What do scientologists believe about psychiatry

It may be easy to dismiss Tom Cruise's recent outbursts against psychiatry as the ravings of an egomaniacal celebrity. Comedians have certainly had a field day with Cruise, a fervent disciple of the Church of Scientology, ever since he scolded Brooke Shields for taking prescribed medication to treat her postpartum depression and lectured Matt Lauer, host of the "Today" show, that psychiatry was a "pseudoscience" and antidepressant drugs were worthless because there is "no such thing as a chemical imbalance.

But the Church of Scientology's war on psychiatry is no joke. For decades, Scientologists have maintained that the very notion of mental illness is a fraud.

They base this belief on the views of Scientology founder L. Ron Hubbard, who proclaimed that psychiatry was an evil enterprise, a form of terrorism, and the cause of crime. Now, they're attempting to enshrine their contempt for psychiatry in laws across the country. Recently, Scientologists have promoted legislation in Florida, Utah and New Hampshire that seeks to discredit psychiatry and drug therapies, especially for kids.

The laws would penalize, even criminalize, schoolteachers who recommended mental health treatments to students or parents. At the same time, Scientologists have infiltrated the public schools, promoting a drug abuse program that presents information -- that drugs like marijuana and LSD, for instance, accumulate in body fat and create constant cravings -- roundly dismissed by medical experts.

In fact, physicians, psychiatrists and scientists have consistently said that Scientology's approaches to mental health have no basis in medical fact and can be dangerous to people who may need treatment. On June 27, following Cruise's "Today" show appearance, the American Psychiatric Association issued a statement to remind the nation's TV viewers that "science has proven that mental illnesses are real medical conditions" and that medications have been a lifesaving part of treatment plans for millions of people.

Cruise to use his movie publicity tour to promote his own ideological views and deter people with mental illness from getting the care they need," said Steven S. Sharfstein, president of the association. Scientology critics and former members of the church add that what lies behind the attacks on psychiatry and medicine is the church's drive to spread its religious teachings.

The Church of Scientology's world war on psychiatry arose from its zealous founder. For reasons known only to Hubbard himself, the science fiction author and budding church leader conceived a violent hatred of psychiatry.

Perhaps his animus took root when the American Psychological Association, following the publication of Hubbard's self-help treatise, "Dianetics," advised its members against using Hubbard's psychological techniques with their patients. In a article, "Today's Terrorism," published in a Scientology journal, Hubbard claimed that "the psychiatrist and his front groups operate straight out of the terrorist textbooks. The Mafia looks like a convention of Sunday school teachers compared to these terrorist groups.

They are causing it! Today, the Church of Scientology holds tax-exempt status in the United States, preventing it from doing any major political lobbying. Yet Scientologists remain active in politics and the public arena through front groups of their own. In the same year that Hubbard's "Today's Terrorism" article was published, Scientologists founded the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, an organization designed to "investigate and expose psychiatric violations of human rights," according to its Web site, which claims: "No mental 'diseases' have ever been proven to medically exist.

The shooting spree at Columbine High School is blamed in part on "anger management" classes that shooters Dylan Klebold and Eric Harris allegedly attended.

While emphasizing that the CCHR is a "secular commission," David Figueroa, president of the group's Florida chapter and a practicing Scientologist, states that mental illness, as defined by the psychiatric community, does not exist.

For instance, he says, bucking the world's medical textbooks, "there is zero amount of proof that schizophrenia exists as a singular mental illness. He takes particular offense at the mention of attention-deficit disorder and attention-deficit-hyperactivity disorder. They don't exist. It's percent fraud. McPherson and found her uninjured. Then she took off her clothes and began to walk along the street.

Bonita Ann Portolano, one of the paramedics, helped her into the ambulance. Portolano said Ms. McPherson was muttering about not needing a body to live and said she had taken off her clothes because she wanted help.

In a later deposition, Mrs. Portolano estimated that Ms. McPherson weighed pounds. After Ms. McPherson was taken to a nearby hospital, seven Scientologists, including some senior officials arrived.

She refused psychiatric treatment and said she would not harm herself, and she was released into the care of her fellow parishioners. Although Scientologists do accept medical treatment, Ms.

Church literature says psychiatrists were paid by the government to denounce Scientology as a hoax when Hubbard, a successful science fiction writer, began the church in The first step is to isolate the people who suffer breakdowns to protect them and others.

No one is allowed to speak to the people or within their hearing, except to deliver lessons supposed to locate and correct the problems that led to the breakdown.

A church lawyer initially described her stay to a local reporter as restful, and he said she had received no medical treatment.

But 33 pages of handwritten logs tell a far bleaker tale. Scientology staff members who monitored Ms. McPherson 24 hours a day kept them, and the notes depict a woman whose mental condition deteriorated rapidly and whose health began to fail well before she died.

Two days into her stay, the logs recount Ms. McPherson spitting out food and vomiting. The fourth day, she was ashen-faced and feverish. She was often described as violent, striking her attendants and banging on the walls. She soiled herself and hallucinated that she was Hubbard.

One of the logs indicated that she tried to leave the room, but church lawyers say that she was not restrained. Rather, Ms. Vaughan, one of the lawyers, said, she was incapable of caring for herself. Among those who cared for her was Dr. Janis Johnson, a member of the church medical office. Johnson is a physician who is not licensed to practice in Florida and had agreed to restrictions on her medical license in Arizona in after two hospitals questioned her use of prescription drugs.

On Dec. Johnson administered a prescription sleep medication to Ms. McPherson, and left written instructions that Ms. McPherson be given two liters of liquid when she awoke. Kennan Dandar, the lawyer for the McPherson estate, said two liters was a substantial amount of liquid and that the instructions were an indication that Ms.

McPherson was in need of immediate medical attention. Notes for Dec. McPherson drank some liquids and was coherent at times. Scientology officials said they could not find the notes for the final two days of her life.

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