Frequently Asked Questions
Q: WHAT IS CITIZENS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS (CCHR)?
A: The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is a non-profit, public benefit organization dedicated to investigating and exposing psychiatric violations of human rights.
CCHR was founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and the
internationally acclaimed author, Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor Emeritus
of Psychiatry at the State University of New York, Syracuse. At that
time, the victims of psychiatry were a forgotten minority group,
warehoused under terrifying conditions in institutions around the world.
Because of this, CCHR formulated a Mental Health Declaration of Human
Rights that has served as its guide for mental health reform.
Acknowledged by the Special Rapporteur to the United Nations Human
Rights Commission as responsible for "many great reforms" that protect
people from psychiatric abuse, CCHR has documented thousands of
individual cases. These demonstrate that psychiatric drugs and brutal
psychiatric practices create insanity and cause violence.
A major cause of the drug problem worldwide is the psychiatrist, who for
decades has used his influence as a medical doctor to push extremely
dangerous and addictive mind-altering drugs on persons of all ages -
some as young as one year old.
CCHR's members include prominent doctors, lawyers, artists, educators,
civil and human rights representatives and professionals who see it as
their duty to "expose and help abolish any and all physically damaging
practices in the field of mental healing." They work to accomplish these
clearly stated aims with many like-minded individuals and groups,
including politicians, teachers, health professionals, government, law
enforcement and media.
Today, with hundreds of chapters in nations on every continent, CCHR has
established itself as a powerful human rights advocacy group.
Q:
WHAT DOES CCHR DO?
A:
Thousands of individuals contact CCHR each year to report psychiatric
abuse and criminality, false imprisonment, fraud, sexual abuse and
inhumane treatment and conditions in psychiatric institutions. CCHR
documents the abuse and helps the individual report the matters to the
proper authorities. It also conducts investigations in wider psychiatric
issues, such as insurance fraud, high death rates reported in
institutions, or the fraudulent labeling of children as "mentally
disordered" and drugging millions.
In the last ten years, CCHR's investigations led to the prosecution of
over a thousand psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health workers.
This has prompted legislators and insurance companies to withdraw
funding to criminal psychiatric practices, and to pass laws to protect
individuals from psychiatry.
Through CCHR's achievements, thousands of psychiatric victims have been
rescued, patients have regained legal and civil rights, mental health
acts have outlawed the arbitrary use of electroshock and psychosurgery
and banned these savage practices on children, and legislation has been
enacted to ensure psychiatric rape of patients is dealt with as a
criminal offense. Many hundreds of psychiatric survivors have been
compensated tens of millions of dollars for the damage they have
suffered.
Q:
IS CCHR PART OF THE CHURCH OF SCIENTOLOGY?
A:
CCHR is an independent organization. It comprises members of the Church
of Scientology and many other people of various denominations, faiths
and cultural beliefs. Scientologists are not unique in their view that
psychiatry is harmful. People from all walks of life are concerned about
the destructive impact of psychiatry on society. They work with CCHR to
do something effective about it. CCHR's Board of Advisors—called
Commissioners—includes prominent doctors, lawyers, artists, educators,
business professionals, civil and human rights representatives who see
it as their duty to "expose and help abolish any and all physically
damaging practices in the field of mental health."
In the last ten years, CCHR's investigations led to the prosecution of
over a thousand psychiatrists, psychologists and mental health workers.
This has prompted legislators and insurance companies to withdraw
funding to criminal psychiatric practices, and to pass laws to protect
individuals from psychiatry.
Through CCHR's achievements, thousands of psychiatric victims have been rescued, patients have regained legal and civil rights, mental health acts have outlawed the arbitrary use of electroshock and psychosurgery and banned these savage practices on children, and legislation has been enacted to ensure psychiatric rape of patients is dealt with as a criminal offense. Many hundreds of psychiatric survivors have been compensated tens of millions of dollars for the damage they have suffered.
Q:
WHY IS SCIENTOLOGY OPPOSED TO PSYCHIATRY?
A:
When the Church of Scientology established CCHR in 1969, victims of
psychiatry had no rights and needed a voice. "Treatment" was brutal, its
only purpose being to create compliant patients. Patients were subjected
to punitive electroshock—without anesthetic—as punishment for "bad"
behavior. Using lobotomies and other psychosurgical procedures,
psychiatrists destroyed patients' brains with callous disregard. Those
under psychiatric "care" were mercilessly experimented upon with
therapeutically unproven mind-altering drugs.
The founder of Scientology, L. Ron Hubbard, was the first to confront
these desperate acts by psychiatrists. From the late 1940s, Mr. Hubbard
saw psychiatry's reckless abuse of the individual. Later, he wrote: "The
Church of Scientology will not recommend or condone political mental
treatment such as electric shocks and condemns utterly the fascist
approach to 'mental health' by extermination of the insane."
CCHR was formed to investigate and expose psychiatric violations of
human rights and to clean up the field of mental healing.
Q:
DOES CCHR GIVE MEDICAL OR LEGAL ADVICE?
A:
CCHR does not provide medical or legal advice. However, it works closely
with attorneys and medical doctors and supports medical, but not
psychiatric practices. Anyone who feels he or she is "mentally ill"
should see a competent non-psychiatric medical doctor as numerous
studies show undiagnosed and untreated physical complaints can manifest
as a "psychiatric" problem. In many cases, once the physical condition
is treated, the mental "disorder" symptoms disappear.
CCHR also strongly recommends that anyone who knows of someone who has been physically or sexually abused by a psychiatrist, file a complaint with the proper law enforcement body and/or licensing board.
Q:
WHY SHOULD ELECTROSHOCK THERAPY (ECT) BE BANNED?
A:
Very simply, electroshock destroys minds and can kill. Touted by
psychiatrists as "scientific" and "therapeutic," ECT is as sophisticated
and beneficial as hitting someone over the head with a sledgehammer. It
consists of searing the brain with 180 to 460 volts of electricity. This
causes a severe convulsion or a grand mal seizure identical to an
epileptic fit. Women and the elderly, in particular, are psychiatry's
principal targets. The death rate among the elderly from ECT is about
one in every 200. A 1993 Texas government report found that one in 197
patients died within two weeks of receiving this "treatment." Other
studies document that electroshock inflicts irreversible brain damage,
memory loss and a deterioration of intellectual ability.
Electroshock also has a sordid history as a weapon of torture and mind
control.
When you deal with vulnerable people who are in desperate need of help,
using ECT is not only betrayal, it is criminal assault. Psychiatrists
who administer it for a living have a financial incentive to lie about
its effects—in the United States alone it is a $5 billion-a-year
industry.
Q:
WHAT ARE CCHR'S VIEWS ABOUT PSYCHIATRIC DRUGS?
A:
Psychiatric drugs are usually prescribed as a "solution" to a problem.
But they only mask the problem and prevent the person from addressing
the real cause.
CCHR strongly disagrees with the enforced and harmful methods employed
by psychiatrists. Psychiatrists fail to mention the horrendous side
effects of their drugs: addiction, exhaustion, diminished sexual drive,
trembling, nightmares, increased anxiety, and violent or suicidal
behavior. They often cause irreversible damage to the brain and nervous
system. These effects usually require a further drug to cover them up.
While these mind-altering drugs may deaden the mental and emotional pain
connected with living, in so doing they can kill the drive that promotes
the search for real solutions and improvement.
Q:
AREN'T DRUG COMPANIES TO BLAME?
A:
Psychiatry's ability to convince drug companies and governments to pour
billions of dollars into its practices is based upon fraudulent
"diagnostic" criteria. Psychiatrists package various behavior and
emotional characteristics and falsely categorize these as a "disease" or
"disorder." There isn't a single aspect of behavior that doesn't fall
within the broad "symptoms" which comprise so-called "mental illness."
Psychiatry has literally intruded into every facet of life with invented
criteria. The migraine sufferer has a "pain disorder," the child who
fidgets or is overzealous at play is "hyperactive," the person who
smokes or drinks coffee has a "nicotine disorder" or suffers "caffeine
intoxication." If you stutter, it's a mental illness. If you have a low
math score, it's "developmental arithmetic disorder." If a teenager
argues with his parents it's "oppositional defiance disorder."
These labels drum up business for psychiatrists. Drugs are produced to meet the psychiatrists' demand. Without fraudulent diagnoses, we would not be witnessing the prescribed drug problem we experience today.
Q:
WHY IS CCHR OPPOSED TO INVOLUNTARY COMMITMENT?
A:
Commitment laws have been exploited for every wrong reason: financial,
sexual, political, business profit, inheritance and even governmental
secrecy. They are a deprivation of human and constitutional rights. Once
committed—and declared incompetent—the person can lose the right to
vote, drive a car, join the military, control their financial and
business affairs and even practice their profession. The victim is also
subjected to physically harmful treatments from which they may never
recover.
There would be public outcry if someone ran amok in the street, grabbing
citizens because he disapproved of their behavior, locking them up and
submitting them to mind-altering drugs or electric shock. The
perpetrator would be criminally charged and jailed for many years. But
because the perpetrator is a psychiatrist, his brutal acts are cloaked
in terms such as "treatment," "mental health care," or "preventing the
person from doing harm," and are sanctioned by law. Consequently, the
systematic social and mental crippling of millions of people each year
is ignored.
Imagine the alternative: mental hospitals as places of rest. People would not be assaulted with drugs and shock. They could rest and receive proper medical help. People would be more approachable about being helped. But under the current system, forcing anyone into a mental hospital is imprisonment masquerading as protection. All coercive mental health practices should be illegal. Like slavery before it, involuntary hospitalization should be abolished.
Q:
WHAT DO YOU DO IF A "MENTALLY ILL" PERSON IS VIOLENT?
A:
The person who is violent or threatens violence must never be "treated"
by psychiatrists. If a person commits a dangerous offense, criminal
statutes exist to address this. Dr. Thomas Szasz, Professor Emeritus of
Psychiatry, says: "All criminal behavior should be controlled by means
of criminal law, from the administration of which psychiatrists ought to
be excluded."
Studies demonstrate that psychiatric predictions of dangerousness are no
better than flipping a coin. Psychiatrists cannot "cure" criminal or
anti-social conduct.
The foundation of justice is based on the idea that each man is
accountable for his actions. But each year thousands of criminals are
excused of the most heinous crimes based on psychiatric testimony in
courts. This undermines a key tool that society uses to protect itself
from violent crime.
If someone is violent or breaks the law, he or she should be dealt with the way all people are who do such things. We don't need psychiatrists for that.
Q:
WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE?
A:
Trusted with the care of the mentally disturbed, psychiatry has failed
utterly. Humane, non-intrusive methods exist to help people who are
troubled, overwhelmed by problems or emotionally distraught. For
example, extensive medical studies prove that physical illnesses can
manifest as "psychiatric" symptoms and should be addressed with medical
treatment. Additionally, good nutrition, a healthy environment, and work
that boosts morale will do much for these individuals. They respond to
rest, safety and a healthy diet. What they don't need is torture or
violation of their human rights, as covered in documents such as the
Universal Declaration of Human Rights and CCHR's Mental Health
Declaration of Human Rights.
Dr. Thomas Szasz states, "Old age homes, workshops, temporary homes for indigent persons whose family ties have been disintegrated, progressive prison communities—these and many other facilities will be needed to assure the tasks now entrusted to mental hospitals."