The Brutal Reality: Harmful Psychiatric “Treatments”

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With electroshock treatment, “there is a lot of brain damage, there is memory loss, the death rate does go up, the suicide rate doesn’t go down. [I]f those are the facts from a very well-designed, big study, then you’d have to conclude we shouldn’t do ECT. … I don’t see why we would want to keep doing it. It doesn’t make sense to me.”

—Dr. Colin Ross Texas psychiatrist and author, 2004 THE BRUTAL REALITY Harmful Psychiatric ‘Treatments’

Report and recommendations on the destructive practices of electroshock and psychosurgery

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Citizens Commission on Human Rights RAISING PUBLIC AWARENESS ducation is a vital part of any initiative to reverse becoming educated on the truth about psychiatry, and that social decline. CCHR takes this responsibility very something effective can and should be done about it. IMPORTANT NOTICE Eseriously. Through the broad dissemination of CCHR’s publications—available in 15 languages— CCHR’s Internet site, books, newsletters and other show the harmful impact of psychiatry on racism, educa- For the Reader publications, more and more patients, families, tion, women, justice, drug rehabilitation, morals, the elderly, professionals, lawmakers and countless others are religion, and many other areas. A list of these includes: 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 THE REAL CRISIS—In Mental Health Today CHILD DRUGGING—Psychiatry Destroying Lives health and “diseases” of the mind. The patient. They have only theories and conflicting Report and recommendations on the lack of science and Report and recommendations on fraudulent psychiatric T results within the mental health industry diagnosis and the enforced drugging of youth facts, however, demonstrate otherwise: opinions about their diagnoses and methods, and are lacking any scientific basis for these. As a past MASSIVE FRAUD—Psychiatry’s Corrupt Industry HARMING YOUTH—Psychiatry Destroys Young Minds 1. PSYCHIATRIC “DISORDERS” ARE NOT MEDICAL president of the World Psychiatric Association Report and recommendations on a criminal mental Report and recommendations on harmful mental health DISEASES. In medicine, strict criteria exist for stated, “The time when psychiatrists considered health monopoly assessments, evaluations and programs within our schools 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 PSYCHIATRIC HOAX—The Subversion of Medicine COMMUNITY RUIN—Psychiatry’s Coercive ‘Care’ Report and recommendations on psychiatry’s destructive Report and recommendations on the failure of community an understanding of their physiology (function) with their illness.” impact on health care mental health and other coercive psychiatric programs must be proven and established. Chills and fever are symptoms. Malaria and typhoid are diseases. 4. THE THEORY THAT MENTAL DISORDERS PSEUDOSCIENCE—Psychiatry’s False Diagnoses HARMING ARTISTS—Psychiatry Ruins Creativity Diseases are proven to exist by objective evidence DERIVE FROM A “CHEMICAL IMBALANCE” IN Report and recommendations on the unscientific fraud Report and recommendations on psychiatry assaulting the arts and physical tests. Yet, no mental “diseases” have THE BRAIN IS UNPROVEN OPINION, NOT FACT. perpetrated by psychiatry UNHOLY ASSAULT—Psychiatry versus Religion ever been proven to medically exist. One prevailing psychiatric theory (key to SCHIZOPHRENIA—Psychiatry’s For Profit ‘Disease’ Report and recommendations on psychiatry’s subversion of psychotropic drug sales) is that mental disorders Report and recommendations on psychiatric lies and religious belief and practice 2. PSYCHIATRISTS DEAL EXCLUSIVELY WITH result from a chemical imbalance in the brain. false diagnosis ERODING JUSTICE—Psychiatry’s Corruption of Law MENTAL “DISORDERS,” NOT PROVEN DISEASES. As with its other theories, there is no biological THE BRUTAL REALITY—Harmful Psychiatric ‘Treatments’ Report and recommendations on psychiatry subverting the While mainstream physical medicine treats or other evidence to prove this. Representative Report and recommendations on the destructive practices of courts and corrective services diseases, psychiatry can only deal with of a large group of medical and biochemistry electroshock and psychosurgery “disorders.” In the absence of a known cause or experts, Elliot Valenstein, Ph.D., author of ELDERLY ABUSE—Cruel Mental Health Programs PSYCHIATRIC RAPE—Assaulting Women and Children physiology, a group of symptoms seen in many Blaming the Brain says: “[T]here are no tests Report and recommendations on psychiatry abusing seniors Report and recommendations on widespread sex crimes different patients is called a disorder or syndrome. available for assessing the chemical status of against patients within the mental health system Harvard Medical School’s Joseph Glenmullen, a living person’s brain.” CHAOS & TERROR—Manufactured by Psychiatry M.D., says that in psychiatry, “all of its diagnoses DEADLY RESTRAINTS—Psychiatry’s ‘Therapeutic’ Assault Report and recommendations on the role of psychiatry in international terrorism are merely syndromes [or disorders], clusters of 5. THE BRAIN IS NOT THE REAL CAUSE Report and recommendations on the violent and dangerous use of restraints in mental health facilities symptoms presumed to be related, not diseases.” OF LIFE’S PROBLEMS. People do experience CREATING RACISM—Psychiatry’s Betrayal As Dr. Thomas Szasz, professor of psychiatry problems and upsets in life that may result in PSYCHIATRY—Hooking Your World on Drugs Report and recommendations on psychiatry causing racial emeritus, observes, “There is no blood or other mental troubles, sometimes very serious. But Report and recommendations on psychiatry creating today’s conflict and genocide biological test to ascertain the presence or to represent that these troubles are caused by drug crisis CITIZENS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS absence of a mental illness, as there is for most incurable “brain diseases” that can only be REHAB FRAUD—Psychiatry’s Drug Scam The International Mental Health Watchdog bodily diseases.” alleviated with dangerous pills is dishonest, Report and recommendations on methadone and other harmful and often deadly. Such drugs are disastrous psychiatric drug ‘rehabilitation’ programs 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 WARNING: No one should stop taking any psychiatric drug without the psychiatric agencies such as the World Psychiatric the real cause of problems in life and debilitate advice and assistance of a competent, non-psychiatric, medical doctor. 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.

This publication was made possible by a grant from the United States International Association of Scientologists Members’ Trust.

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THE BRUTAL REALITY Harmful Psychiatric ‘Treatments’

CONTENTS Introduction: Destroying Lives ...... 2 Chapter One: Deadly Electrical Assault ...... 5

Chapter Two: Devastating Effects ...... 9

Chapter Three: Human Butchery Still in Use ...... 15 Chapter Four: Provide Help, Not Harm ...... 21 Recommendations ...... 23 Citizens Commission on Human Rights International ...... 24

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INTRODUCTIONDestroying Lives

lectroshock treatment—also known as electro- is not mentioned in conversations to convince the convulsive therapy (ECT)—and psycho- unwilling or unsuspecting. surgery “treatments” are reportedly trying to And, as Conchita Garcia [a pseudonym] would stage a comeback. Yet, since their inception, attest, if all else fails, psychiatrists will readily resort to these procedures have been dogged by con- coercion or fear to extract “consent” for treatment. flictE between the ECT psychiatrists who swear by them, In 2001, Conchita consulted a psychiatrist for her and the multitudes of victims and families of victims depression and was prescribed psychiatric drugs. After whose lives have been completely ruined by them. experiencing uncontrollable body movements—the direct So who is telling the truth? Anyone who has seen result of drug-induced damage to her nervous system— and been sickened by a recording of an actual ECT or the psychiatrist recommended ECT. She refused, but psychosurgery procedure when later admitted to the knows the answer too well. “Despite the general belief that ECT hospital for drug detoxifica- They have all the marks tion treatment, ECT was rec- of physical torture meth- ceased to be administered with the death ommended again. Although ods that might instead of Jack Nicholson’s character of McMurphy she resisted, the psychiatrist belong in the armory of a in ‘One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest,’ told her, “Your fears are KGB interrogator, rather hundreds of thousands around the world nothing but Cuban supersti- than in the inventory of are still subjected to it each year.” tions” and “unless you have a “medical practitioner.” these treatments you are — Jan Eastgate However, very few people going to die.” She was given have seen such recordings, five shock treatments. including, it would seem, those who legislate their Her husband relates what happened: “As a result mandatory use—and fewer still have witnessed them of the ECT treatments … my wife’s memory has been firsthand. greatly impaired. … Although she spoke English as a Psychiatrists deceptively cloak these procedures second language for 42 years, she has lost most of her with medical legitimacy: the hospital setting, white- ability to speak and understand it. … The whole expe- coated assistants, anesthetics, muscle paralyzing drugs rience has been a deception, a lie, a bully’s punch. … and sophisticated-looking equipment. The effects of Her depression was not cured and her memory is shock treatment are horrific, but the full ramifications quite defective now … we are both enraged at what has are not explained to the patients or families. Worse, taken place. I feel as if she had been raped right in front when objections are raised, they are overruled. of my eyes.”1 That both procedures are extremely profitable to With literally billions in profits realized from ECT psychiatrists and hospitals, while resulting in continued and psychosurgery, there is an appalling level of misin- long and expensive psychiatric “care” afterward, guar- formation about them today, most of it spread by psychi- anteeing future business and income to the psychiatrist, atrists. There are many scientists critical of the procedure.

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In 2004, Dr. John Friedberg, a neurologist who has researched the effects of ECT for over 30 years, stated, “It is very hard to put into words just what shock treatment does to people generally. … it destroys people’s ambition, and … their vitality. It makes people rather passive and apathetic. … Besides the amnesia, the apathy and the lack of energy is, in my view, the reason that … [psychiatrists] still get away with giving it.”2 Mary Lou Zimmerman understands about losing her ambition and her vitality, but as a victim of psychosurgery, not ECT. In June 2002, a jury ordered the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio to pay $7.5 million (€6 million) to the 62-year-old over a 1998 psychosurgery operation. Mrs. Zimmerman had sought treatment for compulsive hand washing. The clinic’s website claimed a 70% success rate. Mrs. Zimmerman was told the remaining 30% of patients were unchanged but unharmed.3 She was subjected to an operation in which four holes were drilled into her head and sections of her In spite of their sophisticated trappings of science, brain, each approximately the size of a marble, were the brutality of ECT and psychosurgery verifies that removed. As a result, she was unable to walk, stand, eat psychiatry has not advanced beyond the cruelty and or use the bathroom by herself. Her attorney, Robert barbarism of its earliest treatments. This report has been Linton, stated, “She lost everything—except her aware- written to help ensure that just as whipping, leeching ness of how she’s now different. … She is completely and flogging are now unlawful, these “treatments” disabled and needs full-time care.”4 should be prohibited or prosecuted for the criminal Today, the psychiatric industry in the United States assault they are. alone takes an estimated $5 billion (€4 billion) from ECT per year. In the U.S., 65-year-olds receive 360% more Sincerely, electroshock than 64-year-olds, since Medicare (government health insurance) takes effect at age 65, evidence that the use of ECT is guided, not by medical compas- sion, but by profit and greed. Although psychosurgery is less common today, up to 300 operations are still per- Jan Eastgate formed every year in the United States, including the President, Citizens Commission notorious prefrontal lobotomy. on Human Rights International

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IMPORTANT FACTS

Electroshock “therapy” was developed in Rome from the use of electricity on 1 pigs prior to slaughter.

Theories abound, but psychiatry cannot explain 2 how electroshock “works.” The ECT procedure itself is no more scientific or therapeutic than being hit 3 over the head with a bat.

Despite legislative bans and laws limiting its use, ECT is still 4 practiced today.

Psychiatrist Ugo Cerletti’s (top right) first victim was involuntary —a prisoner. After the first electric shock had seared through the man’s head, he screamed, “Not another one! It’s deadly!” CCHR_ECT_R1-5.ps 10/17/04 9:07 PM Page 5

CHAPTER ONE Deadly Electrical Assault

ew are aware that a Rome slaughterhouse another treatment with a higher voltage be given.”6 inspired the so-called scientific procedure German psychiatrist Lothar B. Kalinowsky, known as shock treatment or electroconvul- who witnessed this first ECT as a student of Cerletti, sive therapy (ECT). became one of its most ardent and vigorous propo- In the 1930s, psychiatrist Ugo Cerletti, nents. He developed his own electric shock machine Fthe chairman of the Department of Mental and and in 1938 introduced his procedure to France, Neurological Diseases at the University of Rome, Holland, England, and later, the United States. By began experimental electric shock treatments on 1940, ECT was used internationally. dogs, placing an electrode in the dog’s mouth A Pseudoscientific and another in its anus. In 1938, after visiting a Rome Hoax Half of the animals died Ask a psychiatrist from cardiac arrest. slaughterhouse to observe butchers today about how the In 1938, Cerletti incapacitating pigs with electric shocks to mind or brain works and changed his experimen- you will discover he tation by applying elec- render them more docile prior to slitting doesn’t know. Ask him tric shocks to the head, their throats, Italian psychiatrist Ugo about how ECT “works” following a slaughter- and he will also tell you house visit where he Cerletti developed ECT for humans. he doesn’t know, that he observed butchers inca- isn’t an “expert on elec- pacitating pigs with tricity.” However, he electric shocks prior to slitting their throats. does have endless theories about it. Inspired, he conducted further experiments on the These include (actual quotes): pigs, finally concluding that “these clear proofs ❚ It “is a destructive process that somehow caused all my doubts to vanish, and without more makes for improvement.” ado I gave instructions in the clinic to undertake, ❚ “Yields a beneficial vegetative effect.” next day, the experiment upon man. Very likely, ❚ “Yields the unconscious experience of dying except for this fortuitous and fortunate circum- and resurrection.” stance of pigs’ pseudo-electrical butchery, ECT ❚ “Yields fear, which in turn causes remission would not yet have been born.”5 (recovery).” Cerletti’s first victim was involuntary—a ❚ “...[B]rings the personality ‘down to a lower prisoner. After the first electric shock had seared level’ and so facilitates adjustment.”7 through the man’s head, the man screamed, ❚ “Teaches the brain to resist seizures” which “Not another one! It’s deadly!” A witness recounts “dampens abnormally active brain circuits, that, “The Professor [Cerletti then] suggested that stabilizing mood.”8

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❚ “Depressed people often feel guilty, and ECT as evidenced by a 1942 quote from psychiatrist satisfies their need for punishment.”9 Abraham Myerson: “The reduction of intelligence is Now imagine that same scenario with a heart an important factor in the curative process. ... The surgeon who claims he doesn’t know how the heart fact is that some of the very best cures that one gets works, while he explains that there are dozens of are in those individuals whom one reduces almost to theories about why a coronary bypass operation amentia [feeble-mindedness].”10 should be performed, despite there being no scien- The theory behind ECT hasn’t advanced beyond tific facts to support the procedure. that of the ancient Greeks who tried to cure mental Even worse, what if the doctor were to tell a problems using convulsive shock created by a drug patient the following was the likely outcome of an called hellebore. It may sound crude but it is a fact: upcoming operation: “brain damage, memory loss, the ECT procedure itself is no more scientific or disorientation that creates the illusion that problems therapeutic than being hit over the head with a bat. are gone.” Yet these are the results of shock treat- Today, ECT remains in use as a psychiatric treatment according to the 2003 U.S. Mental Health ment, despite legislative bans and laws limiting its Foundation ECT Fact Sheet. use, its lack of science and its high risk of harm, This is the outcome psychiatry has long sought solely because it is highly lucrative. DAMAGING RESULTS A History of ‘Shock’ Treatment Insulin shock treatment (right) Late 1920s: Viennese age manifested in such forms as severe and often per- was used together psychiatrist Manfred Sakel manent loss of memory, learning disability, and spatial with Metrazol shock induced a coma by inject- and temporal disorientation.” throughout most of ing large doses of insulin 1976: California passed a precedent-setting law into an unfed patient, prohibiting the use of ECT without patient consent and the 1930s and 40s. which produced a hypo- banning its use on children under the age of 12. It Below: ECT glycemic (the medical became a model for mental health law reform around the inventor Ugo Cerletti condition of an abnormal- world. experimenting with ly low level of sugar 1978: Max Fink, professor of psychiatry at the State electroshock on pigs at a in the blood) reaction University of New York at Stony Brook and recipient of Rome slaughterhouse. and caused convulsions. $18,000 (€14,472) in fees for two ECT instructional Studies revealed neuronal videos, wrote: “The principal complications of shrinkage and a 5% death electroshock therapy are deaths, brain damage, memo- rate. ry impairment and spontaneous seizures. These compli- 1934: Hungarian psychi- cations are similar to those seen after head trauma, with atrist Ladislaus Joseph which ECT has been compared.”11 von Meduna developed 1993: Texas passed the strictest law on shock treatment Metrazol (a drug used as to date, banning the use of ECT on children under the a circulatory or respira- age of 16 and requiring all deaths that occur within 14 tory stimulus) shock, and days of ECT to be reported to the Department of Mental injected a mixture of Health and Mental Retardation. camphor and olive oil 1998: The Piedmont Regional Council in Italy passed a that produced violent resolution, stating that because psychiatrists do not convulsions and caused know how ECT “works” and its scientific veracity is bone fractures. “questionable,” its use should be prohibited, at least, on 1938: Italian psychiatrist Ugo Cerletti, after being children, the elderly and pregnant women, and no doc- inspired by a visit to a Rome slaughterhouse to see pigs tor must be obliged to recommend ECT.12 shocked into docility before being killed, developed ECT 2003: “Shock damages the brain, causing memory loss for humans. and disorientation that creates an illusion that problems 1975: In an article in Psychology Today, neurologist are gone, and euphoria, which is a frequently observed Dr. John Friedberg wrote that ECT “is demonstrably result of brain injury.” — U.S. Mental Health Foundation ineffective and clearly dangerous. It causes brain dam- ECT Fact Sheet. CCHR_ECT_R1-7.ps 10/17/04 9:07 PM Page 7

ECT Machines: Since the first ECT machine was developed in the late 1930s, this form of “therapy” has been a lucrative practice for psychiatry. Today the administration of electroshock brings in an estimated $5 billion annually to the psychiatric industry in the U.S. alone. CCHR_ECT_R1-8.ps 10/17/04 9:07 PM Page 8

IMPORTANT FACTS

A 2001 Columbia University study found ECT so ineffective at ridding patients of depression that nearly all who receive it relapse 1 within six months.

In 2003, the U.S. Medicare health insurance program stopped coverage of “multiple seizure” ECT 2 as it was found to place patients at severe risk.

An estimated 300 people die 3 each year from ECT in the U.S. An Australian judge determined that the use of ECT on individuals without their consent is 4 “an assault.”

Psychiatrists rarely disclose to prospective ECT patients the 5 very real risks of memory loss, intellectual impairment and death.

Psychiatrists persist in inflicting electroshock on patients even though no valid medical or scientific justification exists for this practice. After more than 60 years, psychiatrists can neither explain how ECT is supposed to work nor justify its extensive damage. CCHR_ECT_R1-9.ps 10/17/04 9:07 PM Page 9

CHAPTERDevastating TWO Effects

n ECT consent form used in the ineffective at ridding patients of their depression United States advises that memo- that nearly all who receive it relapse within ry of recent events “may be six months.16 disturbed; dates, names of new In 2003, the U.S. Medicare health insurance friends, public events, telephone program stopped coverage of “multiple seizure” numbersA may be difficult to recall.” However, ECT, after an investigation revealed that the the “memory difficulty”—amnesia—is suppos- practice is unworkable and places patients at edly gone “within four severe risk. weeks after the last treatment” and “only ECT: “An appointment with Memory Loss occasionally do prob- The loss of memo- lems persist for fate, a brief but vital juncture in ry and the intellectual months.”13 your life, a few seconds, that abilities that require Quite aside from a can destroy the quality of memory to function large body of scientific properly are often literature that proves your entire life.” devastating to the per- otherwise, tens of thou- son treated with ECT. sands of shock vic- — Roy Barker, “ECT Anonymous,” In California in 1990, tims would disagree. a U.K. watchdog group, 1995 out of 656 complica- Delores McQueen of tions reported as the Lincoln, California, result of ECT, 82% received 20 electroshocks. Three years later, she included memory loss. More than 17% of the had yet to recover large parts of her memory. She complications related to apnea (cessation of forgot how to ride horses, which she’d once breathing) and at least three people suffered trained; she couldn’t remember family hunting bone fractures.17 and fishing trips; and she couldn’t remember her ❚ In 1995, a British Royal College of old friends. For this “safe and effective therapy,” Psychiatrists survey conducted on psychiatrists, taking approximately 15 minutes of the psychia- psychotherapists and general practitioners, trist’s time for each treatment, the payment was confirmed memory loss as an effect of ECT. Of $18,000.14 the 1,344 psychiatrists surveyed, 21% referred to Psychiatrists continue to tell patients that “long-term side effects and risks of brain ECT will help their “depression,” but numerous damage, memory loss [and] intellectual studies have found that after three to six months, impairment.”18 General practitioners reported there is no notable, long-term change.15 A 2001 that 34% of patients whom they had seen in Columbia University study found ECT so the months after receiving ECT “were

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poor or worse.” Fifty due to ECT than the psychotherapists were possibility of pro- more candid about found memory loss, the effects of ECT, despite the fact that making comments adverse effects on cog- such as: “It can cause nition [consciousness] personality changes are by far ECT’s most and memory impair- common side effects.”22 ment, making thera- ❚ Nobel prize- py more difficult” winning author Ernest and “... ECT, however Hemingway commit- it is dressed up in ted suicide shortly clinical terms, is after being subjected inseparable from an to a series of electric assault.”19 shocks. Before his ❚ Margo Bauer death he wrote, “What recalled her ECT is the sense of ruin- experience as an “What is the sense of ing my head and adolescent in a letter to ruining my head and erasing erasing my memory, the Los Angeles Times in which is my capital, 2003: “I was assaulted my memory, which is my and putting me out of and damaged, and capital, and putting me out of business? It was a bril- have spent my lifetime liant cure but we lost surviving this dracon- business? It was a brilliant the patient.” ian treatment. By this I cure but we lost the patient.” mean having little Deliberately — Ernest Hemingway, memory of childhood Inflicting Brain Nobel prize-winning author before the ECT, which Damage was given at ages Normally shock 11 and 13. I lost the treatments are given memories [and] lost trust in caretakers who could by placing electrodes on each temple. This is allow this to happen.”20 called bilateral (two sides). Unilateral (one side) ❚ “ECT Anonymous,” a U.K. watchdog is a variation in which the electrodes are placed group, summed up the Royal College’s report as on the same side of the head. Psychiatrists claim “a chilling catalogue of blundering incompe- that there is less damage with electroshock when tence.” Roy Barker, spokesman for the group, it is administered unilaterally. said of ECT: “An appointment with fate, a brief In a 1992 article, “ECT: Shock, Lies and but vital juncture in your life, a few seconds, that Psychiatry,” authors Yvonne Jones and Steve can destroy the quality of your entire life.”21 Baldwin said that claims that less damage occurs ❚ In 2000, psychiatrist Harold A. Sackheim, when the electric shock is administered unilater- a major proponent of ECT, when addressing the ally are false: “This procedure assumes that one frequency with which patients complain of side of the brain is less valuable than the other. ... memory loss, stated, “As a field, we have more EEG (recording of electrical activity in the brain) readily acknowledged the possibility of death results one month after unilateral ECT confirm Continued on page 12

CHAPTER TWO Devastating Effects 10 CCHR_ECT_R1-11.ps 10/17/04 9:07 PM Page 11 SEARING THE BRAIN How Electroshock ‘Works’

go Cerletti’s original 1938 machine used 5. To meet the brain’s demand for oxygen, 125 volts of electricity. Later, shock blood flow to the brain can increase as much as machines began to deliver up to 480 400%. Blood pressure can increase 200%. Under U volts, four times the voltage in an electri- normal conditions, the brain uses a blood-brain bar- cal wall socket in the United States. The brain rier to keep itself healthy against harmful toxins and seizures and convulsions caused patients to bite foreign substances. With ECT, harmful substances their tongues, break teeth or jaws, and fractures of “leak” from blood vessels into the brain tissue, caus- the spine, pelvis or other bones were common. ing swelling. Nerve cells die. Cellular activity is Today, pre-oxygenation of the brain, muscle relax- altered. The physiology of the brain is altered. ants and anesthetics are administered to hide the 6. Most patients are given a total of six to barbaric external effects of ECT, but the electric twelve shocks, once a day, three times a week. current searing invisibly through the victims’ brains 7. The results are memory loss, confusion, loss is just as harmful as ever. of space-time orientation, and even death. Today, when administering Electroconvulsive Therapy [ECT]: 1. The patient is injected with an anesthetic to block out pain, and a muscle-paralyzing agent to shut down muscular activity and prevent spinal fractures. Dr. Clinton LaGrange, an anesthesiolo- gist, describes the procedure as it is still performed in 2004: “… when the psychiatrist is ready and the patient has been pre-oxygenated (administered extra oxygen) for a few minutes, then we administer … Methohexital (a barbiturate)” to put the patient to sleep. “Then we place a tourniquet on the patient’s leg. … We want to be able to determine if the patient is having an adequate seizure and the only way to be able to tell that is if you have a portion of the body that is isolated from the bloodstream so that you can see the muscles seizing.” The tourniquet, he says, “prevents that muscle relaxant from reaching that part of the body.”28 A muscle relaxant, Succinylcholine, is then administered, to cause paralysis. When used to capture animals, Succinylcholine paralyzes them but they remain awake, are completely aware of what is happening to them and can feel pain.29 LaGrange explains further: “It paralyzes the muscles, relaxes the muscles … so that the muscles can’t work at all.” The patient is not able to breathe so “we have to breathe for them. … We have a mask and a bag that we ventilate (oxygen administered artificially) them with … the patient is not completely relaxed … there are times when the patient may move their arms, or the rest of their muscles, their neck muscles [or] clench their jaw.”30 2. Electrodes are placed on the temples bilat- erally (from one side of the brain to the other) or unilaterally (front to back on one side of the head). 3. A rubber gag is placed in the mouth to keep teeth from breaking or patients from biting their tongues. 4. Between 180 and 480 volts of electricity send a current searing through the brain. CCHR_ECT_R1-12.ps 10/17/04 9:08 PM Page 12

“There is a lot of brain damage, there is memory loss, the death rate does go up, the suicide rate doesn’t go down. There are a lot of dangers and side effects.” — Dr. Colin Ross, psychiatrist, U.S.A.

that it is possible to detect which side of the brain An estimated 300 people die each year is damaged.”23 from ECT in the United States. Approximately In 2004, Dr. Friedberg testified under oath 250 of these are elderly, a defenseless and that some memory loss “happens in every single “malpractice-free” patient group, since memory case of shock treatment.” The memory loss can loss following ECT can be easily attributed be “permanent and irreversible. …” It’s “…enor- to “senility.” mously patchy and variable. That’s always the In 1990, the Honorable Justice John P. case with brain injuries. It’s very unpredictable Slattery, head of a New South Wales govern- what’s going to be the final outcome.”24 ment inquiry into the psychiatric practice Dr. Colin Ross, a Texas psychiatrist, explains known as “Deep Sleep Treatment”—a combina- that existing ECT literature shows “there is a lot tion of drugs and ECT—reported on the prac- of brain damage, there is memory loss, the death tice of administering ECT without consent: rate does go up, the suicide rate doesn’t go “The doctors and the nurses who treated down. [I]f those are the facts from a very well- patients without the patient’s consent, contrary designed, big study, then you’d have to con- to the patient’s consent, or on the basis of conclude we shouldn’t do ECT. … [T]he literature sent obtained by fraud or deceit, committed a that exists strongly supports the conclusion that trespass to the person of each of these patients it isn’t effective beyond the period of time of the and were responsible for an assault on them.”27 treatment and there are a lot of dangers and side Rarely do psychiatrists tell patients these effects and a lot of damage.”25 facts, violating “informed consent” and, in The American Psychiatric Association claims doing so, committing assault and malpractice. an ECT death rate of one in 10,000 patients. Criminal statutes should apply to any However, Texas statistics reveal the death rate psychiatrist who administers ECT and so among the elderly receiving ECT is one in 200.26 harms a patient.

“The doctors … who treated patients [with ECT] without the patient’s consent, contrary to the patient’s consent, or on the basis of consent obtained by fraud or deceit, committed a trespass to the person of each of these patients and were responsible for an assault on them.” — The Honorable Justice John P. Slattery, New South Wales, Australia

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r. Barthold Bierens de Haan of shock treatments for the elderly. I believe it is Switzerland says, “If psychiatrists an abuse not only of the patient but of the don’t know what they do with their Medicare system. I think a full investigation of electroshocks, the patients them- the procedure and the physicians performing it selves know. ...First, a considerable should be undertaken.”31 Dfear, reaching terror, they all testify; then serious ❚ In April 2003, Carole from New Zealand memory troubles, from which they sometimes detailed how she had been subjected to violent never fully recover.” ECT in 2000. Suffering from depression after the ❚ Dolphin Reeves wrote to the Los Angeles birth of her daughter, Carole was hospitalized and Times in 2003, calling for a full investigation into prescribed a variety of drugs that didn’t help. “I ECT use on elderly citizens: “My father had a series would have done anything to get well,” she said. of three hospitalizations in New York where he She was given 15 electroshocks. As for “consent,” underwent numerous ECTs, beginning in about she said, psychiatrists said, “I would get two the mid-1980s, then again in 1999 and in the weeks’ memory loss. … But I can’t remember what summer of 2002. He it was like to have my was 90 years old when wee girl. I have lost the he received the last of birth experience and at least 11 ECTs. I what it was like to be in voiced my opposition, labor.” but he was neverthe- Carole also forgets less subjected to the what day it is and peo- jolts to his brain. … [He ples’ names. Because of was] unable to remem- the damage she suf- ber where he lived, fered from ECT, she has his memory was so lost custody of her impaired that the daughter.32 administering doctor ❚ In September decided he could not 1999, a Scottish fam- return to his home. I ily won an $82,600 had expressed concern (€66,414) settlement to this doctor about the from the Greater possible danger of Glasgow Health Board administering the “The doctor assured me that (GGHB) over the death shocks to my father’s there was no danger. He failed to of 30-year-old Joseph brain at his age. Doherty, who com- “The doctor assured mention the deleterious effects the mitted suicide while me that there was no electroshock would have on my undergoing ECT in danger. He failed to father’s memory. Medicare pays 1992. Doherty’s med- mention the deleterious for shock treatments for ical records show that effects the electro- before being electroshock would have on the elderly. I believe it is an abuse shocked, he had repeat- my father’s memory. not only of the patient but of edly refused to consent Medicare pays for the Medicare system.” to ECT.33

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IMPORTANT FACTS

The side effects of psychosurgery —loss of bowel and bladder control, epileptic seizures and brain infections—have been well 1 known since the late 1940s.

Psychosurgery attempts to control and brutally alter the person and behavior by destroying perfectly healthy 2 brain tissue.

Psychosurgery has as much as a 10% death rate. Suicide following psychosurgery has 3 been considered by some psychiatrists to be a “successful” outcome.

“Deep-brain stimulation” (DBS), “transcranial magnetic stimulation” (TMS) and the 4 like are psychiatry’s latest experiments in treatment of the “mentally ill.” CCHR_ECT_R1-15.ps 10/17/04 9:08 PM Page 15

CHAPTERHuman Butchery THREE Still in Use

nlike medical brain surgery that alle- dure and performing the procedure in theatrical viates actual physical conditions, fashion for all to see. The media dubbed his circus psychosurgery attempts to brutally tour “Operation Ice Pick.” alter behavior by destroying perfect- During that time, the psychiatric community ly healthy brain tissue. successfully convinced state governments that UThe most notorious psychosurgery procedure is psychosurgery could reduce their mental health lobotomy. It was developed by Egas Moniz of budgets. The superintendent at Delaware State Lisbon, Portugal, in 1935, but it was U.S. psychiatrist Hospital, for example, was so taken in by the propa- Walter J. Freeman who became its leading propo- ganda that he hoped to reduce the number of men- nent. He performed his first lobotomy using elec- tal patients by 60% and save $351,000 (€282,222). troshock as an anesthetic. He inserted an ice pick By the late 1940s, the crippling and lethal effects beneath the eye socket of psychosurgery were bone and drove it into becoming a matter of the brain with a surgical Psychosurgery attempts to brutally public record and mallet. Movement of the alter behavior by destroying perfectly smashed its false image ice pick then severed the healthy brain tissue. Psychosurgeon as a miracle cure. Alarm fibers of the frontal brain bells were being rung lobes. This caused irre- Walter J. Freeman conceded that 25% due to the following versible brain damage. of the lobotomized patients could signs of harm: ❚ Freeman claimed, how- be “considered as adjusting at the A death and sui- ever, that the procedure cide mortality rate of would remove the emo- level of a domestic invalid or up to 20% tional component from a household pet.” ❚ Infections leading person’s “mental ill- to cerebral abscesses ness.” He later conceded ❚ Meningitis (seri- that lobotomy did produce a zombie-like state in one ous infectious disease in the brain) out of every four persons treated. Twenty-five per- ❚ Osteomyelitis (infectious inflammatory bone cent of the lobotomized patients could be “consid- disease) of the skull ered as adjusting at the level of a domestic invalid or ❚ Cerebral hemorrhages household pet,” he said. ❚ Weight gain, loss of bowel and bladder control Between 1946 and 1949, the number of loboto- ❚ Epileptic seizures in more than 50% of mies increased tenfold. Freeman himself performed recipients or supervised 3,500 procedures. He traveled across ❚ Deleterious changes in personality the country in a camper van that he called his “lobot- Despite the lethal and damaging effects of the omobile,” promoting lobotomy as a miracle proce- operation, psychiatrists continue to advocate its use.

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In a 1996 London Times article on psychosurgery, one hemisphere and another cubic millimeter from the British psychiatrist Paul Bridges, who had helped other hemisphere, and that stops the addiction.”36 oversee some 1,200 psychosurgery operations at the Alexander Lusikian, who successfully sued the Geoffrey Knight Institute at Maudsley Hospital in Institute in 2002, disagrees: “They drilled my head South London, defended the procedure: “The prob- without any anesthetic. They kept drilling and lem is prejudice. … People just don’t seem to like the cauterizing [burning] exposed areas of my brain … idea of psychosurgery because it sounds brutal.”34 blood was everywhere … During the three or four Ironically, in 2000, Bridges was convicted of charges days after the operation … the pain in my head was concerning a pedophile ring and indecent assault on so terrible—it was as if it had been beaten with a two boys, ages 15 and 16, one of them in 1996.35 baseball bat. And when the pain passed a little, I still No such prejudice existed at the St. Petersburg felt the desire to take drugs.” Within two months, Institute of the Human Brain in Russia. There, Dr. Alexander reverted to drugs.37 Sviatoslav Medvedev supervised over 100 psychosurgery procedures between 1997 and 1999, Brain Implants: the Latest given mainly to teenagers to “cure” them of drug Psychiatric ‘Snake Oil’ addiction. “I think the West is too cautious about neu- Psychiatry’s history is strewn with false rosurgery because of the obsession with human “discoveries” that were passed off at the time as the rights,” he said. The doctor chillingly explained his latest breakthroughs in mental treatment, but methods, “Addiction is a kind of obsession. There’s a which were discovered in retrospect to be little kind of circle in the brain which has to be cut out. more than brutal, debilitating punishments. That’s our task. We take out a cubic millimeter from Continued on page 18 ICE PICKS TO THE BRAIN The History of Psychosurgery he following is a 1882: Swiss asylum superintendent Gott- brief history of lieb Burckhardt was the first known psychosur- T this destructive geon. He removed cerebral tissue from six procedure: patients, hoping “the patients might be transformed from a disturbed to a quiet 1848: Modern [lunatic].” Although one died and others psychosurgery can be developed epilepsy, paralysis and aphasia (loss of traced to an incident ability to use or understand words), Burckhardt when an explosion was pleased with quiet patients. drove an iron rod through the cheek and The Genus of Psychosurgery Egas Moniz—the out the top of the head father of psychosurgery of railway worker 1848—Fascinated exit Phineas Gage. Before with behavior changes in wound the accident, Gage had been a capable fore- railroad worker Phineas Gage after his head was man, a religious man with a well-balanced mind impaled by a tamping and shrewd business sense. After the accident, iron (below), psychiatrists Gage recovered, but he became fitful, irreverent, of the day generated grossly profane, impatient and obstinate. theories that led to entry wound Psychiatrists continued to be intrigued by the the development of sudden mood change and began testing the psychosurgery. use of psychosurgery to alter the behavior of their patients. A plaster cast of Phineas Gage showing his head wounds (arrow). CCHR_ECT_R1-17.ps 10/17/04 9:08 PM Page 17

1935: Egas Moniz, a professor of neurology in 1946: American psychiatrist Walter J. Psychiatrist Walter Lisbon, Portugal, performed the first lobotomy, Freeman performed his first lobotomy. In 1967 J. Freeman performed inspired by an experiment in which the frontal Freeman lost his license to practice after thousands of lobotomies lobes of two chimpanzees were removed. Moniz killing a female patient with his brutal using only an ice pick conducted the same operation on humans, theo- procedure. Postoperative death and suicide and a mallet, often rizing that the source of mental disorders was mortality rates resulting from his operations were with the press corps located in this part of the brain. “In accordance as high as 10%. looking on. with the theory we have just developed,” he said, “one conclusion is derived: to cure these patients Late 1940s: Psychosurgery was “refined” to we must destroy the more or less fixed arrange- burning the brain tissue with a fine probe. The ments of cellular connections that exist in the result, however, was as destructive as ever. brain.” 38 A 12-year follow-up study observed that Moniz’s patients suffered relapses, seizures and Today: Despite killing thousands of people death. Moniz was awarded the Nobel prize for internationally and ushering in an era that psychosurgery. Ironically, he was paralyzed in 1944 American Psychiatric Association President Alan by five gunshots in the back from a disgruntled Stone called “a tragic and unfortunate chapter of patient. Sixteen years later, he was shot and killed psychiatry,” psychiatrists around the world still by another dissatisfied patient. practice psychosurgery. CCHR_ECT_R1-18.ps 10/17/04 9:08 PM Page 18

Deep brain stimulation (DBS) involves threading wires through the skull and into the brain. They connect to a battery pack implanted in the chest, similar to the heart pacemaker and emanate high-frequency electrical impulses directly into the head.40 The FDA has approved this procedure for patients suffering from Parkinson’s disease, which is an actual brain-based pathology, but psychiatrists are using it experimentally on the “mentally” ill, charging around $50,000 per patient.41 New high-tech “treatments” In TMS, a magnetic coil is placed near the for the brain will continue to be used patient’s scalp and a to create the appearance of scientific powerful and rapidly progress, but in the end, psychiatry changing magnetic field Science writer passes through skin and Robert Whitaker says: will be no closer to identifying any bone and penetrates a “Rarely has psychiatry causes or effecting any cures; instead, few centimeters into the been totally without a their betrayal and brutality in the outer cortex (outer gray remedy advertised as matter) of the brain and effective. Whether it be name of mental health continues. induces an electrical cur- whipping the mentally rent.42 Repetitive TMS ill, bleeding them, making them vomit, feeding can cause seizures or epileptic convulsions in healthy them sheep thyroids, putting them in continuous subjects, depending upon the intensity, frequency, baths, stunning them with shock therapies, or duration and interval of the magnetic stimuli.43 severing their frontal lobes—all such therapies VNS is a nerve-brain stimulator. An electrode ‘worked’ at one time, and then, when a new thera- is wrapped around the vagus nerve in the neck and py came along, they were suddenly seen in a new then connected to a pacemaker implanted in the light, and their shortcomings revealed.”39 patient’s chest wall. The apparatus is programmed In Blaming the Brain, Elliot Valenstein, Ph.D., to produce electrical stimuli in the brain.44 wrote, “Prefrontal lobotomy, insulin coma, and Over the past few decades, many a critic other treatments that are now totally rejected were has drawn comparisons between psychiatric claimed, in their time, to be just as effective in treat- experiments and the unconscionable “science” ing mental illnesses as it is now claimed that drug perpetrated by Nazi practitioners in concentration treatment is.” camps. Psychiatrists will not be able to dispel these With ECT and psychosurgery under intense notions, unless and until they stop claiming critical public scrutiny, psychiatry is now feverishly scientific value for their techniques. If history is searching for a new “breakthrough miracle”— anything to go by, they will once again plead to be “deep brain stimulation,” “transcranial magnetic given “another chance” and new treatments will be stimulation” (TMS) and “vagus nerve stimulation” used to create an appearance of scientific progress. (VNS) (vagus nerve: the cranial nerve that connects But in the end, they will be no closer to effecting the brain to the internal organs in the body) are the any cures; all they will have accomplished is new catch phrases. assault and mayhem in the name of therapy.

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naware that psychiatry and its electric shocks and dangerous treatments are not based administered brain- on medical science, many great damaging psychiatric artists whose gifts have enriched drugs, he died at the our lives, have fallen victim to ECT age of 42. U ❚ and psychosurgery. In the 1960s, ❚ Frances Farmer was a screen and stage actress Stevie Wright, the whose career lit up Hollywood and Broadway in the teenage lead singer ‘30s and ‘40s. The world was shocked when she of Australia’s number revealed the ruin psychiatry had inflicted upon her. one rock band, The Jessica Lange later portrayed her story in the movie, Easybeats, was enjoy- Frances. Upset over a string of failed relationships, Farmer had been committed to an institution in 1943. She was subjected to 90 insulin shocks and electroshock. She told of being “raped by order- lies, gnawed on by rats, poisoned Judy Garland by tainted food, chained in Many notable personalities padded cells, strapped in strait and celebrities have been jackets and half drowned in ice baths.” Her last “treatment” was lost to us after seeking a lobotomy at the hands of the help from psychiatry. In infamous Walter J. Freeman. Free- each case they were betrayed man arrogantly described loboto- and placed on a path that my as “mercy killing of the psy- ensured their destruction. che,” adding that “patients … must sacrifice some of [their] driving force, creative spirit and soul.” Following the operation, Farmer never regained her abilities and died at the age of 57, destitute. ❚ Vivien Leigh, star of classic movies such as Gone with the Wind and A Streetcar Named Desire, was subjected to repeat- Frances Farmer ed ECT in psychiatric facilities in England, one treatment leaving burns on her tem- ing a string of hits such ple. Husband Sir Lawrence Olivier was devastated as “She’s So Fine” and by the changes in Leigh’s personality: “I can only “Friday on My Mind.” describe them by saying that she was not, now By the age of 21, how- that she had been given the treatment, the same ever, the fame was over. girl that I had fallen in love with. … She was now The band folded. Wright more of a stranger to me than I could ever have developed a heroin imagined possible. Something had happened to habit. He was admitted her, very hard to describe, but unquestionably to Chelmsford private Vivien Leigh evident.” psychiatric hospital in ❚ Judy Garland, one of America’s all-time Sydney where he underwent a deadly drug and greatest performers, saw her career and life ECT combination called deep sleep treatment. ruined, as she became a victim of prescribed His brain was so badly damaged by the 14 elec- psychiatric drugs and electroshock. troshocks and drugs he was incapable of writing ❚ Bud Powell was a child prodigy. As a pianist songs for the next 10 years. The years of lost cre- and composer he became the creator of the sound ativity were unbearable. He ended up living on we know today as bebop. Subjected to repeated government sickness benefits. CCHR_ECT_R1-20.ps 10/17/04 9:08 PM Page 20

IMPORTANT FACTS

There are numerous medical conditions that can cause mental symptoms such as 1 anxiety and depression.

In one study, 97% of cases of visual hallucinations were 2 found to be of medical origin. A California state Mental Health Medical Evaluation publication states, “Mental 3 health professionals … have [an] obligation to recognize … physical diseases in their patients … physical diseases may cause a patient’s mental disorder. …”

There are many workable alternatives to ECT and 4 psychosurgery. CCHR_ECT_R1-21.ps 10/17/04 9:08 PM Page 21

CHAPTERProvide Help, FOUR Not Harm

hysically intrusive and damaging general, and 40 types of drugs that can create practices such as ECT and psychosurgery “psychiatric symptoms.” violate the doctor’s pledge to uphold the In 1967 they wrote, “The most common Hippocratic Oath and “Do no harm.” medically induced psychiatric symptoms are apathy, The first and most obvious solution to anxiety, visual hallucinations, mood and personality Pthe psychiatric abuses described in this publication changes, dementia, depression, delusional thinking, is to eliminate funding for psychiatric practices that sleep disorders (frequent or early-morning awaken- perpetrate those abuses. If insurance companies and ing), poor concentration, changed speech patterns, governments did not pay for psychiatrists to deliver tachycardia [rapid heartbeat], nocturia [excessive brain-damaging shocks and psychosurgery, these urination at night], tremulousness and confusion. methods would quickly “In particular, the fade into oblivion. presence of visual hallu- Once the psychiatrist “Mental health professionals working within cinations, illusions or who profits by keeping a mental health system have a professional and distortions indicated a his patients ignorant of a legal obligation to recognize the presence of medical etiology [cause] effective treatments is until proven otherwise. gotten out of the way, physical disease in their patients ... physical Our medical experience dozens of workable alter- diseases may cause a patient’s mental disorder suggests this to be the natives come into view. [or] may worsen a mental disorder.” most reliable discrimina- Persons who have been — California Department of Mental tor [between medical and “diagnosed” to have Health Medical Evaluation Field Manual, 1991 mental problems]. We are a psychiatric disorder able to define a specific should get a full and medical cause in 97 of 100 searching clinical examination by a competent, patients with pronounced visual hallucinations.”45 non-psychiatric physician. [Emphasis added] Fatigue, disorientation, delirium, confusion, Charles B. Inlander, president of The People’s inability to concentrate, inexplicable pains and Medical Society, and his colleagues wrote in Medicine hundreds of other symptoms can be caused by a on Trial, “People with real or alleged psychiatric or plethora of known physical conditions, which psychi- behavioral disorders are being misdiagnosed—and atrists never thoroughly investigate before prescribing harmed—to an astonishing degree … Many of them their unworkable, debilitating treatments. do not have psychiatric problems but exhibit physi- Researchers Richard Hall and Michael Popkin cal symptoms that may mimic mental conditions, list 21 medical conditions that can cause anxiety, and so they are misdiagnosed, put on drugs, put in 12 conditions that can cause depression, 56 institutions, and sent into a limbo from which they conditions that can cause mental disturbance in may never return.”46

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atric medical experts on staff and be required to have a full complement of diagnostic equipment, which could prevent more than 40% of admissions by finding undiagnosed physical conditions. Psychiatry has proven one thing. Without the protection of basic human rights, there can only be diminished mental health. In 1993, the Texas governor With the inherent with state legislators, signed contradiction between an innovative ECT law, prohibiting alleged treatment and results, which create ECT on children under 16 and long-term psychiatric implementing mandatory reporting patients, it falls to on ECT usage, side effects and the wider community deaths. In 1999, the Piedmont to expose psychiatric abuse and demand region in Italy banned ECT use reforms. on children, pregnant The educational women and the elderly. institutions responsible for training psychiatrists should also According to the California Department of be held accountable for the havoc psychiatry’s Mental Health Medical Evaluation Field Manual treatments wreak. The tuitions they are paid are (1991)—which CCHR assisted in introducing— spent on creating a clique of people who have no ”Mental health professionals working within a regard for human rights and, in many instances, mental health system have a professional and a human life. Harsh words? Maybe. But academic legal obligation to recognize the presence of freedom cannot succeed when the final result is physical disease in their patients ... physical massive physical and emotional harm for count- diseases may cause a patient’s mental disorder less people. [or] may worsen a mental disorder.”47 Psychiatric colleges, their institutions and Persons in desperate circumstances must be psychiatrists themselves must be held account- provided proper and effective medical care. able for the abuses of basic statutory and human Mental health facilities should have non-psychi- rights committed daily in the name of “help.”

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RECOMMENDATIONS Recommendations

ECT and psychosurgery should be labeled what they are—torture—and they should be banned. Their use should be prohibited immediately on children and 1 adolescents 18 years of age or under, the elderly, pregnant women and on any involuntarily committed patient.

Criminal laws should specifically provide criminal penalties for psychiatrists and staff who administer ECT and psychosurgery to any non-consenting patient, or if the “informed 2 consent” procedure was in any way shortened.

Psychiatrists administering ECT and psychosurgery should be held fully accountable, 3 civilly and criminally, for their effects upon the recipient and be criminally prosecuted for any damage arising from their “treatment.”

Mental health homes must be established to replace coercive psychiatric institutions. These 4 must have medical doctors on staff and have medical diagnostic equipment, which non- psychiatric medical doctors can use to thoroughly examine and test for all underlying physical problems that may be manifesting as disturbed behavior. Government and private funds should be channeled into this alternative program rather than abusive psychiatric institutions and programs that have proven not to work.

All mental disorders in DSM-IV, to have any worth, should be validated by scientific, 5 physical evidence. Government, criminal, educational, judicial and other social agencies should not rely on the DSM or the ICD-10 mental disorders section and no legislation should use these as a basis for determining the mental state, competency, educational standard or rights of any individual.

File a police report on any mental health practitioner found to be using coercion, threats or malice to get people to “concede” to undergo psychiatric treatment. Send a 6 copy of the complaint to CCHR.

THE BRUTAL REALITY Recommendations

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Citizens Commission on Human Rights International

he Citizens Commission on Human CCHR’s work aligns with the UN Universal Rights (CCHR) was established in Declaration of Human Rights, in particular the 1969 by the Church of Scientology to following precepts, which psychiatrists violate on investigate and expose psychiatric a daily basis: violations of human rights, and to Article 3: Everyone has the right to life, clean up the field of mental healing. liberty and security of person. Today, it has more than 130 chapters in over 31T countries. Its board of advisors, called Article 5: No one shall be subjected to torture Commissioners, includes doctors, lawyers, educa- or to cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or tors, artists, business professionals, and civil and punishment. human rights representatives. Article 7: All are equal before the law and While it doesn’t provide medical or legal are entitled without any discrimination to equal advice, it works closely with and supports medical protection of the law. doctors and medical practice. A key CCHR focus is Through psychiatrists’ false diagnoses, stigma- psychiatry’s fraudulent use of subjective “diag- tizing labels, easy-seizure commitment laws, brutal, noses” that lack any scientific or medical merit, but depersonalizing “treatments,” thousands of indi- which are used to reap financial benefits in the bil- viduals are harmed and denied their inherent lions, mostly from the taxpayers or insurance carri- human rights. ers. Based on these false diagnoses, psychiatrists CCHR has inspired and caused many hun- justify and prescribe life-damaging treatments, dreds of reforms by testifying before legislative including mind-altering drugs, which mask a hearings and conducting public hearings into psy- person’s underlying difficulties and prevent his or chiatric abuse, as well as working with media, law her recovery. enforcement and public officials the world over.

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MISSION STATEMENT

THE CITIZENS COMMISSION ON HUMAN RIGHTS investigates and exposes psychiatric violations of human rights. It works shoulder-to-shoulder with like-minded groups and individuals who share a common purpose to clean up the field of mental health. We shall continue to do so until psychiatry’s abusive and coercive practices cease and human rights and dignity are returned to all.

Lucy Johnston rights area as it pertains to psychiatric miscon- Journalist, United Kingdom: duct and the related psychotropic drug abuse. “We must understand, and bring home I found CCHR to be unrelenting in its efforts to the public, the extent to which psychiatric to expose the wrongdoers and to assure the practice is driven by fads. At the height of the end of their activities. CCHR’s efforts to leucotomy fad, tens of thousands of these defend the victims of this misconduct and psychosurgery operations were performed by abuse has been impressive. Finally, it is clear a relatively small number of men. Tens of beyond question that principles based upon thousands of people were deliberately brain concern for human rights motivates CCHR.” damaged as a result. This occurred because, at the time, nobody stopped them. The CCHR is Dr. Julian Whitaker, M.D. fighting for those people who are among the Whitaker Wellness Institute, USA: most disenfranchised in our society, who do “CCHR is the only nonprofit not have a voice and who cannot fight for organization that is focused on the abuses of themselves. It successfully carries out this psychiatrists and the psychiatric profession. fight and has been able to stop abuse.” The reason it is so important, is that people do not realize how unscientific the psychiatric Jonathan Lubell profession is. Nor does anyone realize how New York attorney and former president dangerous this labeling of people, this of the National Lawyers Guild, New York drugging of people, particularly children, City Chapter: has become. So the efforts of CCHR and “Over a number of years, I had become the successes they have made is a cultural familiar with the work of CCHR in the human benefit of a great magnitude.”

For further information: CCHR International 6616 Sunset Blvd. Los Angeles, CA, USA 90028 Telephone: (323) 467-4242 • (800) 869-2247 • Fax: (323) 467-3720 www.cchr.org • e-mail: [email protected] CCHR_ECT_R1-26.ps 10/17/04 9:08 PM Page 26

CCHR INTERNATIONAL Board of Commissioners

CCHR’s Commissioners act in an official David Pomeranz capacity to assist CCHR in its work to reform Harriet Schock the field of mental health and to secure rights Michelle Stafford for the mentally ill. Cass Warner Miles Watkins International President Kelly Yaegermann Jan Eastgate Citizens Commission on Politics & Law Human Rights International Tim Bowles, Esq. Los Angeles Lars Engstrand Lev Levinson National President Jonathan W. Lubell, LL.B. Bruce Wiseman Lord Duncan McNair Citizens Commission on Kendrick Moxon, Esq. Human Rights United States Science, Medicine & Health Citizens Commission on Giorgio Antonucci, M.D. Human Rights Board Member Mark Barber, D.D.S. Isadore M. Chait Shelley Beckmann, Ph.D. Mary Ann Block, D.O. Founding Commissioner Roberto Cestari, M.D. Dr. Thomas Szasz, (also President CCHR Italy) Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus Lloyd McPhee at the State University of New Conrad Maulfair, D.O. York Health Science Center Coleen Maulfair Clinton Ray Miller Arts and Entertainment Mary Jo Pagel, M.D. Jason Beghe Lawrence Retief, M.D. David Campbell Megan Shields, M.D. Raven Kane Campbell William Tutman, Ph.D. Nancy Cartwright Michael Wisner Kate Ceberano Julian Whitaker, M.D. Chick Corea Sergej Zapuskalov, M.D. Bodhi Elfman Jenna Elfman Education Isaac Hayes Gleb Dubov, Ph.D. Steven David Horwich Bev Eakman Mark Isham Nickolai Pavlovsky Donna Isham Prof. Anatoli Prokopenko Jason Lee Religion Geoff Levin Rev. Doctor Jim Nicholls Gordon Lewis Juliette Lewis Business Marisol Nichols Lawrence Anthony John Novello Roberto Santos

CITIZENS COMMISSION on Human Rights 26 CCHR_ECT_R1-27.ps 10/17/04 9:08 PM Page 27

CCHR National Offices

CCHR Australia CCHR France CCHR Japan CCHR Russia Citizens Commission on Citizens Commission on Citizens Commission on Citizens Commission on Human Rights Australia Human Rights France Human Rights Japan Human Rights Russia P.O. Box 562 (Commission des Citoyens pour 2-11-7-7F Kitaotsuka P.O. Box 35 Broadway, New South Wales les Droits de l’Homme—CCDH) Toshima-ku Tokyo 117588 Moscow, Russia 2007 Australia BP 76 170-0004, Japan Phone: 7095 518 1100 Phone: 612-9211-4787 75561 Paris Cedex 12 , France Phone/Fax: 81 3 3576 1741 Fax: 612-9211-5543 Phone: 33 1 40 01 0970 CCHR South Africa E-mail: [email protected] Fax: 33 1 40 01 0520 CCHR Lausanne, Switzerland Citizens Commission on E-mail: [email protected] Citizens Commission Human Rights South Africa CCHR Austria on Human Rights Lausanne P.O. Box 710 Citizens Commission on CCHR Germany (Commission des Citoyens pour Johannesburg 2000 Human Right\n \s Austria Citizens Commission on les droits de l’Homme— CCDH) Republic of South Africa (Bürgerkommission für Human Rights Germany— Case postale 5773 Phone: 27 11 622 2908 Menschenrechte Österreich) National Office 1002 Lausanne, Switzerland Postfach 130 (Kommission für Verstöße der Phone: 41 21 646 6226 CCHR Spain A-1072 Wien, Austria Psychiatrie gegen E-mail: [email protected] Citizens Commission on Phone: 43-1-877-02-23 Menschenrechte e.V.—KVPM) Human Rights Spain E-mail: [email protected] Amalienstraße 49a CCHR Mexico (Comisión de Ciudadanos por los 80799 München, Germany Citizens Commission Derechos Humanos—CCDH) CCHR Belgium Phone: 49 89 273 0354 on Human Rights Mexico Apdo. de Correos 18054 Citizens Commission on Fax: 49 89 28 98 6704 (Comisión de Ciudadanos por 28080 Madrid, Spain Human Rights E-mail: [email protected] los Derechos Humanos—CCDH) Postbus 55 Tuxpan 68, Colonia Roma CCHR Sweden 2800 Mechelen 2, CCHR Greece CP 06700, México DF Citizens Commission on Belgium Citizens Commission on E-mail: Human Rights Sweden Phone: 324-777-12494 Human Rights [email protected] (Kommittén för Mänskliga 65, Panepistimiou Str. Rättigheter—KMR) CCHR Canada 105 64 Athens, Greece CCHR Monterrey, Mexico Box 2 Citizens Commission on Citizens Commission on 124 21 Stockholm, Sweden Human Rights Toronto CCHR Holland Human Rights Monterrey, Phone/Fax: 46 8 83 8518 27 Carlton St., Suite 304 Citizens Commission on Mexico E-mail: [email protected] Toronto, Ontario Human Rights Holland (Comisión de Ciudadanos por los M5B 1L2 Canada Postbus 36000 Derechos Humanos —CCDH) CCHR Taiwan Phone: 1-416-971-8555 1020 MA, Amsterdam Avda. Madero 1955 Poniente Citizens Commission on E-mail: Holland Esq. Venustiano Carranza Human Rights [email protected] Phone/Fax: 3120-4942510 Edif. Santos, Oficina 735 Taichung P.O. Box 36-127 E-mail: [email protected] Monterrey, NL México Taiwan, R.O.C. CCHR Czech Republic Phone: 51 81 83480329 E-mail: [email protected] Obcanská komise za CCHR Hungary Fax: 51 81 86758689 lidská práva Citizens Commission on E-mail: [email protected] CCHR Ticino, Switzerland Václavské námestí 17 Human Rights Hungary Citizens Commission on 110 00 Praha 1, Czech Republic Pf. 182 CCHR Nepal Human Rights Ticino Phone/Fax: 420-224-009-156 1461 Budapest, Hungary P.O. Box 1679 (Comitato dei cittadini per E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 36 1 342 6355 Baneshwor Kathmandu, Nepal i diritti dell’uomo) Fax: 36 1 344 4724 E-mail: [email protected] Casella postale 613 CCHR Denmark E-mail: [email protected] 6512 Giubiasco, Switzerland Citizens Commission on CCHR New Zealand E-mail: [email protected] Human Rights Denmark CCHR Israel Citizens Commission on (Medborgernes Citizens Commission Human Rights New Zealand CCHR United Kingdom Menneskerettighedskommission on Human Rights Israel P.O. Box 5257 Citizens Commission on —MMK) P.O. Box 37020 Wellesley Street Human Rights United Kingdom Faksingevej 9A 61369 Tel Aviv, Israel Auckland 1, New Zealand P.O. Box 188 2700 Brønshøj, Denmark Phone: 972 3 5660699 Phone/Fax: 649 580 0060 East Grinstead, West Sussex Phone: 45 39 62 9039 Fax: 972 3 5663750 E-mail: [email protected] RH19 4RB, United Kingdom E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] Phone: 44 1342 31 3926 CCHR Norway Fax: 44 1342 32 5559 CCHR Finland CCHR Italy Citizens Commission on E-mail: [email protected] Citizens Commission on Citizens Commission Human Rights Norway Human Rights Finland on Human Rights Italy (Medborgernes CCHR Zurich, Switzerland Post Box 145 (Comitato dei Cittadini per i menneskerettighets-kommisjon, Citizens Commission on 00511 Helsinki, Finland Diritti Umani—CCDU) MMK) Human Rights Switzerland Viale Monza 1 Postboks 8902 Youngstorget Sektion Zürich 20125 Milano, Italy 0028 Oslo, Norway Postfach 1207 E-mail: [email protected] E-mail: [email protected] 8026 Zürich, Switzerland Phone: 41 1 242 7790 E-mail: [email protected] CCHR_ECT_R1-28.ps 10/17/04 9:08 PM Page 28 REFERENCES References

1. Statement on file at CCHR International, 2004. 25. Testimony of Dr. Colin Ross, M.D., 10 May 2004. 2. Deposition of Dr. John Friedberg, M.D., 24 Mar. 2004. 26. The Practice of Electroconvulsive Therapy: Recommendations 3. Peter Page, “Jury Slams Cleveland Clinic, A Single for Treatment, Training, and Privileging (American Psychiatric Evaluation?”, National Law Journal, 24 June 2002. Association, Washington, D.C., 1990), p. 157. 4. Roger Mezger, “Clinic Found Negligent Couple Get $7.5 27. Justice John P. Slattery, “Consent and Disclosure,” Report Million,” Plain Dealer, 13 June 2002; Benedict Carey, “New of The Royal Commission into Deep Sleep Therapy, Vol. 6., p. 96. Surgery to Control Behavior,” Los Angeles Times, 4 Aug. 28. Op. cit., Deposition of Dr. Friedberg. 2003; Peter Page, “Jury Slams Cleveland Clinic,” National 29. John Blake, “Paralytics Cannot Be Used as the Sole Law Journal, 24 June 2004. Agent for the Chemical Capture or Restraint of Animals!”, 5. Ugo Cerletti, “Old and New Information About 23 Apr. 2001, Internet address: http://www.uaf.edu. Electroshock,” American Journal of Psychiatry, 1950. 30. Op. cit., Deposition of Dr. Friedberg. 6. Ibid. 31. “ECT: Memories and Trust Lost,” Letters from readers, 7. Leonard Roy Frank, The History of Shock Treatment Los Angeles Times, 1 Dec. 2003. (Leonard Roy Frank, San Francisco, California, 1978), p. 36. 32. Michelle Brooker, “Shock Therapy Scrutinized; Petition 8. May 2003 ECT factsheet from the Mental Health Urges ECT Review,” The Press (New Zealand), Foundation, United Kingdom: “Electroconvulsive 22 Apr. 2003. Therapy (ECT).” 9. Ibid. 33. Max Daily, “Electric Shock Victims Win Historic Victory,” Big Issue (United Kingdom), 3 Oct. 1999. 10. Abraham Myerson, in discussion of Franklin G. Ebaugh, et al., “Fatalities Following Electric Convulsive Therapy: A 34. Anjana Ahuja, “Psychosurgery Is Being Used to Combat Report of 2 Cases With Autopsy Findings,” Trans American Severe Mental Illness, but the Results Are Mixed,” London Neurological Association, 68, June 1942, p. 39. Times, 19 Nov. 1996. 11. John M. Friedberg, M.D., Epitomizing the Myth of Mental 35. United Kingdom General Medical Council report, Illness, Electroshock — Epitomizing the Myth, Address to the addressed to CCHR United Kingdom, 2001; “Paedo Ring Szasz Symposium Liberty and/or Psychiatry 40 Years Boss Jailed By Gardai,” The Mirror, 23 Aug. 2000. After The Myth of Mental Illness, Syracuse, New York, 36. “Cutting Out Addiction,” The Observer, World 15 Apr. 2000. Press Review, June 1999. 12. Piemonte Regional Council, Turin, Italy, Order of the 37. Eugenia Rubtsova, “They Drilled My Head Without Any Day, 22 May 1998. Anesthetic,” Novie Izvestia, 19 June 2002. 13. “Consent for Electrotherapy,” Martin Memorial Hospital, 38. Walter Freeman, and James W. Watts, Psychosurgery Stuart, Florida, 1992. (Charles C. Thomas, publisher, Illinois 1942), p. xvi. 14. “For Patients, Treatment’s Value Varies,” USA Today, 39. Robert Whitaker, Mad in America: Bad Science, Bad 6 Dec. 1995. Medicine, and the Enduring Mistreatment of the Mentally Ill 15. Dennis Cauchon, “Stunningly Quick Results Often Fade (Perseus Publishing, New York, 2002), p. 253. Just as Fast,” USA Today, 6 Dec. 1995. 40. Benedict Carey, “New Surgery to Control Behavior,” 16. Pamela Fayerman, “After 130 Shock Treatments: ‘They Los Angeles Times, 4 Aug. 2003. Hurt, I Don’t Want It,’ Public Trustee’s Office Investigates 41. Ibid., Benedict Carey; Montgomery, Jr., Erwin, “Deep Riverview Case,” Vancouver Sun, 17 Apr. 2002. Brain Stimulation—A Sophisticated Therapy for Parkinson’s 17. “Number of Patients Who Received Convulsive Disease,” WebMD website, Internet address: Treatment by Target Group (Age and Sex),” A Report to the http://my.webmd.com/content/Article/2/1700_51708.htm, Legislature in Response to Chapter 1252, Statutes of 1977, 1990 2002. Electroconvulsive Therapy (ECT) Report, California Department of Mental Health, Nov. 1991. 42. Samuel K. Moore, “Electronic Antidepressant Up for 18. “Electric Shock Treatment in British Hospitals,” Review,” Spectrum Online, 9 June 2004, Internet address: ECT Anonymous (United Kingdom), Apr. 1996, p. 5. http://www.spectrum.ieee.org, accessed: 23 June 2004; Mark S. George, “Stimulating the Brain,” Scientific American, 19. Ibid. Sept. 2003. 20. “ECT: Memories and Trust Lost,” Letters from readers, Los Angeles Times, 1 Dec. 2003. 43. Ibid. 21. Press Release, “A new and disturbing analysis of official 44. Ibid. reports made in 1992 and 1981 and which are still valid 45. Richard C. W. Hall, M.D. and Michael K. Popkin, M.D., today,” ECT Anonymous, Oct. 1995. “Psychological Symptoms of Physical Origin,” Female 22. “Memory and ECT: From Polarization to Reconciliation,” Patient, Vol. 2, No. 10, Oct. 1977. Editorial, The Journal of ECT, Vol. 16, No. 2, 2000, pp. 87–96. 46. Ibid., p. 14. 23. Steve Baldwin and Yvonne Jones, “ECT: Shock, Lies and 47. Lorrin M. Koran, Medical Evaluation Field Manual, Psychiatry,” Changes, June 1992, p. 129. Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, Stanford 24. Op. cit., Testimony of Dr. John Friedberg. University Medical Center, California, 1991, p. 4. CCHR_ECT CVR R25-2.ps 10/22/04 8:23 AM Page 2

This publication was made possible by a grant from the United States International Association of Scientologists Members’ Trust.

PHOTO CREDITS: Page 10: AP Wide World Photos; page 19: Shooting Star; page 19: AP Wide World Photos; page 19: Shooting Star; page 20: Jose Luis Pelaez/Corbis

—Dr. Colin Ross Texas psychiatrist and author, 2004 THE BRUTAL REALITY Harmful Psychiatric ‘Treatments’

Report and recommendations on the destructive practices of electroshock and psychosurgery

Published by Citizens Commission on Human Rights Established in 1969