| Citizens Commission On Human Rights |
Article Index for Citizens |
Website Links For Citizens |
Information AboutCitizens Commission On Human Rights |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT CITIZENS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS | |
| scientology organizations | |
| anti-psychiatry | |
| organizations in los angeles | |
|
CCHR'S VIEWS ON PSYCHIATRY in Hollywood , California.]] CCHR's views on psychiatry are a straightforward reflection of the position put forward by , could not be arraigned and convicted of extortion, Mayhem and Murder . Our files are full of evidence on them."1 CCHR follows this line very closely, for instance describing psychiatrists and psychologists as "Professional Rapists, Perverts and Pedophiles" http://www.psychcrime.com. It has developed '' Psych Crime/ report psych crime '', a database of criminal convictions of people working in the mental health sector (psychiatrists, psychologists, counselors, mental health executives, social workers, clerks and aides) to which it invites members of the public to contribute. Although CCHR states its purpose publicly as being "to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights and to clean up the field of mental healing," in its own fund-raising publications — issued primarily to Scientologists — it espouses a goal of eliminating psychiatry altogether and invites contributors to sign up to that goal: "Be part of the team that is taking out psychiatry!"CCHR mailer 7 December 1993, signed Don Gershbock; cited in Jacobsen, " CCHR - Human Rights Organization Attacks Its "Enemies" " ; "The time to put an end to psychiatry and it's criminal practices is NOW!"CCHR mailer, copyright 1998; citation ''ibid''; "Get rid of the psychs! That is just what CCHR is doing."CCHR mailer, "Stop Psych Experiments on schoolchildren!", copyright 1997; citation ''ibid'' The official Scientology FAQ reads, "psychiatric theories that man is a mere animal have been used to rationalize, for example, the wholesale slaughter of human beings in World Wars I and II."http://faq.scientology.org/psychtry.htm CCHR'S ACTIVITIES CCHR has organized media campaigns against various psychiatrists, psychiatric organizations and pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly , the manufacturer of Prozac . Its campaign is said to have caused a major fall in sales of Prozac, causing great commercial damage to the company.Thomas M. Burton, "Anti-Depression Drug Of Eli Lilly Loses Sales After Attack by Sect', ''Wall Street Journal'', April 19 , 1991, p. A1. The group has campaigned against the use of , 2005 CCHR has published an extensive report of its activities, with references to sources of government issued reports such as FDA Public Health Advisory (an FDA website).http://www.cchr.org/files/8011/drug_report.pdf CCHR's aggressive stance has provoked controversy. In 1988 the group alleged that Professor Sir Martin Roth of Newcastle University had used LSD in tests on mental patients in the 1960s. The statements were publicised in the ''Newcastle Times'' newspaper, which was ordered by an English court to pay "very substantial" Libel damages to Roth after the court found that CCHR's claims were "highly defamatory" and "utterly false.""Prof's libel victory over LSD claims," ''Northern Echo'', 22 June , 1990. For their part, psychiatrists and psychologists have responded dismissively to CCHR's allegations. Some commentators have noted similarities between CCHR's campaigns against psychiatry and other religiously-motivated organisations' campaigns against scientific aspects of Birth Control and Evolution , amongst other topics. "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death" museum See Also: Psychiatry: An Industry of Death In December 2005, CCHR opened the , 2005 .The opening event on December 17 2005 was attended by well-known Scientologists, including Priscilla Presley, Lisa Marie Presley, Jenna Elfman, Danny Masterson, Giovanni Ribisi, Leah Remini, Catherine Bell, and Anne Archer.[2 Chelmsford Hospital and DST From 1988 to 1990 the Australia n government held the Chelmsford Royal Commission inquiry into Deep Sleep Therapy (DST). For a decade prior, the CCHR had been pushing for an investigation of the Chelmsford Private Hospital in New South Wales, and its head, Dr. Harry Bailey, who had been practicing DST from 1963 to 1979.http://www.scientology.org/reform/new/5chelms.htm The CCHR's website quotes Honorable Justice J. P. Slattery , Royal Commissioner, as stating that the CCHR "contributed considerably to advance the cause of the Chelmsford patients in their campaign for an open inquiry into the hospital." http://www.cchr.org/index.cfm/7174 Chelmsford Hospital was forced to close in 1990, and two of its psychiatric staff were brought on charges in 1992. Dr. Bailey himself stepped down in 1979 due to the CCHR's protest campaign, and committed suicide by drug overdose in 1985, the night before he was subpoenaed to appear in court.http://www.scientology-europe.org/en_US/pub/human-rights/pg008.html His suicide note read, in part: "Let it be known that the Scientologists and the forces of madness have won."''The Melbourne Age'', April 22 1991 . {Link without Title} Riverside Community Care On October 5 2006 , National Mental Health Screening Day, the CCHR picketed outside of Riverside Community Care in Wakefield , Massachusetts , holding a protest rally against Mental Health Screening . According to journalist Gary Band in the ''Wakefield Observer'', "The protest fell somewhat flat because Riverside has not conducted these screenings since 2001."http://www.townonline.com/wakefield/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=591117 CCHR AND SCIENTOLOGY A persistently controversial aspect of CCHR is the question of its relationship with Scientology. For its part, CCHR states that it is "an independent organization compris[ing members of the Church of Scientology and many other people of various denominations, faiths and cultural beliefs,"2 and the Church of Scientology International acknowledges sponsoring CCHR.3 Although it is incorporated separately, it is regarded by the 1993 CCHR's relationship with the Church of Scientology is mediated through the Church's Office Of Special Affairs (OSA)Stephen A. Kent, "The Globalization of Scientology: Influence, Control and Opposition in Transnational Markets," ''Religion'', v. 29, n. 2, April 1999, p.147-169. Critics of Scientology have charged that CCHR is merely a "front group" for the Churchhttp://www.holysmoke.org/cos/cult-front-groups-latest.htm and have pointed to internal Church documents that appear to describe CCHR's campaigns as a means of extending the influence of the Church of Scientology. Until recent years, a number of CCHR offices were listed at Church of Scientology Org locations.4 In one example, a leaked document "One Man Britain Can Do Without" , The People, March 20 1966 outlining a training course for the job of President of the Church of Scientology International requires the trainee to demonstrate "How a PR Campaign Exposing the Psychiatric Drugging of School Children in a Community or Country Would Build a Pro Area Control for the Church of Scientology"http://www.xenu.net/archive/go/osahist.htm. An internal training course from the Office of Special Affairs reportedly requires the trainee to undertake exercises such as devising a "campaign that you can actually execute from your hat to help cut off the funding to psychiatrists in your area."[http://www.gerryarmstrong.org/50grand/cult/osa-int-ed-508r.html "INVESTIGATIONS OFFICER FULL HAT CHECKSHEET" , OFFICE OF SPECIAL AFFAIRS INTERNATIONAL, 1970 RELATIONSHIP WITH SECULAR CRITICS Survivors group See Also: Mind Freedom International Mind Freedom, an international coalition of thousands of individual members in several nations, is an organization that identifies itself as rooted in the Psychiatric Survivors Movement and fights against what it asserts are human rights violations in the mental health system. The organization states in its website: Dr. Peter Breggin See Also: Peter Breggin Psychiatrist Peter Breggin worked with CCHR from 1972 until 1974. Breggin dissociated himself from the organization in 1974, having "found myself opposed to Scientology's values, agenda, and tactics." In 1994 Breggin said that Eli Lilly (maker of the Antidepressant Prozac ) had tried to discredit him and his book ''Talking Back to Prozac'' by improperly linking him to the Church of Scientology and labeling his views as "Neo-Scientology."5 In response to what he said were "smear tactics" by Eli Lilly, Breggin said: Breggin later clarified that on certain points he was still in agreement with some of CCHR's antipsychiatric views, making a point of thanking and supporting Tom Cruise following Cruise's panning of psychiatry on national television: said. In fact, I'd go further. Modern Biological Psychiatry is a materialistic religion masquerading as a science.6}} Other secular antipsychiatrists See Also: Anti-psychiatry The socio-political roots of the movements also differ. Classic anti-psychiatrists such as David Cooper , Ronald Laing and Michel Foucault had ties with the Political Left of the 1960s; Thomas Szasz, with the Civil Libertarian s of the right. On the other hand, Scientology started as a mixture of Freud's Abreaction therapy, science fiction, Buddhist ideas, and Aleister Crowley 's magic.10 REFERENCES SEE ALSO EXTERNAL LINKS |
|
|