CCHR PROTESTS PSYCHIATRIC ABUSE AT THE WORLD PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION CONGRESS
Spike CO
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) is a nonprofit mental health watchdog, responsible for helping to enact more than 180 laws protecting individuals from abusive or coercive practices. CCHR has long fought to restore basic inalienable human rights to the field of mental health, including, but not limited to, full informed consent regarding the medical legitimacy of psychiatric diagnosis, the risks of psychiatric treatments, the right to all available medical alternatives and the right to refuse any treatment considered harmful.
CCHR PROTESTS PSYCHIATRIC ABUSE AT THE WORLD PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION CONGRESS
As psychiatrists from across the world arrived at the Congress Center Lisboa in Lisbon, Portugal, for the annual World Psychiatric Association (WPA) Congress, they never expected what would greet them—CCHR protesters from across Europe demanding the abolition of damaging psychiatric practices. They stood right at the Congress Center’s front door with banners proclaiming “Psychiatry Destroys Our Children,” “Psychiatry: Lies That Destroy Families and Lives” and “Report Psychiatric Drug Abuse of Children.”
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https://www.cchr.org/news/2021-news-protests-psychiatric-abuse.html
Spike CO
In fairness, we received the following regarding the posting on CCHR that we feel is appropriate to include in the reporting.
From: William Dobbs <duc...@mindspring.com>
Sent: Thursday, September 21, 2023 7:31 PM
To: 'Spike CO' <spike...@gmail.com>
Cc: 'Wayne Bowers' <in...@cure-sort.org>; 'Eldon Dillingham' <eldoncdi...@gmail.com>
Subject: RE: CCHR PROTESTS PSYCHIATRIC ABUSE AT THE WORLD PSYCHIATRIC ASSOCIATION CONGRESS
I’m sure Citizens Commission on Human Rights done some good over the years. The Wikipedia page for the group has information about the downside of CCHR, see below. I note Wikipedia itself has been criticized over the years, best to check other sources before reaching any conclusions. –Bill Dobbs
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Citizens_Commission_on_Human_Rights
Controversies and criticisms
Rissmiller labels CCHR as a radical antipsychiatry organization. It encourages the arrest and incarceration of psychiatrists for their alleged crimes against humanity because L. Ron Hubbard had written, "There is not one institutional psychiatrist alive who ... could not be arraigned and convicted of extortion, mayhem and murder."[39]
The CCHR is often characterized as a front group for the Church of Scientology, which sponsors the organization.[5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][40] In 1993, the US Internal Revenue Service granted CCHR tax exemption as part of an agreement with the Church of Scientology International and Religious Technology Center (RTC) under which the RTC took responsibility for CCHR's tax liabilities.[41]
The CCHR has been criticized by journalist Andrew Gumbel for "crudeness" and "paranoia" in its criticism of psychiatry.[42]
Two scholars featured in the film Psychiatry: An Industry of Death, 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."[43]
In 1988, the CCHR claimed that Professor Sir Martin Roth of Newcastle University had used LSD in tests on mental patients in the 1960s. The statements were publicized in the Northern Echo newspaper, which was ordered by an English court to pay "very substantial" libel damages to Roth after the court found that CCHR's claims were "highly defamatory" and "utterly false."[44]
Jan Eastgate, President of the CCHR and winner of the Church of Scientology Freedom Medal, has been implicated in covering up the sexual abuse of an 11-year-old girl in the Australian branch of the church.[45][46] Eastgate was head of the Australian CCHR at the time and the girl was abused by her Scientologist stepfather between the ages of 8 and 11 years. Eastgate, who denied the allegations, labelling them "egregiously false",[45] was arrested on 30 March 2011 on charges of perverting the course of justice but later released on conditional bail.[47] All charges were dropped against Eastgate after an investigation by the New South Wales Director of Public Prosecution found that there was not enough substantiating evidence.[48]
In the immediate aftermath of the September 11 attacks, CCHR promulgated a conspiracy theory assigning responsibility for the attacks to Ayman al-Zawahiri, alleging that, as Osama bin Laden's personal psychiatrist (although he is actually a surgeon), he was the principal mastermind behind the attacks and had brainwashed bin Laden using pain, drugs and hypnosis.[49][50]
