A traveling exhibit from the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) opened in Austin, Texas, exposing historical psychiatric violations of human rights. The exhibit, which features graphic panels and video excerpts from the documentary "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death," aims to educate the public on the history of abuses in psychiatry, including lobotomies, electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), and the widespread use of psychotropic drugs.
Visitors to the exhibit found the information informative and eye-opening. Lee Spiller, Director of the Texas chapter of CCHR, emphasized the importance of learning from history. "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, also spoke at the event, stressing the need to protect the rights of individuals labeled as mentally ill. "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 highlighted the long-standing collaboration between CCHR and the NAACP. "You may not believe it, but less than 30 years ago, we stood with NAACP in protest of a psychiatrist who said that foster kids, predominantly Black and Brown, were so heavily drugged because they came from bad gene pools," Spiller said. "Psychiatry should have dispensed with these ideas centuries ago."
Other speakers addressed issues such as parental rights in school mental health programs and the importance of rights education. One attendee shared how CCHR's information 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 travels through major cities in the Western United States and warns that psychiatric treatments can be deadly. There are 14 identical traveling exhibits in countries around the world. For more information, visit the CCHR website or watch documentaries on the work of CCHR volunteers and the film "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death" on the Scientology Network.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is inspired by L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, who urged the exposure and abolition of physically damaging practices in mental health. The exhibit serves as a stark reminder of the ongoing need to protect human rights in psychiatric care.
