Citizens Commission on Human Rights
Encyclopedia
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is an advocacy group established in 1969 by the Church of Scientology
and psychiatrist Thomas Szasz
. The group promotes several video campaigns which support views against psychiatry
. The organization holds that mental illness
is not a medical disease, and that the use of psychiatric medication
is a destructive and fraudulent practice. The CCHR continues to be entirely controlled by and subject to policy directives issued from the Church of Scientology. The group is headquartered in Los Angeles
, California
.
, the founder of Scientology
, whose writings express very strong opinions against psychiatry. CCHR advocates that there is no biological evidence to support psychiatric theories of mental disorders.
The CCHR achieved an early victory in a 1969 Pennsylvania
case involving Victor Győry, a Hungarian refugee who had been committed to a psychiatric hospital against his will
in April of that year. The police officers committing Győry said he had tried to kill himself. Doctors at Haverford State Hospital
, failing to realise that Győry spoke very little English and was trying to address them in Hungarian
, judged him "incoherent" and diagnosed him as a paranoid schizophrenic. The hospital refused Győry's request for legal representation, and administered drugs and electroshock treatment to him against his will over a three-month period. An aide at the hospital eventually notified the CCHR, who, under an initiative led by Szasz and lawyer John Joseph Matonis, took the case to court and secured Győry's release.
The CCHR continued to lobby for legislative reform on mental health issues such as the keeping of detailed computer records on involuntarily committed patients and their families, and "drug experimentation" without patients' consent. The CCHR would typically request a tour of a psychiatric hospital, issue a public report based on patient testimony and other sources, and then push for legal investigations and reform. Its early focus was on involuntary commitment procedures.
Since then, the group has organized media campaigns against various psychiatrists, psychiatric organizations and pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly
, the manufacturer of Prozac. One campaign is said to have caused a major fall in sales of Prozac, causing considerable commercial damage to the company.
The group campaigned against the use of Ritalin for the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
, a disorder which the organization dismisses as nonexistent. The campaign was part of the Ritalin class action lawsuits
against Novartis
(the manufacturer of Ritalin), CHADD, and the American Psychiatric Association
(APA); all five lawsuits were dismissed in 2002.
In 2003, the CCHR presented a report with the title "The Silent Death of America's Children" to the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health
, with case histories of several dozen under-aged psychiatric patients who had died as a result of psychotropic drug treatment and restraint measures in the 1990s and early 2000s.
In 2004, the CCHR sponsored a bill requiring doctors to provide patients with information about a medication's side effects before prescribing any psychotropic drugs, while also mandating a legal guardian's signature. Opponents of the bill argued that these additional procedures might discriminate against mentally-ill patients while delaying treatment. The bill attracted widespread disagreement from the medical establishment, including the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health
, who opposed it on the grounds that it compromised informed consent
. The Massachusetts Psychiatric Society also opposed the bill, believing that it would interfere with the doctor-patient relationship.
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."
on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California
. The museum has displays alleging psychiatry's long-standing "master plan" for world domination
, Adolf Hitler
's central role in the plan, and in the words of reporter Andrew Gumbel, "a display holding psychiatry to blame for the deaths of Ernest Hemingway
, Del Shannon
, Billie Holiday
, and Kurt Cobain
..."
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.
Honorable Justice John (J. P.) Slattery, Royal Commissioner, is quoted 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." The inquiry discovered that deep sleep therapy had killed 24 patients, not counting patients who had killed themselves, and close to a thousand had suffered brain damage. Of the former patients, 152 received reparations from a fund totaling in excess of 5 million dollars.
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. His suicide note read, in part: "Let it be known that the Scientologists and the forces of madness have won."
granted CCHR tax exemption
as part of an agreement with the Church of Scientology International
and Religious Technology Center
(RTC) under which the RTC took responsibility for CCHR's tax liabilities.
CCHR's relationship with the Church of Scientology is mediated through the church's Office of Special Affairs
(OSA). Critics of Scientology have charged that CCHR is merely a front group for the church 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.
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."
The group has implied that the September 11 attacks were influenced by psychiatrists. Hubbard claimed psychiatrists caused decline in the universe eons ago.
Jan Eastgate, President of the CCHR and winner of the Church of Scientology
Freedom Medal for her work on human rights, has been implicated in covering up the sexual abuse of an 11-year-old girl in the Australian branch of the church. Eastgate was head of the Australian CCHR at the time and the girl was abused by her Scientologist stepfather between the ages of 8 and 11 years. Eastgate, who denied the allegations, labelling them "egregiously false", was arrested on 30 March 2011 on charges of perverting the course of justice
but later released on conditional bail.
has served as a medical expert for the CCHR. Although psychiatrist Peter Breggin
worked with CCHR from 1972, he later dissociated himself from the organization in 1974 as a result of his disagreements with actions taken by the Church of Scientology.
Marie L. Thompson, writing in the 2006 book Mental Illness, commented that the CCHR has been a "highly effective activist organisation", which by 2005 was represented by 133 chapters in 34 countries.
The first interview is with Claudia Keyworth, who has studied Bio-Energetic medicine, and believes that healing is best accomplished using the "energy field of the human body". On the topic of mental illness, she asserts: "they say you have a chemical imbalance of serotonin and dopamine, but there's never been a study to prove that, ever." In fact, a great deal of research suggests that the prevailing view among experts is correct, and that chemical imbalances do indeed play a role in various mental disorders (see also Biology of depression
, and Causes of mental disorders
).
The film claims that psychiatrists have convinced the public that normal, negative human experiences are mental illnesses. A case in point, the narrator asserts that psychiatrists seek to label typical shyness as a "social anxiety disorder
". This case, however, is currently disputed by mainstream medicine, in which Social anxiety
itself is accepted as coming in varying degrees, and often at relatively low levels (i.e. typical shyness). One is diagnosed with a social anxiety disorder only at more debilitating levels, where there is an "intense fear in social situations". In other words, unlike a shy individual, a person diagnosed with social anxiety disorder is likely to suffer from any number of symptoms such as nausea
, stammering, panic attacks and more.
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...
and psychiatrist Thomas Szasz
Thomas Szasz
Thomas Stephen Szasz is a psychiatrist and academic. Since 1990 he has been Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York. He is a well-known social critic of the moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry, and of the social...
. The group promotes several video campaigns which support views against psychiatry
Psychiatry
Psychiatry is the medical specialty devoted to the study and treatment of mental disorders. These mental disorders include various affective, behavioural, cognitive and perceptual abnormalities...
. The organization holds that mental illness
Mental illness
A mental disorder or mental illness is a psychological or behavioral pattern generally associated with subjective distress or disability that occurs in an individual, and which is not a part of normal development or culture. Such a disorder may consist of a combination of affective, behavioural,...
is not a medical disease, and that the use of psychiatric medication
Psychiatric medication
A psychiatric medication is a licensed psychoactive drug taken to exert an effect on the mental state and used to treat mental disorders. Usually prescribed in psychiatric settings, these medications are typically made of synthetic chemical compounds, although some are naturally occurring, or at...
is a destructive and fraudulent practice. The CCHR continues to be entirely controlled by and subject to policy directives issued from the Church of Scientology. The group is headquartered in Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
.
Views of psychiatry
CCHR's views on psychiatry are a reflection of the position held by L. Ron HubbardL. Ron Hubbard
Lafayette Ronald Hubbard , better known as L. Ron Hubbard , was an American pulp fiction author and religious leader who founded the Church of Scientology...
, the founder of Scientology
Scientology
Scientology is a body of beliefs and related practices created by science fiction and fantasy author L. Ron Hubbard , starting in 1952, as a successor to his earlier self-help system, Dianetics...
, whose writings express very strong opinions against psychiatry. CCHR advocates that there is no biological evidence to support psychiatric theories of mental disorders.
Efforts for psychiatric reform
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
case involving Victor Győry, a Hungarian refugee who had been committed to a psychiatric hospital against his will
Involuntary commitment
Involuntary commitment or civil commitment is a legal process through which an individual with symptoms of severe mental illness is court-ordered into treatment in a hospital or in the community ....
in April of that year. The police officers committing Győry said he had tried to kill himself. Doctors at Haverford State Hospital
Haverford State Hospital
The Haverford State Hospital was an abandoned mental hospital outside of Philadelphia. Its extensive former grounds occupy the northern sections of Delaware County west of the city of Philadelphia, in Haverford Township....
, failing to realise that Győry spoke very little English and was trying to address them in Hungarian
Hungarian language
Hungarian is a Uralic language, part of the Ugric group. With some 14 million speakers, it is one of the most widely spoken non-Indo-European languages in Europe....
, judged him "incoherent" and diagnosed him as a paranoid schizophrenic. The hospital refused Győry's request for legal representation, and administered drugs and electroshock treatment to him against his will over a three-month period. An aide at the hospital eventually notified the CCHR, who, under an initiative led by Szasz and lawyer John Joseph Matonis, took the case to court and secured Győry's release.
The CCHR continued to lobby for legislative reform on mental health issues such as the keeping of detailed computer records on involuntarily committed patients and their families, and "drug experimentation" without patients' consent. The CCHR would typically request a tour of a psychiatric hospital, issue a public report based on patient testimony and other sources, and then push for legal investigations and reform. Its early focus was on involuntary commitment procedures.
Since then, the group has organized media campaigns against various psychiatrists, psychiatric organizations and pharmaceutical companies, including Eli Lilly
Eli Lilly and Company
Eli Lilly and Company is a global pharmaceutical company. Eli Lilly's global headquarters is located in Indianapolis, Indiana, in the United States...
, the manufacturer of Prozac. One campaign is said to have caused a major fall in sales of Prozac, causing considerable commercial damage to the company.
The group campaigned against the use of Ritalin for the treatment of attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
Attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder
Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder is a developmental disorder. It is primarily characterized by "the co-existence of attentional problems and hyperactivity, with each behavior occurring infrequently alone" and symptoms starting before seven years of age.ADHD is the most commonly studied and...
, a disorder which the organization dismisses as nonexistent. The campaign was part of the Ritalin class action lawsuits
Ritalin class action lawsuits
The Ritalin Class action lawsuits were a series of federal lawsuits in 2000, filed in five separate U.S. states. All five lawsuits were dismissed by the end of 2002. The lawsuits alleged that the makers of Methylphenidate and the American Psychiatric Association had conspired to invent and promote...
against Novartis
Novartis
Novartis International AG is a multinational pharmaceutical company based in Basel, Switzerland, ranking number three in sales among the world-wide industry...
(the manufacturer of Ritalin), CHADD, and the American Psychiatric Association
American Psychiatric Association
The American Psychiatric Association is the main professional organization of psychiatrists and trainee psychiatrists in the United States, and the most influential worldwide. Its some 38,000 members are mainly American but some are international...
(APA); all five lawsuits were dismissed in 2002.
In 2003, the CCHR presented a report with the title "The Silent Death of America's Children" to the New Freedom Commission on Mental Health
New Freedom Commission on Mental Health
The controversial New Freedom Commission on Mental Health was established by U.S. President George W. Bush in April 2002 to conduct a comprehensive study of the U.S. mental health service delivery system and make recommendations based on its findings...
, with case histories of several dozen under-aged psychiatric patients who had died as a result of psychotropic drug treatment and restraint measures in the 1990s and early 2000s.
In 2004, the CCHR sponsored a bill requiring doctors to provide patients with information about a medication's side effects before prescribing any psychotropic drugs, while also mandating a legal guardian's signature. Opponents of the bill argued that these additional procedures might discriminate against mentally-ill patients while delaying treatment. The bill attracted widespread disagreement from the medical establishment, including the Massachusetts Department of Mental Health
Massachusetts Department of Mental Health
The Massachusetts Department of Mental Health is a state agency of Massachusetts, providing mental health services. It has its headquarters in Boston.-External links:*...
, who opposed it on the grounds that it compromised informed consent
Informed consent
Informed consent is a phrase often used in law to indicate that the consent a person gives meets certain minimum standards. As a literal matter, in the absence of fraud, it is redundant. An informed consent can be said to have been given based upon a clear appreciation and understanding of the...
. The Massachusetts Psychiatric Society also opposed the bill, believing that it would interfere with the doctor-patient relationship.
On October 5, 2006, National Mental Health Screening Day, the CCHR picketed outside of Riverside Community Care in Wakefield
Wakefield, Massachusetts
-History:-Geography:The diagram above shows what is to the east, west, north, south, and other directions of the center of Wakefield. Towns with population above 25,000 are in bold italics.-Demographics:-Notable residents:...
, Massachusetts
Massachusetts
The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is a state in the New England region of the northeastern United States of America. It is bordered by Rhode Island and Connecticut to the south, New York to the west, and Vermont and New Hampshire to the north; at its east lies the Atlantic Ocean. As of the 2010...
, holding a protest rally against mental health screening
New Freedom Commission on Mental Health
The controversial New Freedom Commission on Mental Health was established by U.S. President George W. Bush in April 2002 to conduct a comprehensive study of the U.S. mental health service delivery system and make recommendations based on its findings...
. According to journalist Gary Band in the Wakefield Observer, "The protest fell somewhat flat because Riverside has not conducted these screenings since 2001."
"Psychiatry: An Industry of Death" museum
In December 2005, CCHR opened the "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death" MuseumPsychiatry: An Industry of Death
Psychiatry: An Industry of Death is a museum in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA, as well as several touring exhibitions. It is owned and operated by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights , an anti-psychiatry organization founded by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist Thomas Szasz...
on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, California
California
California is a state located on the West Coast of the United States. It is by far the most populous U.S. state, and the third-largest by land area...
. The museum has displays alleging psychiatry's long-standing "master plan" for world domination
Hegemony
Hegemony is an indirect form of imperial dominance in which the hegemon rules sub-ordinate states by the implied means of power rather than direct military force. In Ancient Greece , hegemony denoted the politico–military dominance of a city-state over other city-states...
, Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler
Adolf Hitler was an Austrian-born German politician and the leader of the National Socialist German Workers Party , commonly referred to as the Nazi Party). He was Chancellor of Germany from 1933 to 1945, and head of state from 1934 to 1945...
's central role in the plan, and in the words of reporter Andrew Gumbel, "a display holding psychiatry to blame for the deaths of Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Hemingway
Ernest Miller Hemingway was an American author and journalist. His economic and understated style had a strong influence on 20th-century fiction, while his life of adventure and his public image influenced later generations. Hemingway produced most of his work between the mid-1920s and the...
, Del Shannon
Del Shannon
Del Shannon was an American rock and roll singer-songwriter who had a No. 1 hit, "Runaway", in 1961.- Biography :...
, Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday was an American jazz singer and songwriter. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and musical partner Lester Young, Holiday had a seminal influence on jazz and pop singing...
, and Kurt Cobain
Kurt Cobain
Kurt Donald Cobain was an American singer-songwriter, musician and artist, best known as the lead singer and guitarist of the grunge band Nirvana...
..."
Chelmsford Hospital and DST
From 1988 to 1990 the Australian government held the Chelmsford royal commissionChelmsford royal commission
The Chelmsford Royal Commission , chaired by Justice John Patrick Slattery, was established by the New South Wales state government to investigate "Mental Health Services" in NSW. It came about only after prominent Sydney radio and TV shows pressured the newly-elected Health Minister to make good...
inquiry into Deep Sleep Therapy
Deep Sleep Therapy
Deep sleep therapy , also called prolonged sleep treatment or continuous narcosis, is a psychiatric treatment based on the use of psychiatric drugs to render patients unconscious for a period of days or weeks.-History:...
(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
Harry Bailey
Harry Richard Bailey was a controversial Australian psychiatrist. He bore the primary responsibility for treatment of mental patients via Sledge hammers, and other methods, at a Sydney mental hospital. He has been linked with the deaths of a total of 85 patients...
, who had been practicing DST from 1963 to 1979.
Honorable Justice John (J. P.) Slattery, Royal Commissioner, is quoted 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." The inquiry discovered that deep sleep therapy had killed 24 patients, not counting patients who had killed themselves, and close to a thousand had suffered brain damage. Of the former patients, 152 received reparations from a fund totaling in excess of 5 million dollars.
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. His suicide note read, in part: "Let it be known that the Scientologists and the forces of madness have won."
Relationship with Scientology
The organization is sponsored by the Church of Scientology, In 1993, the US Internal Revenue ServiceInternal Revenue Service
The Internal Revenue Service is the revenue service of the United States federal government. The agency is a bureau of the Department of the Treasury, and is under the immediate direction of the Commissioner of Internal Revenue...
granted CCHR tax exemption
Tax exemption
Various tax systems grant a tax exemption to certain organizations, persons, income, property or other items taxable under the system. Tax exemption may also refer to a personal allowance or specific monetary exemption which may be claimed by an individual to reduce taxable income under some...
as part of an agreement with the Church of Scientology International
Church of Scientology International
The Church of Scientology International, Inc. is a Californian 501 non-profit corporation. Within the worldwide network of Scientology corporations and entities, CSI is officially referred to as the "mother church" of the Church of Scientology....
and Religious Technology Center
Religious Technology Center
The Religious Technology Center is a Californian non-profit corporation. RTC was founded in 1982 by the Church of Scientology in order to control and oversee the use of all of the trademarks, symbols and texts of Scientology and Dianetics, including the copyrighted works of Scientology founder and...
(RTC) under which the RTC took responsibility for CCHR's tax liabilities.
CCHR's relationship with the Church of Scientology is mediated through the church's Office of Special Affairs
Office of Special Affairs
The Office of Special Affairs or OSA is a department of the Church of Scientology. According to the Church, the OSA is responsible for directing legal affairs, public relations, pursuing investigations, publicizing the Church's "social betterment works," and "oversee[ing its] social reform programs"...
(OSA). Critics of Scientology have charged that CCHR is merely a front group for the church 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.
Controversy
In 1988, the CCHR claimed that Professor Sir Martin RothMartin Roth
Professor Sir Martin Roth FRS was a British psychiatrist.He was Professor of Psychiatry, University of Cambridge, 1977–85, then Professor Emeritus, and was a Fellow of Trinity College, Cambridge from 1977. He was one of the pioneers in developing Psychogeriatrics as a subspecialty.-References:...
of Newcastle University
University of Newcastle upon Tyne
Newcastle University is a major research-intensive university located in Newcastle upon Tyne in the north-east of England. It was established as a School of Medicine and Surgery in 1834 and became the University of Newcastle upon Tyne by an Act of Parliament in August 1963. Newcastle University is...
had used LSD
LSD
Lysergic acid diethylamide, abbreviated LSD or LSD-25, also known as lysergide and colloquially as acid, is a semisynthetic psychedelic drug of the ergoline family, well known for its psychological effects which can include altered thinking processes, closed and open eye visuals, synaesthesia, an...
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."
The group has implied that the September 11 attacks were influenced by psychiatrists. Hubbard claimed psychiatrists caused decline in the universe eons ago.
Jan Eastgate, President of the CCHR and winner of the Church of Scientology
Church of Scientology
The Church of Scientology is an organization devoted to the practice and the promotion of the Scientology belief system. The Church of Scientology International is the Church of Scientology's parent organization, and is responsible for the overall ecclesiastical management, dissemination and...
Freedom Medal for her work on human rights, has been implicated in covering up the sexual abuse of an 11-year-old girl in the Australian branch of the church. Eastgate was head of the Australian CCHR at the time and the girl was abused by her Scientologist stepfather between the ages of 8 and 11 years. Eastgate, who denied the allegations, labelling them "egregiously false", was arrested on 30 March 2011 on charges of perverting the course of justice
Perverting the course of justice
Perverting the course of justice, in English, Canadian , and Irish law, is a criminal offence in which someone prevents justice from being served on himself or on another party...
but later released on conditional bail.
Reception
Retired neurologist Dr. Fred BaughmanFred Baughman
Fred Baughman is best known as an outspoken critic of psychiatry, who claims that attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder is "a fraud perpetrated by the psychiatric and pharmaceutical industries on families anxious to understand their childrens' behavior". Baughman has testified before the...
has served as a medical expert for the CCHR. Although psychiatrist Peter Breggin
Peter Breggin
Peter Roger Breggin is an American psychiatrist and critic of biological psychiatry and psychiatric medication. In his books, he advocates replacing psychiatry's use of drugs and electroconvulsive therapy with humanistic approaches, such as psychotherapy, education, and broader human...
worked with CCHR from 1972, he later dissociated himself from the organization in 1974 as a result of his disagreements with actions taken by the Church of Scientology.
Marie L. Thompson, writing in the 2006 book Mental Illness, commented that the CCHR has been a "highly effective activist organisation", which by 2005 was represented by 133 chapters in 34 countries.
Productions
CCHR have produced a number of documentaries promoting their view of modern psychiatry. These include Making A Killing, Prescription for Violence, The Marketing of Madness, Dead Wrong and Psychiatry: An Industry of Death which was made to accompany the CCHR's museum of the same name.Psychiatry: An Industry of Death
Psychiatry: An Industry of Death is a museum in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA, as well as several touring exhibitions. It is owned and operated by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights , an anti-psychiatry organization founded by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist Thomas Szasz...
The Marketing of Madness: Are We All Insane?
The Marketing of Madness is a documentary that purports to show a hidden, unscientific, profit driven side to the mental health and psychiatry industry. The film may contain inaccurate information.The first interview is with Claudia Keyworth, who has studied Bio-Energetic medicine, and believes that healing is best accomplished using the "energy field of the human body". On the topic of mental illness, she asserts: "they say you have a chemical imbalance of serotonin and dopamine, but there's never been a study to prove that, ever." In fact, a great deal of research suggests that the prevailing view among experts is correct, and that chemical imbalances do indeed play a role in various mental disorders (see also Biology of depression
Biology of depression
Scientific studies have found that numerous brain areas show altered activity in depressed patients. It has not been possible to determine a single cause of depression.-Monoamine hypothesis:...
, and Causes of mental disorders
Causes of mental disorders
The causes of mental disorders are complex, and interact and vary according to the particular disorder and individual. Genetics, early development, drugs, a loss of a family member, disease or injury, neurocognitive and psychological mechanisms, and life experiences, society and culture, can all...
).
The film claims that psychiatrists have convinced the public that normal, negative human experiences are mental illnesses. A case in point, the narrator asserts that psychiatrists seek to label typical shyness as a "social anxiety disorder
Social anxiety disorder
Social anxiety disorder , also known as social phobia, is an anxiety disorder characterized by intense fear in social situations causing considerable distress and impaired ability to function in at least some parts of daily life...
". This case, however, is currently disputed by mainstream medicine, in which Social anxiety
Social anxiety
Social anxiety is anxiety about social situations, interactions with others, and being evaluated or scrutinized by other people...
itself is accepted as coming in varying degrees, and often at relatively low levels (i.e. typical shyness). One is diagnosed with a social anxiety disorder only at more debilitating levels, where there is an "intense fear in social situations". In other words, unlike a shy individual, a person diagnosed with social anxiety disorder is likely to suffer from any number of symptoms such as nausea
Nausea
Nausea , is a sensation of unease and discomfort in the upper stomach with an involuntary urge to vomit. It often, but not always, precedes vomiting...
, stammering, panic attacks and more.
See also
- Chemical imbalanceChemical imbalanceChemical imbalance is one hypothesis about the cause of mental illness. Other causes that are debated include psychological and social causes....
- Scientology and psychiatryScientology and psychiatryScientology and psychiatry have come into conflict since the foundation of Scientology in 1952. Scientology is publicly, and often vehemently, opposed to both psychiatry and psychology. Scientologists view psychiatry as a barbaric and corrupt profession and encourage alternative care based on...
- Psychiatry: An Industry of DeathPsychiatry: An Industry of DeathPsychiatry: An Industry of Death is a museum in Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA, as well as several touring exhibitions. It is owned and operated by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights , an anti-psychiatry organization founded by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist Thomas Szasz...