Dr. Drew

Posted by Guest Blogger on Friday, 24 December 2004 01:33.

Drew Pinsky, host of Loveline, writes about culture in his book Cracked.

“The culture is like a living, breathing beast that feeds its own need to exist and grow at the expense of the individual. Our world is full of people with narcissistic problems who look to escape those feelings and be gratified—and the culture steps right up to meet those needs. Many of those contributing to the culture are sick themselves. It doesn’t take a shrink to count the number of celebrities who end up in rehab, getting into fights, or posing for mug shots. The media has become an instant-response machine, ratcheting our tolerance ever upward in cycles of arousal and gratification. All of this can be arresting, fun, sexy; most of all, it sells. But it doesn’t heal.”

“What our culture lacks are honest messages about what it really means to be a healthy human being. Or how you make humans grow. These are sort-of-boring topics that won’t sell Budweiser or Nikes. Cervantes, writing in Don Quixote, goes on a rant like this about theater of the early 1600s. He has the same complaint. Just because people gravitate to something doesn’t make it good or right. I want more messages about how healthy humans are created, and as much as I want them, others need them.”

I enjoy listening to Loveline. I got hooked in college. Pinsky knows that there is something wrong with our culture. He knows that there were serious problems with the sexual revolution. On the other hand, he’s not out to fix the world. Just to perform some triage.

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Comments:

Posted by Guessedworker on Fri, 24 Dec 2004 12:21 | #

Thrasy,

Welcome back.

I’ve just been trying to explain the nature and function of social conservativism here:- http://majorityrights.com/index.php/weblog/comments/178/

Anyhow, we are not going to see “honest messages about what it really means to be a healthy human being” any time soon. We are all one-eyed men believing, in our arrogance, that we live in the land of the blind. It was our forefathers who had two good eyes.

I accept that social liberalism will pass because its costs will drive us back to what works. But only slowly and over a multi-generational timespan.

Meanwhile, I do not know how one can expedite the process intentionally. But it won’t arise accidentally out of the accident of declension.

Posted by john d. on Fri, 24 Dec 2004 22:29 | #

Dear Dr Drew,

Too funny Dr Drew, I mean this stuff about narcissim, considering how your radio show gives about 10 hours each week to some of the world’s biggest narcissists, out for 50 seconds of on-air fame. But Doc, now I get it, all that sex-talk: it’s therapy!! What an absolute freakin’ masterstroke, getting past the censors and all that. Like getting the sexiest cutest young thangs to go on and on about their sex lives like they’re on the couch with just you and Adam and, oh yeah, 15 million horny male listeners lusting along. Pure voyeurism!!. And under-age too!!

Some exhibitionists, sorry I mean callers, really stick in my mind. Like this chick, she was really young, 16 I think, and they sound so sexy when they are innocent like that, like she just lives for sex but she has a life and all and could be your next door neighbor or something. Anyway, she’s saying like when she has sex she gets wet, like really, really, really wet like so wet even her boyfriend comments and makes her self-conscious and she’s asking you does she have a problem. And you are being your compassionate but clinical self (nice schtick!) telling her she’s just a sensuous young woman and her boyfriend should consider himself really lucky. Man, I was listening to you on my way to work and I was 15 minutes late clocking in waiting for the goddam swelling to go down.

Jeez! Doc, now you’re writing things like “The media has become an instant-response machine, ratcheting our tolerance ever upward in cycles of arousal and gratification.” Too funny. Guess it’s better to write this guff instead of being seen as an under-age smut peddler and getting sent down to Leavenworth. Just kidding, Doc. I love it. You got to throw a bone to keep the dogs at bay.

Doc I really admire your stalwart service in defense of the “prurient interest”. But I think they might get wise to your schtick, notwithstanding the book and everything. Here’s a few observations.

I think you really overplay the “abuse” angle on your show. Like as soon as some teeny-bopper slut gets on air you’re down her throat, figuratively speaking. A typical dialogue goes like this:
Dr.: “you’re a victim of abuse”
Caller: “No I’m not”
Dr.: “Come on admit it. When did it happen”
Caller: “it didn’t happen. Well like when I was 12 something happened…”.

Come on Dr.Drew everyone knows a confession you get by beating some one up isn’t worth anything. Your authority and their eagerness to please and the thrill of being live on-air and your berating them. Hello there Doc, McMartin preschool and Little Rascals day care didn’t teach you anything. And you really seem to do this to every female caller. Couldn’t claiming sex abuse victim status be just a bit of that ol’ Narcissism on the part of the girls which you write about.

Now I know a red-blooded guy like you, caught between the hammer of lesbian feminists and the anvil of the Parent brigade might get evenly pounded if he just comes out openly and says he just likes talking dirty to sixteen year olds. Tell me if I’m wrong but the abuse stuff really mollifies the dykes because they think *all* hetero sex is abuse and so this confirmation of expectations satisfies them. And I can see how it placates the Moms and Dads because you really care and it’s therapy. I guess we owe Springer one for getting the confession bit rolling.

But come on Doc just because a girl likes to get it on doesn’t make her a victim of abuse. And what kind of message are you sending to young guys. The girl is always the passive victim and the guy is the aggressor. You are reinforcing the idea that heterosex and violence are two sides of the same coin.

Posted by john d. on Fri, 24 Dec 2004 22:31 | #

[cont.]

Here’s another thing. When a guy calls up on your show you are really dismissive of his problems. Like one time a guy called up and said his male member was really thick and short (Adam Corolla: :”Like a stubby can of corn” ) and how it was affecting his relations with women. And all you did for the poor guy was make fun of him for a few seconds and leaving him hanging. You’ve got to be more even handed with guys otherwise the show might come across as just you and Adam having phone sex with under-age girls. Of course we both know that is what it is but do you want *them* to know too.

Here’s another thing I got about you from a caller. A woman calls in, says she’s twenty-three and having a relationship with a 40 year-old, maybe it was 43. On hearing that you and Adam both go ballistic on her. Trying to get her to confess to some mistreatment from him just because he’s so much older. I was astonished. You were practically accusing him of child-molesting, like this age difference was the most disgusting thing you ever heard. And I could tell you meant it.

Doc, your show revels in every deviancy a teeny-bopper has the wits to dream up (for which we’re much obliged). And you are always so understanding and being non-judgemental to these girls yet when an adult, college-educated woman comes on the show and she’s having a relationship that is so out of the mainstream because she’s 23 and he’s 40’ish you can’t contain yourself. Why didn’t you refrain from judging her too. It’s like how everything in our society gets tipped up on its head: deviancy is redefined as normal and normal or close to gets redefined as deviant. Come on Doc, pull the other one, you’re in your 40’s, you’ve made a career out of deviancy and yet you’re ragging on some woman in a normal relationship.

Not your finest moment Doc. Anyway I’m writing this since I saw a piece by a blogger Thrasymachus really plugging your new book and I figured he was smart enough to be in on the joke and hasn’t be bamboozled by you claiming all this phone sex is some kind of therapy. Just want to let you know I haven’t been taken in. Keep the “honest messages about what it really means to be a healthy human being” flowing and if you have to throw a smokescreen up nowadays just to talk dirty then I understand but play it safe.

Sincerely,
John

Posted by Arcane on Mon, 27 Dec 2004 00:34 | #

Uh, John… maybe you should call into LoveLine. You need help, man, because I think you remember a bit too much of what they discuss.

Posted by Fred Scrooby on Mon, 27 Dec 2004 06:09 | #

Thrasy, after reading the article you linked about Dr. Pinsky I suddenly have tremendous respect for him. In fact it’s amazing that someone connected with MTV and the pop culture could have views so normal as those expressed. I’ve never heard his radio show—it must be no station carries it where I live—but I remember occasionally watching his TV show a few years ago, the one on the MTV channel mentioned in the article, with comedian Adam Corolla. He struck me then as level-headed, thoughtful, serious and (you’re right) on the conservative side, if anything (he certainly wasn’t remotely like the obnoxious, wacko, creepy, leftist, and mostly just plain foolish Dr. Ruth)—but I had no idea how level-headed he was until just now on reading that extremely surprising article. He sounds like a very good man.