Fox News psychiatrist Dr. Keith Ablow may need to see a shrink

Posted on Sunday, September 04, 2011 at 10:04 AM

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Dr. Keith Ablow

Fox News published one of the most over the top and poisonously transphobic articles I have ever read this week.

Commenting on the decision of Chaz (formerly Chastity) Bono's decision to compete on the forthcoming ABC series of Dancing With The Stars, the cable news station published a five alarm freak out article by a Dr. Keith Ablow that evidences infinitely more ignorance than insight.

'Millions of young people who do watch Dancing with the Stars will have to ponder this question,' Ablow wrote, 'Maybe my problems really stem from the fact that I’m a girl inside a boy’s body (or a boy inside a girls body). Maybe I’m not a tomboy; I’m just a boy! Maybe I’m not just being bullied because I’m a sensitive, reflective young man interested in flowers, not football. Maybe I’m not just uncertain about my sexuality. Maybe I’m a girl!'

It's quite breathtaking to observe a so-called psychiatrist allow himself to be consumed by this much hysteria without checking himself. As well as being a titanic drama queen, Dr. Ablow seems to have abjured his professional training.

One does not become a monk having witnessed one; one does not become a pilot from passing one on the airport concourse - and one does not become transgendered from having watched one on TV.

I mean to say, what kind of psychiatrist would make so many baseless value judgements in one paragraph?

Why, thoughts are very dangerous, Ablow implies - and they ought to be controlled, see. Otherwise anything could, yanno, happen. To Ablow the prospect of watching Chaz Bono on television could lead to the breakdown of his own sexual identity, apparently. After that American democracy itself will likely collapse.

For God's sake, is there no end to religious right's bigotry, this time wrapping itself up in a veneer of bogus medical 'theory?'

FoxNews.com posted and then quietly removed Ablow's utterly disgraceful piece on Chaz Bono yesterday. Presumably Fox is starting to realize that giving a forum to this kind of viciously hateful vitriol could affect its relationships with its own advertisers and the general public - whose heads don't in fact explode at the prospect of someone who isn't a white conservative Christian.

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seanomelbourne | Sep 05, 2011, 07:46 PM EDT

shamrock99 is that your age? maybe the old"A" has set in.

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hollabackgurl | Sep 05, 2011, 09:16 AM EDT

No, he's a bigot who's attempting to filter his private prejudice through his professional practice.

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shamrock99 | Sep 05, 2011, 08:58 AM EDT

Dr. Keith Ablow is telling it like it is..kudos to him.

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JimMcGarity | Sep 05, 2011, 12:04 AM EDT

I will not watch this trash TV. And will boycot the rest of the season.

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seanomelbourne | Sep 04, 2011, 06:23 PM EDT

another Ablowhard from the discredited fox stable. The right wing unchristian hypocritical fox channel.

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AengusOg | Sep 04, 2011, 02:15 PM EDT

Is Dr. Keith A. Blow a Fraudian? This just in, "Dancing with the Stars' has moved to the Fox network.

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jamthecat | Sep 04, 2011, 02:09 PM EDT

I'm confused -- why does anyone expect intelligent thought or honest contemplation from Fox News? Hell, even the simple truth is nonexistent to them.

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Mr.Grey | Sep 04, 2011, 01:50 PM EDT

First of all, it's "infinitely" not "infinately". (Just remember how we pronounce "finite". Secondly, it's "whose" not "who's". "Who's" is the contraction form for "who is" and I don't think you meant to say "...who is heads don't in fact explode..." My head, in fact, explodes when writers don't bother to check their writing. And finally, I agree with everything you said. Thanks for speaking out.

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GeorgeDillon | Sep 04, 2011, 12:34 PM EDT

CaptainCon: Tell us more about your experience of "mental institutions".

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CaptainCon | Sep 04, 2011, 10:27 AM EDT

One has to wonder at a presumably qualified psychiatrist never questioning the psychological processes involved in his substitution of faith for evidence. I'm sure Ablow will have come across religious mania and what it can do to human perception of themselves and the world around them. Perhaps he glossed over that section of psychiatry which points to the fact that 'faith' can be found in abundance in churches and mental institutions.

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