CLEARWATER, Fla., July 05, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The month of July has been named “Minority Mental Health Awareness Month” in promotional releases now flooding online searches. But a history of psychiatric racism lies behind this messaging, according to human rights watchdog group co-founded by the Church of Scientology, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR).[1]

In order to educate citizens on the truth behind racism, the Florida chapter of CCHR is hosting an open house at their center located at 109 N. Fort Harrison Ave in downtown Clearwater where visitors will be able to learn more about the creation of racism by psychiatry. From apartheid in South Africa to the Ku Klux Klan and experiments on minorities in the United States, the most brutal racists were inspired by eugenics, which justified injustice, inhumanity and denial of human dignity to millions.

For example, at the time of U.S. Independence being celebrated this week, Benjamin Rush, the “father of American psychiatry”, declared that the color of “Blacks” was caused by a rare, inherited disease called “negritude,” derived from leprosy. The only evidence of a “cure” was when the skin color turned white.

Francis Galton, an English psychologist invented the term “eugenics” in 1883, meaning “good genes”.  He said the idea that people are of equal value is “undeniably wrong and cannot last,” and insisted that any charity to the poor and ill should require that they agree to abstain from having children.

Further, in 1923, J.T. Dunston, a British psychiatrist and South Africa’s Commissioner of Mental Hygiene, claimed, “…the native, even of the best tribes, possibly belongs to a race which is mentally inferior to ours.”

Then in the 1950s, psychologist Lewis Terman claimed that “Mexicans, Indians and Blacks” should never be allowed to have children. At the same time, well-known eugenicist Margaret Sanger, the founder of Planned Parenthood, endorsed sterilization as the “cure” for racial inferiority.

CCHR notes that documented examples of such “scientific” evaluations have been released repeatedly up to recent times. Yet today, a search brings up scores of promotional messages from U.S. mental health groups, exhorting minorities to ignore the “stigma” associated with mental treatments. 

“Racism has been fostered covertly by the psychiatric profession for 250 years,” said Diane Stein, President of CCHR Florida (CCHRFL). “Today, the easy profitability of psychiatric drugs has caused a shift in marketing policy. But the leopard does not change its spots.”

To learn more please call (727) 442-8820 or visit the CCHR Center at 109 N. Fort Harrison Ave, Clearwater, Florida.

About CCHR:  Initially established by the Church of Scientology and renowned psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz in 1969, CCHR’s mission is to eradicate abuses committed under the guise of mental health and enact patient and consumer protections. It was L. Ron Hubbard, the founder of Scientology, who brought the terror of psychiatric imprisonment to the notice of the world. In March 1969, he said, “Thousands and thousands are seized without process of law, every week, over the ‘free world’ tortured, castrated, killed. All in the name of ‘mental health.’” For more information visit, www.cchrflorida.org

Sources:

[1] Creating Racism: Psychiatry’s Betrayal http://www.cchr.org/sites/default/files/booklets/creating-racism.pdf

Media Contact:
Diane Stein
President, CCHR Florida
727-442-8820
diane@cchrflorida.org
www.cchrflorida.org