Britney Unhinged? Psychiatrist Reacts

This is a partial transcript from "The O'Reilly Factor," February 19, 2007, that has been edited for clarity.

BILL O'REILLY, HOST: "Unresolved problem" segment tonight. The Bahamian minister who was involved with Anna Nicole Smith has resigned. Fighting over Ms. Smith's body continues in Florida. And the beat goes on.

And we may be looking at Anna Nicole Smith part two with this Britney Spears. Her bizarre behavior continues. Over the weekend, she shaved her head.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

ESTHER TOGNOZZI, HAIR SALON OWNER: Britney Spears came in and sat in my chair and said I want to shave my hair off. And I said, well, I'm not shaving your hair off.

She grabbed the buzzer. And she went to the back of my salon and she was shaving off her own hair. I think she needs her family. And she wants love. And I think she's crying out for help and attention.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

O'REILLY: Joining us now from our New York studio, Dr. Gail Saltz, professor of psychiatry at the New York Presbyterian Hospital. I was born in that hospital, doctor. So I'm glad to have you on the program here.

GAIL SALTZ, M.D., PSYCHIATRIST: My pleasure to be here.

O'REILLY: What can a parent do? Say Britney Spears’ parents are as concerned as they should be. They can't force her. She's 25-years old. They can't force her to do anything, can they?

SALTZ: No, they can't. And actually, there's no point in trying to force someone into treatment. Somebody can go to treatment. But unless they want treatment and are going to participate in a meaningful way, they're obviously not going to benefit.

That being said, when someone gets to a point where they feel truly in desperate straits, and they're losing important things in their life, that is often what makes them go to treatment and meaningfully participate because they want to alleviate their suffering.

O'REILLY: All right. Now there's always a danger in analyzing anybody on television when you don't know or haven't talked to them.

But clearly, this woman wanted to make a statement in her own confused way by shaving her head. Is there any - you know, when you see something like this, is there anything that we can put upon this specifically?

SALTZ: Well, you're right, without speaking to her, obviously we're conjecturing.

But the conjectures are really a wide range. Anything from, you know, when someone's a child celebrity and they've essentially worked like an adult through their childhood, then things that normally may have occurred during adolescence, rebellion, and the kinds of you know getting tattoos and piercing yourself, etcetera, might have occurred earlier — may get delayed and played out in kind of a pathological way later, especially when there are all these other incredibly stressful things going on, having two children very close together, going through a terrible divorce, and all of it under the spotlight.

So it could be something that I would call more the neurotic range like that, anywhere up to something more serious. Because of course, there has been discussion about whether there is some substance use or abuse going on. That certainly can be dangerous and cloud the picture.

And you have to think with somebody who has an under one-year-old about the possibility of postpartum depression. Again certainly with a terrible divorce going on, the likelihood of that increases ever so.

So you know, it's difficult to say whether this is something that's more about a conflict going on for her and, you know, looking for attention as you point out, looking for love, looking for people who will support her. She may feel very lonely. You know, it's difficult to be a celebrity.

O'REILLY: Yes. Listen, I have no clue about this woman. I haven't followed this woman's career. I don't know much about her. I do know she has a five-month-old son.

SALTZ: Yes.

O'REILLY: And another little boy. She's involved in a custody thing.

SALTZ: Yes.

O'REILLY: The judge has got to be looking at this going, whoa.

SALTZ: Yes. Unfortunately, yes.

O'REILLY: Right, right. So all — it seems that everything this woman is doing is working against the woman. There's nothing that she's doing right now that is helping her.

SALTZ: It does appear to be very self-destructive. And usually, that's the kind of thing where you hope somebody will be able to get through. Or frankly, she'll just be so stunned at some point at the level at which she's being self-destructive, that she would want to get a proper evaluation and a proper kind of treatment.

You know, the other thing, Bill, that I think that is so important if we're going to look at this kind of case, is that there are many little girls out there who look to women like Britney Spears.

O'REILLY: Not any more.

SALTZ: Well, you know what? I’m concerned they’re still looking.

O'REILLY: That audience is gone. But here's why I think it's very important. Because she could wind up dead just like Ms. Smith.

SALTZ: You know, certainly, when someone gets into psychological trouble, certainly if substances are at issue at all, that you would be concerned about that. There's no question.

But that being said, we don't know how severe this is. Certainly you would hope that she would get into some sort of treatment or at least an evaluation to know what’s going on.

O'REILLY: Well, she's got to get out of the public eye. She's got to disappear for six months. That's for sure.

SALTZ: Which is always (INAUDIBLE).

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