Scientology and psychiatry

A group that has antipathy to psychiatry are adherents of the scientology movement (Berlim, Fleck & Shorter, 2003; Mieszkowski, 2009). Scientology was founded as a religion in 1954 in Los Angeles (Clarke, 2006; Lewis, 2009; Shorter, 1997) by the former science fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard (1911-1986) (Gardner, 1957; McCall, 2007; Passas & Castillo, 1992), and claims to have over seven million adherents (Atack, 1990). 

L. Ron Hubbard

One of the main tenets of this belief system is that human beings are really immortal spiritual beings (thetans, who reincarnate and have lived on other planets before coming to Earth (Atack, 1990; Beit-Hallahmi, 1998; Clarke, 2006; McCall, 2007; Passas & Castillo, 1992) who have forgotten their true nature. In order to become aware of this “fact”, believers have to undergo a type of counseling known as auditing (Gardner, 1957; Lewis, 2009; McCall, 2007), in which they aim to consciously re-experience painful or traumatic events from their past, in order to free themselves of their limiting effects (Clarke, 2006). This can only be achieved by the donation of specified amounts of money to the church, and for this reason Scientology is often criticized as a cult that financially defrauds and abuses its members, charging exorbitant fees for its spiritual services (Passas & Castillo, 1992). Another belief is that psychiatry is destructive and abusive and must be abolished (Atack, 1990; Cooper, 1971). Psychiatrists, it is claimed, kill or torture their patients with electric shock treatment (McCall, 2007; Shorter, 1997), use them sexually, and never ever help them. They conspire with governments to control the people, drug children (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. b) or the rest of humanity (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. n), stifle creativity (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. h), are responsible for terrorism (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. a), are coercive in their care (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. c), abuse the elderly (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. f),  participate in a corrupt industry (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. j), subvert medicine as a whole (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. l), erode justice (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. g), have a host of diagnoses that do not exist in reality (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. k), create racism (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. d),  assault women and children (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. m), are anti-religion (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. q; McCall, 2007), use deadly restraints in the name of care (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. e), make massive profits from schizophrenia (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. o), use therapies that are in fact harmful (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. p; McCall, 2007), and destroy young minds (Citizens Commission on Human Rights, n.d. i). Scientologists have even blamed psychiatry for the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York (1888 Press Release, 2009). Hubbard himself said:

                We have never found one person cured by psychiatrists, not one. If they call, as they do, anyone 

                who disagrees with them insane, then those who agree with this human butchery should wear a 

                swastika arm band so we can recognize them.

                (Cooper, 1971)

Perhaps the most notorious of advocates for scientology’s stance on psychiatry is the American actor, Tom Cruise. In 2005 he criticised Brooke Shields for her use of paroxetine in her postpartum depression, stating that depression was not due to a chemical imbalance, and that psychiatry was a pseudoscience. Later, when interviewed for Entertainment Weekly magazine, he voiced the opinion that psychiatry was a Nazi science (Contact Music, 2005), a view that appears consistent with scientological belief (McCall, 2007). 

Tom Cruise

It is worth noting, from a New Zealand perspective, that the second local church of scientology opened, not in the USA, but in Auckland, in 1954 (Atack, 1990; Lewis, 2009).

References:

1888 Press Release (2009). Scientology: psychiatrists to blame for 9/11 attacks. Retrieved from

http://www.1888pressrelease.com/scientology-psychiatrists-to-blame-for-9-11-attacks-pr-123127.html

Atack, J. (1990). A piece of blue sky – Scientology, dianetics and L. Ron Hubbard exposed. New 

York, NY: Lyle Stuart.

Beit-Hallahmi, B. (1998). The illustrated encyclopedia of active new religions, sects, and cults. New 

York, NY: Rosen Publishing Group Inc.

Berlim, M.T., Fleck, M.P.A., & Shorter, E. (2003). Notes on antipsychiatry. European Archives of 

Psychiatry & Clinical Neuroscience 253, 2, 61.

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. a). Chaos and terror: manufactured by psychiatry.

Retrieved from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/4.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. b). Child drugging: psychiatry destroying lives.

Retrieved from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/2.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. c). Community ruin: psychiatry’s coercive care. Retrieved 

from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/5.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. d). Creating racism: psychiatry’s betrayal. Retrieved from 

http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/13.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. e). Deadly restraints: psychiatry’s therapeutic assault. 

Retrieved from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/17.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. f). Elderly abuse: cruel mental health programs. Retrieved 

from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/8.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. g). Eroding justice: psychiatry’s corruption of law. 

Retrieved from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/11.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. h). Harming artists: how psychiatry ruins creativity. 

Retrieved from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/3.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. i). Harming youth: psychiatry destroys young minds. 

Retrieved from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/20.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. j). Massive fraud: psychiatry’s corrupt industry. Retrieved 

from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/9.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. k). Pseudoscience: psychiatry’s false diagnoses. Retrieved 

from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/12.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. l). Psychiatric hoax: the subversion of medicine. Retrieved 

from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/10.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. m). Psychiatric rape: assaulting women and children. 

Retrieved from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/14.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. n). Psychiatry: hooking your world on drugs.  Retrieved 

from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/7.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. o). Schizophrenia: psychiatry’s for profit disease. Retrieved 

from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/18.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. p). The brutal reality: harmful  psychiatric treatments. 

Retrieved from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/19.pdf

Citizens Commission on Human Rights (n.d. q). Unholy assault: psychiatry versus religion. Retrieved 

from http://www.cchrnsw.org.au/pdf/16.pdf

Clarke, P.B. (Ed.) (2006). Encyclopedia of new religious movements. London, England: Routledge.

Contact Music (2005). Tom Cruise - Cruise tripped up by magazine over scientology claims. Retrieved

 from http://www.contactmusic.com/new/xmlfeed.nsf/story/cruise-tripped-up-by-magazine-over-

scientology-claims

Cooper, P. (1971). The scandal of scientology. Gainesville, FL: Tower Publications. Retrieved from 

http://www.clambake.org/archive/books/tsos/sos.html

Gardner, M. (1957). Fads and fallacies in the name of science. New York, NY: Dover Publications Inc.

Lewis, J.R. (2009). Scientology. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press.

McCall, W.V. (2007). Psychiatry and psychology in the writings of L. Ron Hubbard. Journal of Religion 

and Health 46, 3, 437-447.

Mieszkowski, K. (2009). Scientology’s war on psychiatry. Retrieved from 

http://dir.salon.com/story/news/feature/2005/07/01/sci_psy/?pn=1

Passas, N., & Castillo, M.E. (1992). Scientology and its “clear” business. Behavioural Sciences and the 

Law 10, 103-116.

Shorter, E. (1997). A history of psychiatry: from the era of the asylum to the age of Prozac. New 

York, NY: John Wiley & Sons.