Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital made the news today, with an 89 year old man being charged for his part in the abuse of children who were under the hospital’s care in the 1970s. Dr Selwyn Leeks, who was the lead psychiatrist at the centre, has been charged with "wilful ill treatment of a child", but due to his ill health will not be prosecuted.
The media have obviously been working hard to report on this news, and have been looking for experts to give them some informed opinions. Sadly for 3 News, they ended up being tricked today into believing that the Citizens Commission for Human Rights (CCHR) is a legitimate, reputable organisation. In reality it’s a front organisation setup by Scientology, as a way to promote one of the many strange ideas that founder L. Ron Hubbard had - the idea that psychiatry is evil. The organisation’s website doesn’t even exist - there’s just a parking page:
L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology (an abusive group that deceivingly calls itself a religion) had mental health problems through most of his life, and was apparently dependent on psychiatric drugs. Possibly because of this dependence, he declared that psychiatry is all just a big lie, and that it is an "industry of death". They even run a museum in Hollywood called "Psychiatry: An Industry of Death". This is yet another of Hubbard’s weird ideas that Scientologists today are expected to continue with. As an illustration of just how oppressive Hubbard’s ideas are to Scientology, I’ve heard that there’s a rule which means that Scientologists can only clean windows with vinegar and newspaper - because, according to L. Ron Hubbard, that’s all you should ever need for the job. I’ve taken some Scientology courses online, and they’re all about imparting Hubbard’s "wisdom" to followers - discredited ideas about how the mind works, how to learn properly, how to avoid trauma, and so on.
3 News ended up interviewing Mike Ferris, a well known Scientologist in New Zealand, this evening - treating him like an expert. This isn’t overly surprising as it appears that Mike, and the CCHR, have also conned the Royal Commission of Inquiry into Abuse in Care into thinking that they are a legitimate organisation. Mike gave evidence to the commission in June this year (opens new window).
In reality the Citizens Commission on Human Rights is just a mouthpiece for the ideological ideas of L. Ron Hubbard, a man who created a dangerous cult and hated psychiatry. It’s worrying to see victims, officials and the media being hoodwinked by Scientology. These people are not involved because they want to help the victims, they just have an axe to grind - and, in fact, Scientology has mistreated, and continues to mistreat, thousands of its members every day.