Scientology And Antipsychiatry

The Church of Scientology is one of a number of groups involved in the anti-psychiatry movement, and one of the few organizations that publicly oppose the study and application of psychology in addition to psychiatry, claiming that psychiatry was responsible for World War I, the rise of Hitler and Stalin, the decline in education standards in the United States, the wars in Bosnia and Kosovo, and the September 11 attacks. The Church's point of view on these issues is documented mainly by Church groups and magazines such as those published by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights and Freedom Magazine.

Actor Tom Cruise, a well-known Scientologist, has publicity criticized the psychiatric field. In response to Cruise's statements, an editor from the Journal of Clinical Investigation stated that Cruise is "dangerous and irresponsible."


(the above excerpt is taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scientology)


Anti-psychiatry refers to a post-1960s configuration of groups and theoretical constructs hostile to most of the fundamental assumptions and practices of psychiatry. Its igniting influences were Michel Foucault, R.D. Laing and Thomas Szasz.

The word "psychiatry" was invented by Johann Christian Reil in 1808. Two central contentions of the anti-psychiatry movement are that:

1.The specific definitions of, or criteria for, hundreds of current psychiatric diagnoses or disorders are vague and arbitrary, leaving too much room for opinions and interpretations to meet basic scientific standards.
2.Current psychiatric treatments are ultimately far more damaging than helpful to patients.
Other common criticisms include: that psychiatry applies medical concepts and tools inappropriately to the mind and society; that it too often treats patients against their will; that it inappropriately excludes other approaches to mental distress/disorder; that its medical and ethical integrity is compromised by financial and professional links with pharmaceutical companies and insurance companies; that psychiatry uses a system of categorical diagnoses (e.g., Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders or DSM) which is scientifically or clinically ill-founded, and which stigmatizes patients; further: that its attitude to patients is too often experienced as simply demeaning and controlling.

Individual mental health professionals as well as academics profess anti-psychiatry views, as do a certain proportion of current or former users of psychiatric services. Some critics focus on the now prevalent form of biological psychiatry. Despite the movement's name, however, it is alleged that in reality some tendencies merely promote a form of psychiatry that happens to be contrary to the dominant theories and methods of the day. Some "anti-psychiatrists," indeed, are concerned to dissociate themselves from the term and its sometimes pejorative associations.


(the above excerpt is taken from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-psychiatry)


Information
The New England Journal of Skepticism - Skepticism and Denial
The Antipsychiatry Coalition
International Center for Humane Psychiatry and Dan L. Edmunds,Ed.D.
National Mental Health Consumers' Self-Help Clearinghouse

Articles
Oikos.org - The Dark Side of Psychiatry
PLoS Medicine - Why Most Published Research Findings Are False, by John P. A. Ioannidis. Vol. 2, No. 8, DOI:10.1371/journal.pmed.0020124.Last accessed 16 June 2006
PLoS Medicine - Medical Journals Are an Extension of the Marketing Arm of Pharmaceutical Companies, by Richard Smith, Vol.2, No.5, e138 DOI:10.1371/journal.pmed.0020138. Last accessed 16 June 2006
British Medical Journal - Commercial influence and the content of medical journals, by Joel Lexchin, associate professor, Donald W Light, professor, BMJ 2006;332:1444-1447 (17 June),doi:10.1136/bmj.332.7555.1444; Last accessed 16 June 2006
PLoS Medicine - The Latest Mania: Selling Bipolar Disorder, by David Healy, Vol.3, No.4, DOI: 10.1371/journal.pmed.0030185; Last accessed 16 June 2006

Organizations critical of psychiatry
LaingSociety.org - The Society for Laingian Studies, R.D. Laing (1927-1989)
Mosher Soteria - Loren Mosher, MD, (1933-2004)
Szasz.com - The Thomas S. Szasz, MD, Cybercenter for Liberty and Responsibility
ICSPP.org - International Center for the Study of Psychiatry and Psychology
MindFreedom.org - Support Coalition International (a coalition of groups supporting "United Action for Human Rights in Mental Health")
PsychRights.org - Law Project for Psychiatric Rights
IAAPA International Association Against Psychiatric Assault
PSAT Psychiatric Survivor Archives of Toronto
TanaDineen.com Homepage of Tana Dineen
Anti-Psychiatry Livejournal - Anti-Psychiatry Community on Livejournal, Most Updated Resource.


See also
Bruce Levine
History of mental disorders
Indeterminacy in philosophy
Institutionalisation
Interpretation of Schizophrenia
Laura's Law
Medicalization
The Gene Illusion
Rosenhan experiment