Jolly West passed away not long ago. One of few heroes from the APA sidelines
to speak out against the dangerous cult of $cientology.

Ebner SP4


"Scientology II: CCHR and Narconon" by L. J. West, M.D. originally
printed in "The Southern California Psychiatrist," May 1991, pp. 6-13.
Dr. West has granted permission to upload this article to computer
networks and bulletin boards.


In a previous article (SCPS Newsletter, July, 1990) I provided an
historical account of the Church of Scientology. It is a
pseudo-scientific healing cult that was formed in the 1950s, and has
grown, with the help of extravagant lies and deliberate deception,
into a multimillion dollar, international enterprise.

Through its many publications, but especially through its newspaper
"Freedom," Scientology regularly defames its critics (such as myself)
and praises its friends (such as Thomas Szasz). Scientology conducts
sophisticated intelligence operations and campaigns of misinformation
both directly and through a variety of front organizations. One such
entity is the Citizen's Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), the main
purpose of which apparently is to attack psychiatry, especially in its
biological aspects, and to harass, discourage, and intimidate private
organizations and individual critics classified as enemies of
Scientology. Established in 1969, the CCHR's central office is in Los
Angeles with local offices throughout the United States and abroad.

The CCHR is frequently behind both personal and legal undertakings
directed against members of the American Psychiatric Association and
also, of course, against the specialty as a whole. The attempts (and
sometimes) successes of the CCHR to discredit the psychiatric
specialty are documented in its publications such as "Psychiatric
Abuse Bulletin" and "Psychiatry Update." These efforts have included a
number of lawsuits accusing doctors of negligence in prescribing
methylphenidate (Ritalin) for children who, it is alleged, suffered
side effects including violent and assaultive behavior, stunted
growth, hallucinations, suicidal depression, headaches and nervous
spasms.

Interestingly enough the two companies that market methylphenidate
(Ciba Geigy of Summit, New Jersey, and M.D. Pharmaceuticals of Santa
Anna, California) are not names as defendants. The president of CCHR
is Dennis Clarke. He is neither a scientist nor a clinician, but
nevertheless is an oft-cited "expert" on Ritalin.

The CCHR is also behind recent attempts to force fluoxetine (Prozac)
off the market, including letter-writing campaigns to a number of U.S.
senators and congressmen and support of the "Prozac defense" in which
defendants claim their violent behavior was caused by Prozac.

Similar tactics by CCHR aimed against electroconvulsive therapy (ECT)
have had their effect: for example they have prompted members of the
FDA to reconsider the classification of ECT devices from Class II (the
category for trustworthy medical devices that require performance
standards, such as x-ray machines) to Class III (reserved for devices
presenting a considerable risk and requiring premarket approval, such
as artificial heart valves).

The CCHR sponsored California's present anti-ECT statutes, which have
imposed rigid restrictions on the use of ECT and in many cases have
resulted in the needless and prolonged suffering of patients thus
denied appropriate and necessary treatment. (A small group of ECT
patients grateful for the treatment's benefits, their family members,
and the Association for Convulsive Therapy, have filed a lawsuit, Doe
v. O'Connor, to overturn this regulation on constitutional grounds.)

With Clarke often visibly in charge, the CCHR frequently stages
demonstrations at the annual APA meetings to protest ECT, Ritalin, and
psychiatry in general. At these rallies, Seismologists and also
disgruntled mental patients recruited for the purpose, picket, carry
signs and dispense leaflets denouncing psychiatry, and may disrupt
session to which they gain admission. Sometimes they wear t-shirts
that declare "Psychiatry Kills." Occasionally, airplanes fly overhead
towing banners that proclaim the same. Similar demonstrations are
sometimes held outside psychiatric facilities, such as the UCLA
Neuropsychiatric Institute and Hospital. Such a picketing exercise is
often covered by the local media, who are notified and invited in
advance by those who have planned the scenario.

Another Scientology front group that impacts psychiatry is Narconon,
an international enterprise that claims to rehabilitate drug addicts
but which is primarily a recruitment program for Scientology. Narconon
was founded in the late 1960s by William C. Benitez, while he was in
Arizona State Prison. Benitez avowedly based his program on the
writings of L. Ron Hubbard. After prison officials granted permission
for inmates to participate in the new program, Benitez contacted
Hubbard, who saw the potential to increase Scientology revenues and
membership, and who offered the resources of the Church of Scientology
to expand the program to other prisons and to the public.

Soon thereafter, Narconon was incorporated (in 1970), under the
direction of Benitez and two high-ranking Scientology staff members,
Arthur J. Maren and Henning Heldt. Narconon's main headquarters is now
in Los Angeles, but it has centers throughout the United States and
elsewhere in the world. In the past few years, some of its facilities
in Italy and Spain have been closed and their staff members arrested
on charges ranging from fraud and medical malpractice to criminal
conspiracy to extort money and unlawful detention.

In North America, however, it is still considered business as usual
for Narconon. The five steps in the Narconon program include
withdrawal, detoxification, sauna sweat-out, a communication course,
and treatment courses in "learning improvement," "gaining control of
life" and "living an ethical life," which are identical with
Scientology courses compiled from the works of L. Ron Hubbard and
taught in Scientology organizations and missions. Each treatment
course is really a succession of dianetic auditing sessions, which
claim to rid the individual of unwanted attitudes, emotions and
behaviors, but which usually lead to contracts for more "advanced"
courses costing more and involving the patient more and more deeply in
the Church of Scientology.

As noted in the article last July, dianetic auditing offers a series
of supposedly therapeutic courses based on Hubbard's science fiction
amalgam of pop-psychology, hypnosis and cybernetics. Auditors
themselves receive training through courses of their own. This works
as a pyramid scheme, with people auditing those at levels below them
while being audited by others at levels above them. The courses that
make up the Narconon program, like those for other recruits to the
Church of Scientology, represent the introductory or lowest level of
the pyramid. Jerry Whitfield, a Narcononer-high-ranking staff member
of Narconon El Paso, tells how he was pressured to direct Narconon
patients onto the BRIDGE from Narconon to the Church of Scientology (a
process diagrammed in procedural manuals) and was required to transmit
statistics weekly on the number of new Scientology recruits. Potential
recruits are lured by promises that upon completion of all series of
courses, they will gain permanent relief from unpleasant emotions and
the sufferings of life, be ensured freedom from all past limitations,
be immune to psychosomatic disorders, and even to the harmful effects
of thermonuclear radiation, etc., etc.

The Scientology detoxification procedure, called the "Hubbard method"
within Narconon or the "purification rundown" within Scientology, is
supposed to dislodge toxins and drugs from fatty tissues through a
rigorous regimen of exercise saunas (up to five hours a day, for up to
30 days), and megavitamins. Aspects of this procedure can be
dangerous. For example, the "sweat-out" component requires individuals
to perspire up to five hours per day, seven days a week, for
approximately 30 days. The risk of dehydration is obvious. At least
one death is said to have occurred during "the purification rundown."

While the supposed rationale for the sweat-out is to rid the body of
fat-stored drugs and chemicals, there is no scientific basis for the
technique. Most drugs of abuses are removed from the body by
detoxification and excretion through the liver, the kidneys and (in
some instances) through the lungs. Although minute quantities of some
drugs may be found in sweat, the amount represent such a small
fraction of drug elimination that no matter how much an individual is
forced to perspire through exercise and saunas, the clearance of most
drugs of abuse would not be significantly increased. Nevertheless,
Scientologists are aggressively promoting the Hubbard method to public
and private employers for use with employees exposed to toxic
substances on their jobs.

Narconon is now attempting to license its Chilocco/New Life facility
near Newkirk, Oklahoma. This is its second residential drug-treatment
center in the united States; all others are for ambulatory cases. In
1989, the Church took over the Chilocco Indian School, with a 25-year
lease from the five Indian tribes that share the reservation. At a
staged ceremony, local residents were impressed when a "benefactor" --
The Association for Better Living and Education (ABLE) presented
Narconon a $200,000 check. In fact, ABLE shares Narconon
International's Los Angeles address and is another Scientology front.
Licensure of the Narconon facility at Chilocco has been vigorously
opposed by community and professional groups. Narconon officials at
Chilocco have strenuously dinied any link with Scientology.

Narconon is widely touted by its vendors with advertisements going to
health professional of all kinds, and with heavy promotional
activities on college campuses. Because of its name (probably
contrived for this purpose), Narconon is often confused with Narcotics
Anonymous (NA) which is a reputable self-help group similar to
Alcoholics Anonymous. Narconon's striving for an appearance of
respectability is typical of cult-related ventures. Many such cults,
like the Church of Scientology, the Unification Church, the Church
Universal and Triumphant, and others with plenty of money to employ
public relations experts and top law firms, are dangerously close to
succeeding in their claims to legitimacy. "Dr. West is professor of
psychiatry, School of Medicine, University of California, Los
Angeles.">>