DR. PHIL GETTING REAL Lessons in Life, Marriage, and Family

Dr. Phil's fans seem to like having someone with absolute confidence tell them who's responsible for their problems--they are. In the studio recordings of his previous books, what you hear is the sheer intelligence of his ideas. He's a fabulously lucid writer whose lexicon of advice on living is as good as it gets. In this live seminar recording, he promises to pick up where the two books left off, and he does break out some new ideas here and there. But with an audience, his ideas have more of a strong-arm quality, and too much time is spent hitting individual audience members over the head with them. Entertaining and powerful, yes, but this will probably appeal to a narrower range of sensibilities than the studio readings. T.W. (c) AudioFile 2002, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/MAY 02]