Rating: 
Summary: EXCELLENT!
Review: .... am I contributing or contaminating Amazon???
I'll contribute this: Dr. Phil looks like a dork, but has the sense of a horse. Get the book!
Rating:
Summary: Go Dr. Phil !!
Review: As a physician I have recommended this book to many of my patients whose relationships were in trouble. I feel Dr. Phil's approach is right on: you have to work on yourself first. Most people who feel their relationship is doomed tell me, "Well, my partner won't listen to me...", or "he/she isn't willing to do the work...". He has you look and work on yourself FIRST then involves you in seven steps. The couples I have recommended this book to have found it very helpful. There have been a few cases I have seen where the partner never participated in the process and my patients happily ended up moving on with their lives with the aid of this book.For those people who cannot afford or do not have access to therapy this book/program is wonderful (actually even if you do!). He "tells it like it is", and drills the point home that we are each responsible for the state our relationship and life are in (excepting cases of abuse). As Dr. Phil says you have to "get with the program" and work on yourself and relationship "until". A great self-help book.
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Summary: Doctor Phil tells it like it is - and like it could be!
Review: As usual, Phil McGraw is steps ahead of the rest of us in sorting out what is *really* going on in relationships. Refreshingly, he begins the book by questioning the therapeutic standards too often given to the thousands of couples in trouble. "The divorce rate in America refuses to drop below fifty percent, and twenty percent of us will divorce not once but twice in our lifetime. Clearly, pleasant and generic instructions on how to communicate better or theoretical musings that give you great insights about relationships just weren't going to cut it fifteen years ago and won't cut it now. " Obviously (to paraphrase him), couples therapy as we have known it isn't working. You can watch him often on Oprah, but this book is the next best thing to either watching him there, or having him as your personal therapist. This book is primarily for relationships 'on the rocks' - the first steps are set up to evaluate and understand what your relationship is, how it got this way (no surprise, it didn't fall apart on its own, or because of your partner). The Seven Steps are not simple or simplistic, but provide structure for thought and more. This book is not about what's wrong with your partner and how to fix him or her. It is about the person reading the book -- you! This would be a great book for new couples to read together (and for this price, why not order one for you and one for your loved one, and read them first in private, then together), not just before they are in crisis, but before they decide to marry. When the relationship is still strong, new, fresh, it is more likely that both people will be willing to talk openly about what they expect and want, and to be able to use the truly helpful instructions on how to stay together. For those in a troubled relationship, you might want to read this yourself first, and work on your own issues. Dr. Phil has a directness that can be intimidating to some - but for some of us, we need that extra push. This book is on my must have list for newlyweds as well as those in trouble. Highly recommended for those who truly want that special relationship to work!
Rating: 
Summary: Worked for Me
Review: I had been dating this guy for about six months that I met online (at catch27.com), and, surprisingly, we had a really strong relationship going. But in about the sixth month, everything started to change. We were getting in fights all the time and we hardly ever spent any time together. Which is why I picked up this book...
Granted, the book can be a little overly verbose in places. However, the advice it gives is honest and well thought out. It focuses on teaching you how to understand your relationship on a deeper level and hone in on the specific things that are problems between you and your partner. All in all, the book provides excellent advice and ended up saving my relationship.
Rating:
Summary: is he better than doctor on radio?
Review: i listen to get advice from a radio doctor called drew on love line show. he hates doctor phil and always says bad things about him, so then i read new drew book called cracked, and learn nothing from it. i go post disappointment review on it and some people there say that i should listen to doctor phil who has better morals and intelligence. they say forget doctor drew and go read doctor phil. are they right? i think so maybe, but i have to read him first. can you tell me if phil is better and nicer and smarter than drew? why does drew say all those bad things about a better doctor? i want to know please.
Rating:
Summary: WHEN NOTHING ELSE WORKS - BUY THIS CD!!!
Review: If Karl Marx called religion the opiate for the masses, Dr. Phil has to be the crack of America.
Don't get me wrong; a lot of people need crack. In fact, they depend on it. The problem is: the proverbial crack starts doing the thinking for these people.
If you are into secular humanism, self-help, and basic atheist or agnostic, "I'll do it myself," philosophy, you will love this book.
Temporary fixes are not only [...], they can be infinitely more dangerous when unsound psychological devices built on modern culture dupe one into believing in one's actual happiness (with oneself) with one's significant other; when the reality is: the relationship or one's identity could not be corroding any faster. Just look at Oprah. I do not even need to explain myself. Those who want to see the truth, see it.
This book is exactly what I would expect from Oprah's [...].
Rating:
Summary: Forget the Myths
Review: In his book "Relationship Rescue," Dr. Phil offers great guidelines on how to build a healthy relationship. He warns us against the devastating effect of the myths that exist in our society about relationships (i.e.: in a great relationship you never fight, you are romantic all the time, you only have common interests...) and encourages us instead to stop working on our partners in order to make them fit these unrealistic standards, and take a look at how we operate. For him the key is in realistically evaluating the state of your relationship, and becoming aware of what you do that sabotages it. If you don't like what you see and understand your role in it, you gain the power to change things and create the relationship that works for you.
In the book I particularly enjoyed this idea of giving up working on your partner and your relationship to make them better. I recently encountered this idea in the book "Working on your Relationship Doesn't Work" by Ariel and Shya Kane. It is a very unique and soothing book with an immediate power of transformation and I enthusiastically recommend it to anyone interested in discovering novel ways to create meaningful, intimate and magical relationships. Check it out!
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Summary: WHEN NOTHING ELSE WORKS - BUY THIS CD!!!
Review: Me & my s/o have had problems from day one but we both tried to cover it up and work through them. After a year engagement we decided to set a date and plan the wedding. Something explosive happened in our relationship and we were at our end, the wedding was cancelled. It has caused us to basically give up and seperate. This is the last thing both of us wanted to do especially with 2 young children, but we didn't know what else to do but to take a break from one another, so I am setting to leave. After watching the relationship rescue episodes of Dr. Phil on television, I said I have to get this book - this is my only hope. I'm not even done with the book and I already feel confident that my relationship will work out just fine with time and dedication. Dr. Phil is down to earth, he doesn't play any games. I listen to the CD in my car on my way home from work since I never have time to read. Make sure you buy the Relationship Rescue workbook along with it! If your partner wants your relationship to be rescued he will go through this workbook with you. The CD will lift you up in ways you can't imagine...when everything else fails - you need to buy this cd!
Rating:
Summary: A Note from a Villanova University Senior Thesis Group
Review: My last ray of hope was relationship rescue. My marriage and my soul was/were broken. I was not sure what I was in for-but if you can be brutally honest with the answers to the questions he ask's and follow through with the actions that need to take place-Your life will be brand new. We no longer fight, We no longer mis communicate-Life Rocks! Thanks Dr.Phil!!!
Rating:
Summary: Creating, Improving, and Rescuing Your Relationships
Review: Relationship Rescue is my pick as the top book of 2000. This book deserves many more than five stars. It is as close as you can get to having a hands-on guide to improving your relationships as you can get without having a trained counselor present. It's too bad that most people will take on this book because they have a bad or failing relationship. It would be much better to start with this approach in the beginning. I hope marriage advisors, parents, living together couples, and engaged people will become familiar with this book and recommend it to others. The book is extremely direct. The author makes it clear that you have to first change yourself before you can change you relationship. The book is extremely well structured for easy use both as a book and as a workbook. It is divided into seven steps (define and diagnose where the relationship is now; get rid of your wrong thinking about relationships; find out what you are doing to hurt the relationships; internalize the values needed to build and maintain strong relationships; the necessary format for a strong relationship; and how to reconnect and manage the relationship). Each section is filled with diagnostic questions for you and your partner to use, as well as directions for implementing what you learn. The process involved is a good one. It begins with identifying stalled thinking, works on stallbusting that thinking, and then builds new habits that will work better. The steps are extensive, but you can take them in bite-sized amounts. Before you are done, you will be sharing what you have done with your partner. I have to believe that anyone who was told that their partner had been working on these questions and exercises would be very impressed by the commitment to the relationship that this effort represented. It can help overcome a lot of thoughtlessness that may have preceded that sharing. If your relationship is on the rocks, that idea of reconnecting can be scary. I was impressed to see that the book provides a 14 day program to help you with exercises that help reconnect you emotionally, intellectually, and spiritually. Most counselors would probably not give you this much guidance. You can improve the benefits you will find here by also using the excellent workbook that is sold separately. It contains many more questions and a convenient place to write them down. You can read my review of that as well, if you like. One of the finest things in life is to have a great relationship with other people. This book gives you the necessary background to move in that direction. The rest is up to you, as the author says. Give it a shot! You have a great quality of life to win!
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