Sometimes its best to just say "Bah!" and wave the little peon off to some feel good vegan barbecue or whatever the damnfool does with his time. As it is though, a fine answer.

The fact is that when people write to you, they KNOW what they're getting in return. If they want a feelgood gentle roundabout answer, they can write to dear abby, ann landers, or some other columnist, or pay for therapy if they think they need continuous help. If they write to Miss Alkon, they're going to get an answer that is as subtle as a club to the face, a damn sight more understandable, and for someone ready to heed it, a LOT more helpful.

A look at the writer's record would probably reveal he spent a good deal of time giving sympathy to unhappy people, but providing no real answers on how to address the roots of the problems that made them unhappy in the first place.

I'm glady you said skimmed because after a few lines, I could not read it and only was able to skim. And the sign off really made me laugh. Obviously his experience is writing in his journal in a mental institution because he is not only ridiculously hostile, but his rant goes on and on without making much sense.
I agree with Robert. People know what they get when they write you. And as I've said in the past, I did write you many years ago when I was feeling a little lost and I needed a good kick in the ass. You gave it to me as expected, but there was a kindness and compassion in what you said, not just someone looking to get a quick laugh at my expense.
I wish you would stop saying you are just a humor column because you are so much more than that. At the heart of most of what you say are very big truths that people don't always want to hear and usually they want it wrapped neatly with a pretty little bow. Send those people to Dear Abby who really doesn't dispense anything worthwhile unless you really want to know if you have to eat Aunt Lorna's fruitcake that she sent for Christmas.

The letter reminded me, for the first time in 10+ years, of the letters we used to get in Zurich in the year and a half we were there, from the police for unpaid parking tickets. There was very little parking around the university, DH and loads of others parked on the street immediately around it, and they all always got tickets, and they always took their time paying them. Anyway, the letter was full of saber-rattling about how you must pay NOW or there will be a penalty, you are now late and it is unacceptable.......and then it always ended 'mit freundlichen grussen'(grusse??? haven't spoken German in a while...) It always cracked us up.

Being nicey nice doesn't get people to change their behavior. That's why I like Dr. laura so much. She gets on people about THEIR actions and THEIR behavior. She doesn't hold there hand and say, you poor misfortunate misunderstood person, I don't understand how they could mistreat you.

You have to get on people to change their behavior whether it's kids or adults.

Have you ever seen a softy soft supervisor plead with an employee to get to work on time? Maybe the employee humors them for a day or two before reverting back to their former behavior. All the while saying what an idiot the boss is.
Or you get someone that says I'm docking your pay an hour if your late and your fired the third time you come in late case closed. What changes behavior better.

Amy I like your style. Your style will possibly get someone to change, rather than the namby pamby hand holding style taught by our dysfunctional, ineffective and politically correct schools we have today.

Thanks - I think so, too.

People's friends can "there-there" them. If that worked, they wouldn't be coming to me.

In fact, people frequently write me saying they know they need to be slapped. Also, I think it's okay to say this -- I've been communicating with Tyler Cowen, who wrote an amazing book I'm just finishing now, Create Your Own Economy: The Path to Prosperity in a Disordered World, and he told me he thinks, from an economist's point of view, that I'm the best advice columnist out there. That pretty much rocked my red world!

...and I couldn't find a single book under his name on Amazon or on Google.

I said to myself as I started to read his e-mail, "this fool hasn't written diddly-squat, because if he had, he wouldn't have written such a childish diatribe in an effort to shame Amy!" Heheheh, whata ma-roooon! o.O

I have written 5 books so far in regards to "Emotional Intelligence.

There's a significant difference between written and published.

It always irks me when people assert claims of authority on the basis of their background in psychotherapy. Psychotherapy has no valid empirical basis. There's no reason to privilege these claims over those of an astrologer, or a plumber for that matter.

What's scary is that most people who practice psychotherapy don't seem to be intelligent enough to recognize the significance of this fact.

He is on Classmates.com! And his appearance on your blog is the sole published credit I can find.
My wife is studying this very issue right now in her Theory Of Nursing class. You will probably be dismayed to learn that this "feelings" hogwash has penetrated some very unlikely places, like a graduate degree nurse practicioner program.

The only problem with denouncing crackpots is...the appearance that the pot is calling the kettle black.

Keep giving 'em hell, Amy!! To echo the sentiments of others here, people that write to you for advice surely know what they are in for and are not looking to be coddled. (If they are, then they need to have their eyes opened for sure!) You are a straight shooter, consistent and fair, not to mention witty and entertaining as hell. You obviously have realized your calling, much to your fans' enjoyment...you do people a service, actually, by cutting through the soft, feel-good BS and telling it like it is. Rock on!

One wonders what Dr. Phil would make of Tim Gega. I doubt it would be flattering, but would make for great TV!!!

"You're either the 'problem' or are part of the cure."

Nice and thuggishly totalitarian-sounding, don't you think?

Hmm. Notice also that this person has not appeared in any news reports about lives saved, etc.

Dude (?) - get a life. Or use your regular handle, i-holier-than-something.

And Have A Nice Day!

Wow, now I know had bad people feel after reading what I write after going on, and on, and on...

Amy, you're quite popular for the very reason he criticizes you; "sledgehammer rhetoric."

This world needs far less of the "babying" that's shamelessly and endlessly pandered to the offenders of the senses, and more of the hard truth with perhaps even better, "jackhammer rhetoric?"

He mentions suicide and homicide with the inference (I presume) that your words may or have caused one or both.

That's interesting, because in his rant (er definition) he states in part

"8) "...any person who claims to have a certain wisdom but can show no proof of such higher knowledge:"

Really? With that said, I'm left wondering how he defines "hypocrite." Does he do so using "mirror" or "me?"

For a supposed expert he sure doesn't practice what he preaches...

"I wish you would stop saying you are just a humor column because you are so much more than that. At the heart of most of what you say are very big truths that people don't always want to hear and usually they want it wrapped neatly with a pretty little bow." -Posted by: Kristen at September 14, 2009 5:11 AM

Not sure how I missed that earlier Kristen, but an incredibly important and equally good point.

You may utilize humor to make your points Amy, but IMHO, that doesn't make this a "humor column."

I'll agree to it being humorous at times, however your points are usually very serious.

Writing a column using humor to drive a serious point home is far different that writing a humorous column.

Often times I do find myself laughing not at what you've said, but at how you said it. This, because in many cases what's being said is no laughing matter.

Actually, Amy, the fact that you exercise your tongue from behind a computer screen while using such invective makes you come across more as a coward than anything else.

It would be interesting to see how you talk in real life. I suspect your bravado is non-existent, or collapses at the first sign of someone who isn't going to stand for it.