Psychiatry: An Industry of Death
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Psychiatry: An Industry of Death is a museum in Hollywood, California. It is owned and operated by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, an anti-psychiatry organization founded by the Church of Scientology.
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The opening event on December 21, 2005 was attended by Scientologist celebrities such as Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley, Jenna Elfman, Danny Masterson, Giovanni Ribisi, Leah Remini, Catherine Bell and Anne Archer. [1]
The museum is dedicated to exposing what it describes as "an industry driven entirely by profit" and provides "practical guidance for lawmakers, doctors, human rights advocates and private citizens to take action in their own sphere to bring psychiatry under the law." [2]. It has a variety of displays and exhibits making controversial allegations such as that:
- Psychiatrists follow a long-standing "master plan" for world domination.
- Adolf Hitler had a central role in this plan ("no man in history has been more prominent in the psychiatric dream of world domination...").
- Psychiatry is to blame for the deaths of Ernest Hemingway, Del Shannon, Billie Holiday, Kurt Cobain, Spalding Gray, and many others.
- Seventeen million children worldwide are taking psychiatric drugs that cause suicide, hostility, violence and addiction.
- Psychiatrists kill up to 10,000 people a year with electroconvulsive therapy.
- Between 10 and 25 percent of psychiatrists sexually assault their patients, some of them children.[3]
- Psychiatrists are responsible for creating suicide bombers and were behind the September 11, 2001 attacks ("Suicide bombers are ... assassins manufactured through drugs and psycho-political methods. Careful psychiatric indoctrination and treatment can make the most barbaric act rational.") [4]
[edit] Criticism
The museum has been criticized for its highly slanted approach towards its subject matter. Reporter Andrew Gumbel, who covered the museum's gala opening for Los Angeles CityBeat magazine, described how CCHR publicist Marla Filidei attempted to engage him in a debate about the evils of psychiatry:[4]
I told her I wasn't a scientist and had no interest in getting into a detailed argument about the benefits or dangers of mood-altering drugs; on the other hand, she wasn't a scientist either, and the Church of Scientology had absolutely no standing to pronounce on medical issues. That clearly riled her, because by the time I got home there was an e-mail waiting in which she called our meeting "the most bizarre encounter I have had with a reporter in 10 years" and essentially berated me for refusing to engage in an argument she was clearly itching to have. ... The crudeness of the anti-psychiatric argument is tinged with a distinct patina of paranoia. It's not enough for Scientologists to express their near-pathological hatred of psychiatry in all its forms; they also have to feel they are being persecuted for their beliefs.
[edit] DVD
In 2006, a documentary film also called Psychiatry: An Industry of Death was released on DVD by the Church of Scientology. The film is 108 minutes long and is described by the Church in this way:
"Through rare historical and contemporary footage and interviews with more than 160 doctors, attorneys, educators, survivors and experts on the mental health industry and its abuses, this riveting documentary blazes the bright light of truth on the brutal pseudoscience and the multi-billion dollar fraud that is psychiatry." [1]
[edit] Exhibits at Worldcon 2006
The museum had a large display area at the 2006 World Science Fiction Convention held in Anaheim, California, at which it presented a variety of exhibits on CCHR's controversial views on psychiatry. The following images highlight some of the exhibits.
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[edit] References
- ^ Walls, Jeannette. "Getting hitched hasn't mellowed Elton John - Gossip: The Scoop - MSNBC.com", MSNBC, 2005-12-22. Retrieved on 2006-06-08.
- ^ "Museum Targets Psychiatry As An “Industry Of Death”", CCHR press release, December 21, 2005
- ^ Vargas, Sibila. "Showbiz Tonight", CNN, 2005-12-20. Retrieved on 2006-06-08.
- ^ a b Gumbel, Andrew. "Scientology vs. Science", Los Angeles CityBeat, Southland Publishing, 2006-01-12. Retrieved on 2006-06-08.
