Psychiatry: An Industry of Death

Psychiatry: An Industry of Death

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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.^[1] It is owned and operated by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), an anti-psychiatry organization founded by the Church of Scientology. The museum is located at 6616 Sunset Boulevard, Los Angeles, California and entry to the museum is free.^[2]

The opening event on December 17, 2005^[3], 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.^[4]

The museum is dedicated to exposing what it describes as "an industry driven entirely by profit" and provides "practical guidance for lawmakers, doctors, human rights advocates and private citizens to take action in their own sphere to bring psychiatry under the law."^[5] It has a variety of displays and exhibits making allegations against the institute of psychiatry. The displays highlight physical psychiatric treatments, such as restraints, psychoactive drugs, shock therapy and psychosurgery (including lobotomy, a procedure not used widely as a treatment since the early 1970's) with which psychiatrists have attempted to treat mental problems.

DVD
Exhibits at Worldcon 2006
Criticism
See also
References
External links

DVD

In 2006, a documentary film also called Psychiatry: An Industry of Death was released on DVD by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights. The film is 108 minutes long and is described by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights in this way:

Exhibits at Worldcon 2006

The museum had a large display area at the 2006 World Science Fiction Convention held in Anaheim, California, at which it presented a variety of exhibits on CCHR's controversial views on psychiatry. The following images by blogger Cory Doctorow highlight some of the exhibits.

<gallery> Image:Piod museum entrance.jpg Image:Piod museum children.jpg Image:Piod museum controlling.jpg Image:Piod museum eugenics.jpg Image:Piod museum origins.jpg Image:Piod museum warning.jpg </gallery>

Criticism

The CCHR has been criticized by journalist Andrew Gumbel for "crudeness" and "paranoia" in its criticism of psychiatry. Gumbel, who covered the museum's gala opening for Los Angeles CityBeat magazine, described how CCHR publicist Marla Filidei attempted to engage him in a debate about the evils of psychiatry:

Two scientists featured in the DVD, Holocaust scholar Michael Berenbaum and bioethics scholar Arthur Caplan, have rejected the attack on psychiatry and psychology. Berenbaum stated that "I have known psychiatrists to be of enormous assistance to people deeply important to me in my life," and Caplan complained that he had been taped without being told what the film was about, and called the producers "smarmy and dishonest."^[6]