In article <89v9ki$vpp$1@nnrp1.deja.com>, publicrelations@scientology.org wrote:

> Why is Scientology opposed to psychiatry?
Over the past few months I've been documenting the story behind the development of Scientology's hostility to psychiatry. It's still some way from completion, but in brief the story looks like this:

L. Ron Hubbard was convinced, from at least 1950 onwards, that he was the target of conspiracies organised by the Soviets. In 1955 he became convinced that psychiatry was the front vehicle for a Soviet takeover of the Western world, issuing bulletins announcing that Scientology was having to "take responsibility for [protecting] the West". He associated himself and his organisation with far-right "patriotic"

groups in the US and abroad, most notably praising the racial policies of the South African and Rhodesian authorities, which he saw as essential in the fight against Communism.

In the 1960s Scientology ran into trouble in much of the English- speaking world, leading Hubbard to declare that the World Federation for Mental Health was the front for a neo-Nazi remnant group which he dubbed "the Tenyaka Memorial". In the 1970s, the Scientologists began a ferocious international campaign against psychiatry, during which they were found guilty of egregious libels in the UK and were linked with a wave of burglaries at psychiatry-linked organisations; in Holland, three were caught red-handed with stolen files. Hubbard ordered his organisation to work for the total destruction of all rival forms of mental therapy - psychiatry, psychology and psychotherapy - and seize control of their funding.

Things were a bit quieter during the 1980s, largely as a result of internal splits and the fallout after the Scientology leadership and the Church itself were convicted pretty much en masse for a massive espionage campaign against US and Canadian government agencies. Hubbard nonetheless found the time to declare that psychiatrists were ancient evil extraterrestrial beings responsible for creating pain, sex and religion. The 1990s saw renewed anti-psychiatry campaigns, notably the expensive but ultimately unsuccessful international assault on Prozac.

Scientology's present leadership reportedly declared that psychiatry would be totally eradicated by the year 2000, but this goal is still rather a long way from being reached.

-- | Chris Owen - chriso@OISPAMNOlutefisk.demon.co.uk | |---------------------------------------------------------------| | THE TRUTH ABOUT L. RON HUBBARD AND THE UNITED STATES NAVY | | http://www.ronthewarhero.org |

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