Scientology is Bogus

Antipsychiatry includes many eccentric factions including Scientology, the followers of Thomas Szasz, the followers of Peter Breggin, etc. All of these sects of antipsychiatry are very critical of both psychiatric drugs and shock treatment. At first antipsychiatry had some legitimacy because there were severe problems with lobotomy including death and brain damage. JFK's sister Rosemary was a victim of lobotomy and got permanent brain damage from it. However, lobotomy was then banned in the Soviet Union and went into disfavor worldwide.

Neither JFK nor his brother Ted became antipsychiatry after this, although there would have been some justification. The problem with the antipsychiatry people is that they are so radical that they throw out the baby with the bathwater. The legitimate scientific research that has been done in psychiatry is the baby. The bathwater is the dangerous treatments such as lobotomy and insulin shock. A number of people died from insulin shock, which has been abandoned, fortunately.

Are There Problems with Psychiatric Drugs?

The answer is "Yes!" There are many problems with psychiatric drugs including the "serotonin syndrome", a very serious side effect of SSRIs. This can even result in death. There are drug interactions.

Where Scientology is wrong is that they insist that there are no chemical imbalances in the brain. There are indeed chemical imblances in the brain. Unfortunately these are poorly understood by the drug companies. Only the orthomolecular scientists are close to understanding them.

My own articles have attempted to explain these imbalances, which are not simple, unfortunately (1-5). There are errors in amino acid metabolism. Amino acids are found in the diet.

Scientology does not present valid alternatives to drugs. Orthomolecular scientists do indeed present valid alternatives. Dianetics is quackery.

L. Ron Hubbard

My theory of Scientology is that founder L. Ron Hubbard, a science fiction writer, had a breakdown himself. He then may have gone into psychiatric treatment. He was disillusioned by the treatment. He then decided to take revenge against psychiatry after he had a spontaneous remission. Scientology was his way of paying psychiatry back for his own possible mistreatment.

Hubbard had written "Battlefield Earth", which was made into a movie after his death. Scientologist John Travolta starred in the movie as an alien.

There are indeed problems in psychiatry (6, 7). However, it is not all "fake science" as alledged by Scientologist Tom Cruise. There has been a lot of legitimate science in psychiatric research.

The fact that psychiatric drugs have bad side effects does not mean that there is no biological basis for mental disease. Chemotherapy and radiation treatments for cancer have terrible side effects. Surgery for cancer can have terrible side effects, particularly if it is brain surgery. This does not mean that there is no biological basis for cancer.

Conclusions

One of the more bizarre beliefs of Scientology is that creation was caused by aliens from outer space coming to Earth. This is a crock.

But what is the treatment, or what are the treatments? I believe is what Dr. Andrew Weil calls "intergrative medicine". This means that you take what is legitimate from orthodox medicne and you take what is legitimate from alternative medicine. I'm not saying that all alternative medicine is valid. However, I feel that a lot of it is. My view is that orthomolecular medicine, which uses nutrition and natural substances, is valid.

I don't believe that everything in orthodox medicine is valid either. Orthodox medicine is money-driven. The drug company science is to maximize corporate profits. When a drug company evaluates its own products, that should be taken with a grain of salt. I trust govenment sponsored research or NARSAD sponsored research better. NARSAD is a private nonprofit organization that sponsors research on schizophrenia and affective disorders. It is supported by the Alliance for the Mentally Ill.

References

1. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1728112/mental_illness_and_homelessness.html 2. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1698919/advances_in_biological_psychiatric.html 3. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1680090/cuban_research_on_schizophrenia.html 4. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1680380/the_virus_theory_for_schizophrenia.html 5. www.associatedcontent.com/article/1676885/new_ideas_in_psychiatry.html

6. Rapidly Worsening Hypertriglyceridemia During Treatment with Risperidone.

Kohen I, Manu P.

Am J Ther. 2009 May 19. [Epub ahead of print]

PMID: 19455018 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

7. Etiology and Risk Factors for Developing Orthostatic Hypotension.

Mosnaim AD, Abiola R, Wolf ME, Perlmuter LC.

Am J Ther. 2009 May 15. [Epub ahead of print]

PMID: 19433976 [PubMed - as supplied by publisher]

8. Holt, Richard I.G., and Robert C. Peveler. "Obesity, serious mental illness and antipsychotic drugs.(Report)." Diabetes, Obesity and Metabolism 11.7 (July 2009): 665(15). Health Reference Center Academic. Gale. Newton Free Library. 3 June 2009
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