Psychiatry Harming Artists
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HARMING ARTISTS Psychiatry Ruins Creativity Report and recommendations on psychiatry assaulting the arts Published by Citizens Commission on Human Rights Established in 1969 IMPORTANT NOTICE For the Reader he psychiatric profession purports to be know the causes or cures for any mental disorder the sole arbiter on the subject of mental or what their “treatments” specifically do to the Thealth and “diseases” of the mind. The patient. They have only theories and conflicting facts, however, demonstrate otherwise: opinions about their diagnoses and methods, and are lacking any scientific basis for these. As a past 1. PSYCHIATRIC “DISORDERS” ARE NOT MEDICAL president of the World Psychiatric Association DISEASES. In medicine, strict criteria exist for stated, “The time when psychiatrists considered calling a condition a disease: a predictable group that they could cure the mentally ill is gone. In of symptoms and the cause of the symptoms or the future, the mentally ill have to learn to live an understanding of their physiology (function) with their illness.” must be proven and established. Chills and fever are symptoms. Malaria and typhoid are diseases. 4. THE THEORY THAT MENTAL DISORDERS Diseases are proven to exist by objective evidence DERIVE FROM A “CHEMICAL IMBALANCE” IN and physical tests. Yet, no mental “diseases” have THE BRAIN IS UNPROVEN OPINION, NOT FACT. ever been proven to medically exist. One prevailing psychiatric theory (key to psychotropic drug sales) is that mental disorders 2. PSYCHIATRISTS DEAL EXCLUSIVELY WITH result from a chemical imbalance in the brain. MENTAL “DISORDERS,” NOT PROVEN DISEASES. As with its other theories, there is no biological While mainstream physical medicine treats or other evidence to prove this. Representative diseases, psychiatry can only deal with of a large group of medical and biochemistry “disorders.” In the absence of a known cause or experts, Elliot Valenstein, Ph.D., author of physiology, a group of symptoms seen in many Blaming the Brain says: “[T]here are no tests different patients is called a disorder or syndrome. available for assessing the chemical status of Harvard Medical School’s Joseph Glenmullen, a living person’s brain.” M.D., says that in psychiatry, “all of its diagnoses are merely syndromes [or disorders], clusters of 5. THE BRAIN IS NOT THE REAL CAUSE symptoms presumed to be related, not diseases.” OF LIFE’S PROBLEMS. People do experience As Dr. Thomas Szasz, professor of psychiatry problems and upsets in life that may result in emeritus, observes, “There is no blood or other mental troubles, sometimes very serious. But biological test to ascertain the presence or to represent that these troubles are caused by absence of a mental illness, as there is for most incurable “brain diseases” that can only be bodily diseases.” alleviated with dangerous pills is dishonest, harmful and often deadly. Such drugs are 3. PSYCHIATRY HAS NEVER ESTABLISHED THE often more potent than a narcotic and capable CAUSE OF ANY “MENTAL DISORDERS.” Leading of driving one to violence or suicide. They mask psychiatric agencies such as the World Psychiatric the real cause of problems in life and debilitate Association and the U.S. National Institute of the individual, so denying him or her the oppor- Mental Health admit that psychiatrists do not tunity for real recovery and hope for the future. HARMING ARTISTS PSYCHIATRY RUINS CREATIVITY CONTENTS Introduction: A Message to Artists..........................2 Chapter One: Psychiatry and Film, A Fatal Attraction ..............................5 Chapter Two: Destroying Sanity ............................13 Chapter Three: Cruel Electroshock, Destroying the Brain .......................19 Chapter Four: Targeting the Icons of Jazz..............................25 Chapter Five: Psychiatric Drugs Create Harm .........................29 Chapter Six: The World Needs Artists.........................39 Citizens Commission on Human Rights International.............41 ® HARMING ARTISTS Psychiatry Ruins Creativity 1 INTRODUCTION A Message to Artists very great society has its creative great to be borne. It would also be easy to believe minds—its true artists. From Ancient that to be a successful artist you must be neurotic Greece and Rome, through the or some sort of tragic figure. Renaissance to the world today, None of this is true. mankind has revered men and women In each of the cases above, hidden influences Eof exceptional artistic ability. worked to ensure the deadly outcome. The truth As renowned American writer Henry James is, each of these great artists and many of the oth- once said, “It is art that makes life. …” His words ers who have left us were offered “help.” Instead are no less true today, for indeed, artists are the they were betrayed and placed on a path which individuals who dream our future and create the assured their destruction. realities of tomorrow. True, so do engineers This betrayal came through the direct or indi- and businessmen and rect influence of psy- visionaries in other chiatrists or psycholo- fields, but by and large gists, who claimed the futures they create “Many great artists they would help but revolve around our were, in effect, a material well-being. It who have left us were destructive influence is the artist who lifts offered ‘help’ but were, that left these artists the spirit, makes us dreadfully damaged— laugh and cry and instead, betrayed and or dead—after their can even shape the foundations of strength spiritual future of our placed on a path which and certainty were culture. It is artists who assured their destruction.” torn away. make life. Today there is an This explains, then, — Jan Eastgate added urgency that why artists remain the this message be heard most cherished of and understood, for human assets the world over. the assault upon artists of every genre has only Unfortunately, in many cases, they are assets increased in both volume and efficiency. The we have lost too soon—losses that have left us weapons now include an array of deadly drugs poorer. In recent decades we have all mourned that masquerade as therapeutic cures, just as the the untimely deaths of great artists who enriched prefrontal lobotomy once did. In Hollywood, the our lives, yet left before their work was done. mecca of the entertainment industry, those mind- Luminaries of literature, the screen, the theater altering and addictive psychotropic drugs are and the concert stage, names such as Ernest exacting too high a cost in creative lives. Hemingway, France’s great writer Atonin Artaud, Quite apart from the devastation being spread jazz singer Billie Holiday, Judy Garland, Marilyn within the ranks of artists themselves, we must Monroe, Vivien Leigh, Kurt Cobain, Michael not forget: Artists create the future of our culture. Hutchence, Phil Hartman and many, many more. Is this the future we face? One in which we Faced with even this partial list, it would will follow these leaders of public opinion into be easy to form the impression that the lives of the brave new therapeutic world of stunted artists are unavoidably tumultuous and that for creative personalities, ruined families, wasted some, the pressures of success bring demands too lives and self-destruction? If this seems alarmist, then review the figures below—they show what the future holds unless some drastic changes are made quickly: Currently, 17 million children around the world are pre- scribed mind-altering psychiatric drugs, includ- ing antidepressants that both United Kingdom and United States drug regulatory agencies have warned can cause suicide and violent behavior. Indeed, the increasing incidence of school shoot- ings and violent crime among teens can be traced to the proliferation of these drugs being prescribed them. Millions are also prescribed stimulants that are more potent than cocaine. Among these millions, consider how many potentially great artists will never fulfill their destiny? And how will our culture suffer from their absence? Jan Eastgate: International President We have mourned the great artists we have lost too soon. Let’s not grieve for more. permanent exhibition with documentaries on var- The Citizens Commission on Human Rights ious aspects of psychiatry—ranging from its dark International prepares up-to-the-minute informa- history to its role in the Holocaust; from detestable tion and studies that assist authors and scriptwrit- ethnic cleansing and apartheid programs and ers with material and facts on the subject of psy- racism to the harmful and often fatal effects of its chiatry. This has included the book, Shadowland, treatments such as dangerous and addictive psy- the story of actress Frances Farmer; compelling chotropic drugs, electroshock, psychosurgery and evidence provided “60 Minutes” in Australia, “stimulants” used for child drugging. which led to national television awards for the CCHR provides this information so that you program, and case studies for documentaries can see for yourself how artists have been lied aired on Channel 4 UK, in Germany, Italy and in to and betrayed. We urge you to act upon other countries. In fact, CCHR’s international this knowledge to protect those who need help headquarters is in the heart of Hollywood on and ensure that our future is not betrayed Sunset Boulevard. It also houses a state-of-the-art as well. Jan Eastgate Anne Archer Nancy Cartwright Juliette Lewis President Actress Actress, author Actress CCHR International David Campbell, Chick Corea, John Novello Bruce Wiseman Composer, Jazz