Dr Phil Accused of Brainwashing, Indecent Exposure, Battery

A California woman has filed a lawsuit in a Los Angeles Superior Court alleging that TV personality Dr Phil McGraw on charges of false imprisonment, practicing without a license, indecent exposure, battery, and fraud.

Shirley Rae Dieu, a 56-year-old from Irvine, California, claims in the lawsuit that she was "forced to be in the same room with a completely live naked man while he exposed his entire naked body, genitals and all," People Magazine reports. The allegation refers to an episode she says occured during a therapy session from Dr Phil in 2007. The lawsuit also names two Dr Phil producers and another doctor as defendants.

In her catalog of allegations, Dieu says that she was deprived of sleep and food, groped, and brainwashed by being subjected to "edited tapings depicting her as a different personality than her own."

The woman told the news source, "[Dr Phil] is nothing like what he's like on TV."

According to People Magaize, Dieu filed a malpractice suit against an Orange County hospital in 2002, sued a car dealership in 2007 and filed for bankruptcy in 2008. The plaintiff is acting as her own attorney in the instant case.

McGraw's lawyers declined to comment.