By systematically targeting electroconvulsive therapy as part of its war on psychiatry, experts say Scientology could decimate a treatment that is “saving so many lives.”
…
The Atlantic’s 2001 article explained that ECT [Electroconvulsive therapy] had emerged from a terrifying past to become a safe and effective treatment for some of the worst effects of serious mental illnesses. But Scientology, through its campaigns and by pushing legislation, was promoting outdated myths about the procedure for a public that knew little about it.
Miscavige’s November 3 speech illustrated that Scientology is still pushing this agenda more than 20 years later—but with one big difference.
While Scientology has continued to campaign against ECT on various fronts, it has pursued a little known but very effective strategy against ECT’s most vulnerable spot: Namely, the two small companies that manufacture the devices that physicians use during the procedure.
For decades, Scientology has quietly waged a litigation war against those two companies, SigmaStim and Somatics, and it has both nearly on the ropes.
Scientology knows that if the two companies go out of business, federal regulations mandate that doctors will no longer be able to use their devices, and ECT will become unavailable in this country and around the world.
Those medical providers say that ECT is a safe procedure that is saving lives every day, and they are extremely concerned that it is nearly on the brink of disappearing—and only because of the relentless attacks of Scientology on the device manufacturers, a war that has flown completely under the radar until now.
This is low-hanging fruit for scientology because they actually paint it as scary.
Scientology’s “war on psychiatry” is an accurate description because it’s not that they do not believe in it - they believe its effects are evil. As in, yes, you should have to suffer with depression, and schizophrenia, and anxiety disorders. And then you treat it by joining their church where they basically institutionalize you the same way it was done prior to modern psychiatry.
I was curious how scientology could harass companies into bankruptcy since that seemed like harassment. I couldn’t turn up anything other than this article by searching for the companies names’ and lawsuit or scientology.
It looks like there is a lobbying organization, Citizens Commission on Human Rights International (CCHR), funded by the church of scientology. They look to be funding lawsuits brought by individuals against the ECT device makers. The lawsuits against electronic therapy look to go back to the late 1960s.
This web page looks to be an anti-ECT propaganda page, but it covers their “victory” of bankrupting another ECT manufacturer and it covers their methodology for targeting them and for trying to get the practice banned. Although it is all likely BS, it’s very clear on what their intentions are, so it’s very informative reading even if it is propaganda.
I don’t know enough about ECT to make any kind of informed decision on it, though I do generally trust moderm medicine as a whole. I was more interested in the legal process as it relates to the shared article, so take this as some threads to follow if you want to dive deeper than this article, not as me making any personal stance on ECT, since I know next to nothing about it.
And people wonder why I hate cults.
The inventor of the lobotomy won a Nobel prize. Limitless Peace
The whole field of psychology has such an inhumane and crackpot history that they’ve brought this upon themselves. I’m don’t defend Scientology, but they don’t stick ice-picks in peoples brains or use the courts to sterilize minorities. I’m not aware of a Scientologist being instrumental in the Satanic Panic or retrieving false memories, through hypnosis, that put innocent people in jail for child abuse.
EST isn’t going away because Scientology attacked it, it’s because psychologists have cried wolf too many times that their barbaric methods have therapeutic value.
The whole field of psychology has such an inhumane and crackpot history that they’ve brought this upon themselves.
Are people practicing psychiatry today responsible for the mistakes of people in the past who had similar goals but entirely different methods? Do you think prescribing medical treatments for mental disorders should automatically mean taking the blame for past mistakes?
4chan to the rescue!
The Church of Scientology has a museum in Hollywood, CA called Psychiatry: An Industry of Death. They don’t admit it’s affiliated with the church- more on that later- it claims it’s run by the “Citizens’ Commission on Human Rights,” which is one of their lobbying groups.
Right next to it is a restaurant called The Cat and Fiddle, which happened to be where an atheist social group I was a part of when I lived there met up once a month. So one day, we decide to go over. They make you give your name and address to go in, so we gave very obvious fake ones. We were followed by what were very clearly handlers pretending to be other museum-goers who just happened to be hanging out in the lobby when we came in and gave us the sort of pious smiles you often see from religious people when they’re intentionally trying to do something shitty to you.
Once you are let in, they make you watch an incredibly boring movie which lasted about half an hour. It was so boring, I remember nothing about it except “psychiatry bad.” The link I give above shows pictures of the very silly exhibits. Now on the subject of ECT, they literally blame the Holocaust on ECT. Like Germany was giving people ECT and that turned them into Nazis and that’s how the Holocaust happened.
And then you get to the end with a bunch of plaques with their “advisors” and the names are names like John Travolta, Kelly Preston, Isaac Hayes… all the celebrities who are openly Scientologists. They didn’t really hide their affiliation very well.
It was very amusing at the time, and they didn’t charge us any money so we didn’t feel like we were contributing to church bullshit, but it does feel a lot less amusing now.
i may be OOTL on this, but hasn’t ECT always had a reputation of not achieving what it set out to do with the added bonus of irreversible damage to the patient?
See the third paragraph of the post
Turns out that one flew over the cuckoo’s nest wasn’t a documentary
You’re OOTL, it’s super effective at treating severe mood episodes and catatonia.
Where is Shelly?
Aaron Levin Smith made a video on Shelleys whereabouts somewhat recently. IIRC she’s in a compound in California somewhere and she’s fine, by all outward appearances. I’m pretty sure she’s drinking the kool ade like the rest of them.
Huh, interesting. Probably not “fine” though since if she’s at Gold / Int Base she’s probably being held against her will, considering that the whole base is sorta built around being like a prison compound and they even have private security “pursuit teams” to hunt down escapees.
Edit: not to say that everybody at Int is being held against their will, but it’s where eg. The Hole is so if somebody is being held, Int is probably where they’d be
From the linked wiki:
According to some former members of Scientology, conditions within Gold Base are harsh, with staff members receiving sporadic paychecks of $50 at most, working seven days a week, and being subjected to punishments for failing to meet work quotas.[2] Media reports have stated that around 100 people a year try to escape from the base but most are soon retrieved by “pursuit teams”. Despite many accounts of mistreatment from ex-members, law enforcement investigations and lawsuits against Scientology have been thwarted by the First Amendment’s guarantee of religious freedom and the church’s ability to rely on “ministerial exemptions” in employment law. Scientology denies any mistreatment and calls the base “the ideal setting for professional and spiritual growth”.
Appearances can be deceiving. They wouldn’t be hiding her in a compound for years and not responding to inquiries if everything was good between her and the CoS.
From what I understand, she doesn’t seem to be held against her will. If Aaron Levin Smith is to be believed (being that he is a former Sea Org member, I’d say his credibility is good), she’s been seen out and about running errands and the like, but always with a security detail. There’s a decent chance that I’m misremembering something, though, so take this with a pinch of salt.
How many bets that “security detail” is as much to prevent her escape as it is to prevent anyone else from harming her?
Yeah people are desperate to believe horror stories especially involving a woman but the reality is very likely she’s just a member of the cult living a relaxed and affluent life on the money they swindle.
I bet David had her killed years ago. They own the cops so nothing ever comes of the investigations
I mean. Comparing modern ECTs to the shit from the 60s is like saying a doctor testing knee reflexes with the little hammer is the same as taking a sledgehammer to a kneecap…
You know, if the US removed the tax-exempt status from churches, the CoS would have way fewer resources to pull shit like this.
Makes you wonder why journalists don’t bring this up.
You should ask the ones who have.
Which ones? The ones confirmed dead, the ones who disappeared, or the ones in a hole of a federal prison? Oh, I see…
Article 3. [Freedom in religion; right and duty of religious worship]
That all persons have a natural and unalienable right, to worship Almighty God, according to the dictates of their own consciences and understandings, as in their opinion shall be regulated by the word of God; and that no person ought to, or of right can be compelled to attend any religious worship, or erect or support any place of worship, or maintain any minister, contrary to the dictates of conscience…
—Vermont Constitution, 1793
Really wish we could have got that “or erect or support” clause in the US Constitution. Would have made for some interesting court arguments about tax exempt status.
I’d like it if the reverse of this headline were the reality.
“Medical industry on the brink of killing entire scientology cult”
I’m not sure I care who does it, but yes please.
That’s how I initially read it lol. I went from “Ayy yo??” immediately to “Aww yo…”
Wasn’t one of the faces of scientology just paid by the french government to star at the olympics?
There’s a scientology building on the way from the stadium back to the metro.
The biggest problem with Scientology is that it speaks to our politicians pockets. It’s definitely and sickeningly on its way to becoming Yet Another Religion, and it does so under the cover for legislation that still allows exceptions from the law for cults even when their “fair game” policy is well-documented. It speaks volumes about why certain religious regimes are allowed to do what they do.
Scientology targets the mental health industry because that’s the target base of their most ardent supporters, they are built on targeting the mentally ill and telling them “no, this isn’t an illness you suffer that will require time and effort to treat and will always weigh on you, it’s that you are special and channeling all of these thetans, which is just another name for spirit that makes it sound less recycled” and it gets intentionally crazier as you get to the higher tiers, which requires considerable wealth, so that only the most mentally ill reach it or the most manipulative do so, with the relatively normal people on the bottom trained to win intense staredown contests to make them seem imposing for the PR when they are just empty inside and suffering from a cultural and economical form of sunk cost fallacy.
no wonder why people hate Scientology
