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Letter to the Editor
Scientology's Approach to Mental Illness: How Crazy Can You Get?
By John Brown
Scientology claims to be the authority in the treatment of mental illness. Its desire to clear the planet of psychiatrists is public knowledge. But their own track record in the treatment of mentally ill people is alarming. There are numerous examples of a Scientology family devastated by the direct consequences of its faith.
Elli Perkins, a devout Scientologist and popular member of her community, treated her schizophrenic son Jeremy as recommended by L Ron Hubbard: by isolation and overdosing on vitamins. He stabbed her 77 times and then mercifully forgot what he had done. This not only deprived his family of a much-loved mother but ended his own chances of a normal life. The death of Elli Perkins continues to make headlines but it is not unique. Mentally-disturbed individuals who are deprived of psychiatric medication will repeat this pattern, so long as the cult continues to maintain its mindless opposition to all psychiatric treatment.
Tragedy overtook another Scientology family in Australia in July 2007. In Revesby, a suburb of Sydney, New South Wales, Linda Walicki, an untreated psychotic of 25, killed her father aged 53 and her brother aged 15, and then attempted to kill her mother (Sydney Morning Herald, 7 July 2007). Her mother, before removal to hospital, said 'It's not her fault; she's sick'. Linda was diagnosed with mental illness late in 2006 but turned down the treatment offered by Bankstown Hospital because her parents were Scientologists. Unfortunately a magistrate at that time refused to sign an order which would have obliged her to continue her treatment. Was he irresponsible, badly informed, or influenced by the arguments brought by Scientologists?
Captured on video, a spokesperson for the Sydney org at first denied any knowledge of the Walickis. 'They might have been among those who drop in or buy a book'. In fact they were sufficiently devoted to Scientology to refuse psychiatric treatment for this very sick and much loved family member, and Mr Walicki is said to have been a top recruiter for the CoS. There is no doubt about their allegiance. But it is typical of CoS priorities that instead of supporting a bereaved family, they will back off, lying furiously if usually ineffectually, in an attempt to distance themselves from the negative publicity produced by their own actions and beliefs.
A final example was reported briefly in the Salt Lake Tribune (Utah) on 15 March 1989. Gary Beals (32) attacked his father, Arthur Beals, and his mother, Lawana, with a knife, and then shot his father with a handgun. Gary was a Scientologist. The CoS had talked him out of seeking psychiatric help while bleeding his bank account dry. He blamed them for his crime.
There are many more, more than one might imagine, for the Church of Scientology not only prevents its members from seeking effective medical help but promotes psychotic episodes almost as a matter of course. Lisa MacPherson was not deranged until she went 'Clear'. There are, astonishingly, standard techniques such as the Introspection Rundown for dealing with psychotic episodes. The Church is notorious for its suicide rate which far outstrips that in the 'normal' population. Can someone please persuade the cult that in this case Ron got it wrong?
judythpiazza@newsblaze.com
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