A wave of antipsychiatry publications has recently been released across the United States by the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR). Staff of APA's Division of Public Affairs (DPA) have mobilized a response.

The CCHR, established and funded by the Church of Scientology, attributes a variety of social ills to psychiatry in a new booklet series. It has also announced that the series is available on its Web site.

Yvonne Ferguson, M.D., Area 6 deputy representative to the Assembly and vice president of the California Psychiatric Association, told Psychiatric News that a colleague, a school psychologist, recently showed her a pamphlet by CCHR titled Destroying Lives: Psychiatry_Education's Ruin and indicated that it had been mailed to all school administrators in his county.

"The cover showed children appearing to be in a stupor," said Ferguson. A copy of the pamphlet and cover letter dated May 1996 obtained by Psychiatric News states that "a recent school report showed that children are being used as 'guinea pigs' for psychological behavioral problems and mind-altering drugs such as Ritalin are being prescribed them_all without parental permission."

It describes Psychiatry_Education's Ruin as "tracing how our education system has been brought almost to the brink of collapse because of the psychiatric and psychological programs introduced in the 1960's."

Ferguson said she was dismayed to learn from Area 6 Council representatives that other CCHR mailings were targeting minorities and women, "suggesting that psychiatry was the enemy of these groups. As an African-American woman, this is particularly offensive to me. If anything, we need to strike down the stigma that exists in the minds of minorities that prevents them from seeking help."

The CCHR publications to which Ferguson referred are Betraying Women: Psychiatric Rape, alleging sexual abuse by psychiatrists, and Creating Racism: Psychiatry's Betrayal, alleging that psychiatry has racist theories, according to CCHR materials obtained by APA's Public Affairs. Other CCHR antipsychiatry pamphlets target the elderly, legal/judicial organizations, and clergy and religious leaders.

Ferguson met with Lynn Schultz-Writsel, associate director in APA's Division of Public Affairs (DPA), at the Area 6 Council meeting in California in July to request the division's assistance.

"We felt that a response from APA was needed to say this is propaganda; otherwise, it could appear that we tacitly agreed with what was being said," said Ferguson.

Schultz-Writsel told Psychiatric News that a revised Mental Illness Awareness Guide for Educators will be mailed this month to all educators and administrators in the affected county.

Ferguson responded, "This [will] show that we are not idly standing by."

DPA plans to measure the educators' response to the mailing and, if positive, will consider replicating the effort, noted Schultz-Writsel.

The DPA also responded in June to the CCHR literature campaign by preparing and mailing "talking points" to its District Branch Public Affairs Network. These can be used to respond to public inquiries about the CCHR's printed attacks on psychiatry.

Excerpts from the APA document read:

"The Church of Scientology and its Citizens Commission are regarded as extremist, cult-oriented organizations by the Cult Awareness Network (CAN) of Chicago. Their printed attacks on psychiatry are extreme, inflammatory, and laden with half-truths, distortions, irrational arguments, and out-of-context statements."

Although "APA will not dignify these outrageous allegations with point-by-point responses, . . .we also have the right to declare that such propaganda may discourage some people from seeking treatment for mental illnesses. . . ."

APA's response to the CCHR attacks is a measured and cautious one because of the Church's repeated use of lawsuits against its critics.

APA's legal counsel JoAnn Macbeth of Crowell and Moring told Psychiatric News that "because the Church of Scientology is well-funded and uses lawyers frequently and aggressively, I advise potential plaintiffs to consider instituting a suit only when they are confident that there is a strong basis for recovery."

Macbeth referred to CAN's being bankrupted by a large jury award after a federal court ruled last year that the nonprofit was guilty of conspiring to have a plaintiff kidnapped and deprogrammed

(Psychiatric News, September 6). The plaintiff was represented by a minister in the Church of Scientology, which has a history of lawsuits against CAN.

Macbeth added, "I don't see any problem with APA and individual members responding to the substance of the attacks and spread of misinformation to set the record straight."

(Psychiatric News, October 18, 1996)