Analysis of information sources in references of the Wikipedia article "Citizens Commission on Human Rights" in English language version.
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"A major purpose of Scientology is to destroy psychiatry and replace it with its own pseudo-counselling techniques. And CCHR is one of Scientology's front-group weapons attempting to achieve that goal", says Stephen Kent, a University of Alberta sociologist specializing in new religions and cults. Scientology holds that psychiatrists are "cosmic demons", he says.
Internal documents from the Church of Scientology, the parent organisation of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, indicate that behind the church's public battle to expose abuses of psychiatric patients lies a hidden plan of retribution."Alternative link". Archived from the original on May 17, 2012.)
In 1969, in a move that damaged his credibility even among allies, he joined with the Church of Scientology to found the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which portrays the field as abusive and regularly pickets psychiatric meetings. Dr. Szasz was not a Scientologist himself, and he later distanced himself from the church, but he shared the religion's critical view of psychiatry. His provocations were not without cost. In the 1960s, New York mental health officials, outraged at his attacks on the state system, blocked Dr. Szasz from teaching at a state hospital where residents trained, according to two former colleagues. Dr. Szasz bristled but had little recourse, and his teaching was curtailed.
Organized lay groups sought to ban the use of ECT by legislation and to encourage patients to charge their physicians with malpractice. In the United States these groups take on the names of [...] and the "Citizen's Commission on Human Rights". The CCHR was founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz. [...] Each group attracts members by calling on them to defend individuals against the powers of medicine. They are supported by a small coterie of professionals. The Church of Scientology is a large and well-funded faith-based membership organization led by lay preachers. It directs the members' ire against psychiatric practices, especially ECT, psychosurgery, and the use of psychotropic drugs in children and adolescents. These groups harass legislative committees, disturb public mental health meetings, and intimidate speakers at scientific sessions.
The church [of Scientology] kept a low profile, paying professional lobbyists to press its cause or relying on CCHR, which skeptics call a front group designed to recruit Scientologists and replace psychiatry with Dianetics.
In 1969, in a move that damaged his credibility even among allies, he joined with the Church of Scientology to found the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, which portrays the field as abusive and regularly pickets psychiatric meetings. Dr. Szasz was not a Scientologist himself, and he later distanced himself from the church, but he shared the religion's critical view of psychiatry. His provocations were not without cost. In the 1960s, New York mental health officials, outraged at his attacks on the state system, blocked Dr. Szasz from teaching at a state hospital where residents trained, according to two former colleagues. Dr. Szasz bristled but had little recourse, and his teaching was curtailed.
"A major purpose of Scientology is to destroy psychiatry and replace it with its own pseudo-counselling techniques. And CCHR is one of Scientology's front-group weapons attempting to achieve that goal", says Stephen Kent, a University of Alberta sociologist specializing in new religions and cults. Scientology holds that psychiatrists are "cosmic demons", he says.
The church [of Scientology] kept a low profile, paying professional lobbyists to press its cause or relying on CCHR, which skeptics call a front group designed to recruit Scientologists and replace psychiatry with Dianetics.
Internal documents from the Church of Scientology, the parent organisation of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, indicate that behind the church's public battle to expose abuses of psychiatric patients lies a hidden plan of retribution."Alternative link". Archived from the original on May 17, 2012.)
