By L. J. West, M.D more
originally printed in "The Southern California Psychiatrist,"
May 1991, pp. 6-13.
Dr. West has granted permission to upload this article to computer
networks and bulletin boards.
Source:
http://web.archive.org/web/20030624014843/www.caic.org.au/psyther/sci/west2.htm
In a previous article (SCPS Newsletter, July, 1990) I
provided an historical account of the
Church of Scientology. It is a pseudo-scientific healing
cult that was formed in the 1950s, and has grown, with the help
of extravagant lies and deliberate deception, into a
multimillion dollar, international enterprise. Through its many
publications, but especially through its newspaper "Freedom,"
Scientology regularly defames its
critics (such as myself) and
praises its friends (such as
Thomas Szasz).
Scientology conducts sophisticated intelligence operations and
campaigns of misinformation both directly and through a variety of front
organizations. One such entity is the
Citizen's Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), the main purpose of
which apparently is to attack psychiatry, especially in its biological
aspects, and to harass, discourage, and intimidate private organizations
and individual critics classified as enemies of Scientology. Established
in 1969, the CCHR's central office is in Los Angeles with local offices
throughout the United States and abroad. The CCHR is frequently behind
both personal and legal undertakings directed against members of the
American Psychiatric Association and also, of course, against he
specialty as a whole. The attempts (and sometimes) successes of the CCHR
to discredit the psychiatric specialty are documented in its
publications such as "Psychiatric Abuse Bulletin" and "Psychiatry
Update." These efforts have included number of lawsuits accusing doctors
of negligence in prescribing
methylphenidate
(Ritalin) for children who, it is alleged, suffered side effects
including violent and assaultive behavior, stunted growth,
hallucinations, suicidal depression, headaches and nervous spasms.
Interestingly enough the two companies that market methylphenidate (Ciba
Geigy of Summit, New Jersey, and M.D. Pharmaceuticals of Santa Anna,
California) are not names as defendants. The president of CCHR is
Dennis Clarke. He is neither a
scientist nor a clinician, but nevertheless is an oft-cited "expert" on
Ritalin.
The CCHR is also behind recent attempts to force
fluoxetine Prozac)
off the market, including letter-writing campaigns to a number of U.S.
senators and congressmen and support of the Prozac defense" in which
defendants claim their violent behavior was caused by Prozac. Similar
tactics by CCHR aimed against
electroconvulsive therapy (ECT) have had their effect: or example
they have prompted members of the
FDA to reconsider he
classification of ECT devices from Class II (the category or trustworthy
medical devices that require performance standards, such as x-ray
machines) to Class III (reserved for devices presenting a considerable
risk and requiring premarket approval, such as artificial heart valves).
The CCHR sponsored California's present anti-ECT statutes, which have
imposed rigid restrictions on the use of ECT and in many cases have
resulted in the needless and prolonged suffering of patients thus denied
appropriate and necessary treatment. (A small group of ECT patients
grateful for the treatment's benefits, their family members, and the
Association for
Convulsive Therapy, have filed lawsuit, Doe v. O'Connor, to overturn
this regulation on constitutional grounds.)
With Clarke often visibly in charge, the CCHR frequently stages
demonstrations at the annual APA meetings to protest ECT, Ritalin, and
psychiatry in general. At these rallies, seismologists and also
disgruntled mental patients recruited for the purpose, picket, carry
signs and dispense leaflets denouncing psychiatry, and may disrupt
session to which they gain admission. Sometimes they wear t-shirts that
declare "Psychiatry Kills." Occasionally, airplanes fly overhead towing
banners that proclaim the same. Similar demonstrations are sometimes
held outside psychiatric facilities, such as the
UCLA Neuropsychiatric
Institute and Hospital. Such a picketing exercise is often covered by
the local media, who are notified and invited in advance by those who
have planned the scenario.
Another Scientology front group that impacts psychiatry is
Narconon, an international
enterprise that claims to rehabilitate drug addicts but which is
primarily a recruitment program for Scientology. Narconon was founded in
the late 1960s y William C. Benitez, while he was in Arizona State
Prison. Benitez avowedly based his program on the writings of
L. Ron Hubbard. After prison
officials granted permission for inmates o participate in the new
program, Benitez contacted Hubbard, ho saw the potential to increase
Scientology revenues and membership, and who offered the resources of
the Church of Scientology to expand the program to other prisons and to
the public. Soon thereafter, Narconon was incorporated (in 1970), under
the direction of Benitez and two high-ranking Scientology staff members,
Arthur J. Maren and Henning Heldt. Narconon's main headquarters is now
in Los Angeles, but it has centers throughout the United States and
elsewhere in the world. In the last few years, some of its facilities in
Italy and Spain have been closed and their staff members arrested on
charges ranging from fraud and medical malpractice to criminal
conspiracy to extort money and unlawful detention. In North America,
however, it is still considered business as usual for Narconon.
The five steps in the Narconon program include withdrawal,
detoxification, sauna sweat-out, a communication course, and treatment
courses in "learning improvement," "gaining control of life" and "living
an ethical life," which are identical with Scientology courses compiled
from the works of L. Ron Hubbard and taught in Scientology organizations
and missions. Each treatment course is really a succession of dianetic
auditing sessions, which claim
to rid the individual of unwanted attitudes, emotions and behaviors, but
which usually lead to contracts for more "advanced" courses costing more
and involving he patient more and more deeply in the Church of
Scientology.
As noted in the article last July, dianetic auditing offers a series
of supposedly therapeutic courses based on Hubbard's science fiction
amalgam of pop-psychology, hypnosis and cybernetics. Auditors themselves
receive training through courses of their own. This works as a pyramid
scheme, with people auditing those at levels below them while being
audited by others at levels above them. The courses that make up the
Narconon program, like those for other recruits to the Church of
Scientology, represent the introductory or lowest level of the pyramid.
Jerry Whitfield, a Narcononer-high-ranking
staff ember of Narconon El Paso, tells how he was pressured to direct
Narconon patients onto the
BRIDGE from Narconon to the Church of Scientology (a process
diagrammed in procedural manuals) and was required to transmit
statistics weekly on the number of new Scientology recruits. Potential
recruits are lured by promises that upon completion of all series of
courses, they will gain permanent relief from unpleasant emotions and
the sufferings of life, be ensured freedom from all past limitations, be
immune to psychosomatic disorders, and even to the harmful effects of
thermonuclear radiation, etc., etc.
The Scientology detoxification procedure, called the "Hubbard method"
within Narconon or the "purification
rundown" within Scientology, is supposed to dislodge toxins and
drugs from fatty issues through a rigorous regimen of exercise saunas
(up to five hours a day, for up to 30 days), and megavitamins. Aspects
of this procedure can be dangerous. For example, the sweat-out"
component requires individuals to perspire up to five hours per day,
seven days a week, for approximately 30 days. The risk of dehydration is
obvious. At least one death is said to have occurred during "the
purification rundown." while the supposed rationale for the sweat-out is
to rid the body of fat-stored drugs and chemicals, there is no
scientific basis for the technique. Most drugs of abuses are removed
from the body by detoxification and excretion through the liver, the
kidneys and (in some instances) through the lungs. Although minute
quantities of some drugs may be found in sweat, the mount represent such
a small fraction of drug elimination that no matter how much an
individual is forced to perspire through exercise and saunas, the
clearance of most drugs of abuse would not be significantly increased.
Nevertheless, Scientologists are aggressively promoting the Hubbard
method to public and private employers for use with employees exposed to
toxic substances on their jobs.
Narconon is now attempting to license its Chilocco/New Life facility
near Newkirk, Oklahoma. This is its second residential drug-treatment
center in the United States; all others are for ambulatory cases. In
1989, the Church took over the Chilocco Indian School, with a 25-year
lease from the five Indian tribes that share the reservation. At a
staged ceremony, local residents were impressed when a "benefactor" — The
Association or Better Living and Education (ABLE) presented Narconon
a $200,000 check. In fact, ABLE
shares Narconon International's Los Angeles address and is another
Scientology front. Licensure of the Narconon facility at Chilocco has
been vigorously opposed by community and professional groups. Narconon
officials at Chilocco have strenuously denied any
link
with Scientology.
Narconon is widely touted by its vendors with advertisements going to
health professional of all kinds, and with heavy promotional activities
on college campuses. Because of its name probably contrived for this
purpose), Narconon is often confused with
Narcotics
Anonymous (NA) which is a reputable self-help group similar to
Alcoholics
Anonymous. Narconon's striving for an appearance of respectability
is typical of cult-related ventures. Many such cults, like the Church of
Scientology, the
Unification
Church, the
Church Universal and Triumphant, and others with plenty of money to
employ public relations experts and top law firms, are dangerously close
to succeeding in their claims to legitimacy.
Dr. West is professor of
psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of California, Los Angeles. |