressing some of the most perplexing issues of our time, from lying and pornography to addiction and racism.

Herbert D. Long, Th.D., Dipl. PW

Former dean and Francis Greenwood Peabody lecturer, Harvard University Divinity School, and adjunct faculty member, Marylhurst University

Talking Back to Dr. Phil gives us a new vision of psychology, one where people are seen not as functional or dysfunctional but in terms of their diversity, and where awareness and dialogue are more important than labels. When people are supported to express their deepest hopes, dreams, and fears, they become reconnected to their humanity and we take one step closer to creating a beloved community. A breath of fresh air.

Vassiliki Katrivanou, M.A.

Member of the Greek Parliament, therapist, and Mediation and Conflict Resolution trainer

Talking Back to Dr. Phil is a breath of fresh air to those who have been hurt and put down by the righteous morality and shame of popular psychology. Bedrick, in daring to pull back the veil of the status quo, reveals an approach that invites self-discovery, finds meaning and purpose in problems, and values the social challenges of our times. Anyone who longs for the freedom of their own individual path of heart will be uplifted by this book.

Dawn Menken, Ph.D.

Psychotherapist and author of Speak Out! Talking about Love, Sex and Eternity

Talking Back to Dr. Phil is full of humor, wisdom, and compassion. Bedrick takes a fresh, holistic approach to psychology, recognizing that feelings are not to be repressed and overcome but actually provide a pathway into deep healing.

Jennifer Means, N.D., M.Ac.O.M.

Remarkable! Bedricks perspective on dieting and weight loss gave me goose bumps.

Marlene M. Maheu, Ph.D.

Editor-in-chief of Self Help Magazine, lead author of The Mental Health Professional and the New Technologies, and executive director of the Telemental Health Institute

For many women, it is revolutionary to realize that what will silence the accusatory inner body-image voice isnt losing weight but rather listening to the bodys wisdom. It could definitely be said that the essays on diet and body image in this book are a work of Spirit through and through.

Andrea Hollingsworth, Ph.D.

Assistant professor of Christian Thought, Berry College

Published by: Belly Song Press
518 Old Santa Fe Trail
Suite 1 #626
Santa Fe, NM 87505
www.bellysongpress.com

Editor: Ellen Kleiner

Book design and production: Ann Lowe

Cover image: Ann Lowe

Copyright 2013 by David Bedrick

No part of this book may be reproduced, stored, or transmitted in any form or by any means except for brief quotations in reviews or for purposes of criticism, commentary, or scholarship without written permission from the publisher.

Talking Back to Dr. Phil is factually accurate, except that names, locales, and minor aspects of some essays have been altered to preserve coherence while protecting privacy.