Sunday, May 31, 2009

I Don't Hate Scientologists

I do abhor the CoS vendetta against modern mental heath treatment. I abhor the methods the CoS uses to target those who criticize it, both within and without its organization. I abhor the damage it does to people who need legitimate mental health treatment.

And I abhor the fact that the CoS has chosen my medical specialty as the one to target. Dr. Nada Stotland of the APA pointed out a couple of weeks ago that psychiatry is the only branch of medicine that has its own hate group. What if the CoS targeted another medical specialty? What if it targeted your child's pediatrician, your mother's oncologist, your diabetic friend's internist? What if it did everything it could to deny these patients appropriate medical care?

Scientologists have the right to believe whatever they wish, to follow whatever paths that seem right to them. My beef is not with individual scientologists, but with the powers that be within the bureacracy of the CoS, the people who seek to deny an entire branch of medical care to their members and to the world at large.

There is something very wrong with the tenets of the CoS as it is now. Neither its members, mental health workers, nor the rest of the world should stand for it.

2 comments:

  1. Psych Out, I wonder whether your readers (and potential readers) are aware of what the Church of Scientology says about psychiatrists.

    This week I heard a short excerpt of an audio recording of L. Ron Hubbard made in 1968, that gives an insight into the kinds of things Scientology believes about psychs. Currently, the audio is available here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o9NYh_VUWwM

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  2. Thanks for commenting!

    Here's a link for another You Tube piece, part of a 2005-6 speech by the current leader of the CoS, David Miscavige.

    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=duq8RThR55E&NR=1

    Sometime in the next week, I'll start a series about CoS claims regarding psychiatry - where they actually have valid points, and where they don't.

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