Radar got a hold of a snippet of a phone conversation between Dina and Michael Lohan that took place in September of 2008. In it, Dina is talking about how she’s tried to get Lindsay into rehab but Lindsay absolutely refused. In fact Dina says Lindsay punched her in the face and kicked her out of the car. While at first I found that shocking, now that I think about it, it fits. We know Lindsay goes into hysterical rages, we’ve seen it with her fights with Samantha Ronson. We know she absolutely doesn’t think she has a problem. And I know most addicts think that way, but somehow Lindsay seems worse about it to me. Maybe because she’s so public.

Dina seems upset in the conversation but not overly-so. It sounds very truthful. Dina’s gotten a lot of crap for the way she over-protects and defends Lindsay. It’s good to hear that just because she does that publicly and doesn’t disclose negative and private things about her daughter like ex-husband Michael does, that doesn’t mean she really believes Lindsay is fine.

In an explosive recorded audio conversation obtained exclusively by RadarOnline.com, Dina Lohan reveals her anguish over a failed attempt to get her daughter Lindsay Lohan into rehab and what she calls the “mess” that resulted from trying to give her an intervention.

The taped phone call, made in September of 2008, is between Dina and Lindsay’s dad, Michael Lohan.

“You don’t even know what I’d go through trying to get her into, like, rehab and stuff,” Dina is heard telling Michael. “She’d like, punch me in the face, kick me out of the car…like you don’t know the (expletive) I went through trying to get her an intervention by myself. It was very difficult.”

Dina continues, “She’s really sad and really hurt and really…despondent. I told her not to go to L.A. at 18…she did. I couldn’t leave these other three (Dina’s three other kids with Michael) to go get her and it was, like, a mess.”

[From Radar]

You can listen to the conversation here. There’s an interesting part in the recording that Radar didn’t use in the article where Dina says, “She’s really sad and really hurt and really… despondent, you know? She’s been through a lot Michael, she’s just a little girl. I told her not to go to L.A. at 18…” She’s just a little girl. Lindsay was 22 at the time. But the way she’s acted is very much like a self-centered little kid at times. I almost wonder if Dina meant that Lindsay was emotionally a little girl. But when you hear the recording, Dina has a lot of empathy and sadness in her voice when she says that, which makes me think she feels badly for Lindsay. Which isn’t really any help, because Dina’s made so many excuses for her.

I cannot imagine how those confrontations with her mother – literally punching her in the face – wouldn’t make Lindsay realize she’s out of control. Even if she were under the influence of something, wouldn’t she be incredibly upset with herself the first moment she was just a teensy-weensy sober? Maybe that’s part of why she’s escalated since this phone call over a year ago. Must avoid all negative emotions.

This is the only time I’ve ever had a little sympathy for Dina Lohan. I don’t think she’s anything less than a horrible parent. But, it is good to hear that she realizes Lindsay has huge problems. Just because she doesn’t release super private information about her child like Michael does doesn’t mean she thinks Lindsay is fine. It means she’s appropriately keeping private things private. Still, I do think they’re going to have to go the Jamie Spears route, and take control of Lindsay legally. The problem with that is they still can’t force her to be successful in rehab, since Lindsay has to want that for herself. But maybe they can at least keep her alive until she gets to that place.