Psychiatry Exposed Exhibition
The anti-psychiatry display in the North City Mall, Porirua, appears to have been criticised by a couple of people in
the Porirua News recently. However our organisation received nothing but praise from people who stopped to read the
panels and talk to us.
The electric shocking of children was practised in the 1970s, but it only came under public scrutiny when the Citizens
Commission on Human Rights exposed the brutality of it in 1976. CCHR's first investigations of Lake Alice and Porirua
psychiatric hospitals made headlines then and are still making headlines now. Why? The treatments used were torturous
and resembled something out of a police state, not a civilised nation. Two years ago the Government acknowledged that
the treatment of children at Lake Alice was torturous and paid out a large compensation, which is ongoing.
Psychiatry has failed to discipline its practitioners. It has taken outside pressure to bring about reforms in mental
health and human rights. This is a matter of hard fact, not PR.
CCHR was established by the Church of Scientology to investigate abuses of human rights within the field of mental
health. The Church regards people as spiritual and decries any form of barbarity performed on people. Electric shocks to
the brain, powerful drugs to dull the mind and lock up therapy (seclusion) are all abuses still used today.
Our group promotes non-abusive ways to treat the mentally ill and these can be found in basic medicine, providing a safe
environment and good nutrition.
The Mental Health Commission recently indicated they would phase out seclusion as a form of treatment in psychiatric
hospitals because evidence says it is harmful. With this level of recognition we might soon see an end to use of
electricity on people's brains.