A traveling exhibit organized by the non-profit Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) recently opened in Austin, Texas, exposing what it describes as psychiatric violations of human rights. The exhibit features graphic panels and video excerpts from the documentary Psychiatry: An Industry of Death, chronicling the history of abuses in the field of psychiatry, from pseudoscientific theories to brutal treatments like lobotomies and electroconvulsive therapy, and the modern era of widespread psychotropic drugging.
Lee Spiller, Director of the Texas chapter of CCHR, emphasized the importance of learning from history to prevent its repetition. "Knowing history is supposed to be the best protection against history repeating itself," Spiller said. "Ironically, and in spite of global efforts to reduce force and coercion in psychiatric treatment, psychiatry seems bent on repeating such history."
Nelson Linder, President of the Austin NAACP, stressed the urgency of promoting human rights in mental health. "There has never been a more important time to promote human rights," Linder said. "Working together, we can and should protect the rights of those accused of being mentally ill. There is absolutely no reason that someone should lose basic human rights because of a label."
Spiller recalled working alongside the NAACP decades ago to protest a psychiatrist who claimed that foster children—disproportionately Black and Brown—were heavily drugged because of "bad gene pools." "Psychiatry should have dispensed with these ideas centuries ago," Spiller said.
Other speakers at the exhibit opening addressed parental rights in school mental health and the importance of rights education. One speaker described how CCHR’s resources helped his family after a loved one was placed under emergency psychiatric detention. "The information we received from CCHR helped us to get through this and come out the other side," he said. "I'm not happy about it, but the information from CCHR, and their calming influence made it bearable."
The exhibit, which travels through major cities in the Western United States, warns parents and community members that psychiatric treatments can be harmful. It is part of a network of 14 identical traveling exhibits in countries around the world. For more information, visit the CCHR website, watch documentaries on the work of CCHR volunteers, or view the film Psychiatry: An Industry of Death on the Scientology Network.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights was inspired by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, who urged the exposure and abolition of physically damaging practices in mental health. The organization aims to eradicate abuses and brutality in the field.
