David Viscott Studio City, Los Angeles, CA

Date of Death: 10/18/1996

Dr. David Viscott, a practicing psychiatrist and author who provided diagnoses and ''tough love'' therapy to radio listeners as they cruised the Los Angeles freeways, was found dead in his Studio City home on Monday. He was 58. Dr. Viscott, who had a recent history of heart problems, died of natural causes, apparently a heart attack, the Los Angeles police said.

Radio psychotherapy took off in Southern California in the 1970's, and Dr. Viscott became one of its earliest and most enduring practitioners. His radio program, ''Talk With Dr. Viscott,'' went on the air in Los Angeles in 1980 and was heard nationally in syndication for a time in the 1990's. He described his approach as affirming love of oneself and others and searching for unadorned truth. He would listen to callers' problems, dispense his diagnosis and then advise them how to straighten out their psyches and their lives. He and peers, like Dr. Toni Grant, gave Los Angeles its reputation as the world's psyche-plumbing capital.

David Steven Viscott was born in Boston on May 24, 1938, the son of a pharmacist. He graduated from Dartmouth College and received his medical degree at Tufts University in 1963. He trained in psychiatry at University Hospital in Boston and began his career as an instructor in psychiatry at Boston University School of Medicine.

An early novel that traced his residency, ''Labyrinth of Silence'' (Norton, 1970), was followed by two autobiographies, ''The Making of a Psychiatrist'' (Arbor, 1973), which was a best seller, and ''Dorchester Boy: Portrait of a Psychiatrist as a Very Young Man'' (Arbor, 1973). His last book was published this year, ''Emotional Resilience: Simple Truths for Dealing with the Unfinished Business of Your Past'' (Random House).

Dr. Viscott's first marriage to Judith Ann Finn ended in divorce. He was separated from his second wife, Katherine Random. He had four children.

Published in the New York Times