In March of 2008 I was alerted that one of the Church of Scientology's front groups, Citizens Commission on Human Rights, was due to have an exhibit in its Ramona building for one week in April of 2008. The showing was set to begin on 18 April and finish on the 25th of the same month. The CCHR's presentation is called "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death". The exhibit was said to be open from 11 A.M. to 8 P.M., with its grand opening being the 17th of April at 6 P.M. (link)
The anti-psychiatry exhibit did indeed take place on the above dates. I arrived a few minutes before 6 p.m. with my camera in hand and stepped inside The Ramona building only to be told that photographs were not allowed to be taken inside. I was quickly introduced to "Mike", who I later found out is in charge of Sacramento's Scientology branch. I spoke to Mike a bit, then looked around the exhibit, then spoke a little more to Mike. I noticed that just about everybody in the building was dressed up nicely and standing around, making me think they were local members of the Church of Scientology. A few looked shocked to see me, perhaps recognizing me from my photographing of Anonymous's April 2008 protest.
The exhibit consisted of about a half dozen flat screen televisions and large fancy presentation panels. Most of the exhibit linked events such as the Holocaust, Russian Gulags and American slavery — to psychiatry. When queried, Mike was not afraid to admit that the exhibit was extremely one-sided and did not show how psychiatry can actually help people. The exhibit made conclusions and created conspiracy theories without presenting all of the facts. When I asked Mike and his collegues for the references from which some statements made by the exhibit were gleanded, I was given a booklet that did not answer my questions.
In the lobby of the Ramona, a former hotel from the 1920s, a few men spoke at a podium. One was a doctor who praised the work of the CCHR. I was offered plenty of snacks by dozens of folks who I take were Scientologists. Soon the crowd headed outside to take part in the ribbon cutting ceremony, which I assume was to celebrate the first use of the building under Scientology control.
I left an astonishing two hours after my arrival, the last hour must have been Mike speaking to me about just about everything.
I went by the Ramona a few days later and photographed some folks who I take to be Anonymous protesters
A few days before the launch of the exhibit I took photographs of the panels visible through the windows, which can be seen below.
The exhibit did not allow photography inside, so these photographs were taken from the windows a few days before the exhibit. The text from the panels have been transcribed below the photo, if possible.
Exhibit - Ribbon cutting - Protesters
In 1879, Leipzig University psychology professor Wilhelm Wundt radically changed the course of history when he denounced the soul as irrelevant. Defining man as an animal that could me manipulated as easily as a dog could be trained to salivate at the sound of a bell, Wundt's experimental psychology found great favor with governments and laid the foundations for Hitler's Germany. Although the man-is-an-animal theory is easily debunked (dogs do not drive cars, horses will never paint masterpieces and concertos have yet to be performed by and orchestra of monkeys), psychology and psychiatry drew heavily on Wundt's theories to measure mental functioning through the brain. Man was declared a victim of his environment with little conscious control over his thoughts and actions -- an animal to be shaped by his master.
Origins of Psychiatry Brutality and Terror "Institutional psuchiatry's most important social characteristic is the use of force and fraud"
Dr. Thomas Szasz
Professor of Psychiatry Emeritus, co-founder of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights.
Psychiatry has infiltrated our education systems, courtrooms, governments, legislatures, churches and homes. As you tour this exhibit you will see how under the pretense of science, psychiatrists destroy lives with brutal "cures" and addictive, mind-altering drugs.
Between 1950 and 1990, more Americans died in U.S. government-funded psychiatric facilities than soldiers killed in the battle of the Revolutionary War, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, the Civil War, World Wars I and II, the Korean War, the Vietnam War and the Persian Gulf War combined.
How is it that such barbarism is allowed to continue?
Psychiatry has convinced society that they are authorities. To help understand psychiatry's methods, a brief look at their history reveals a great deal.
