Search

» » Psychiatry: An Industry of Death (2006)

Short summary

Through rare historical and contemporary footage and interviews, this riveting documentary blazes the bright light of truth on the brutal pseudoscience and multi-billion dollar fraud that is psychiatry. We think you have the right to know the cold, hard facts about psychiatry, its practitioners and the threat they pose to our children. Get the truth-watch this film.

User reviews


  • comment
    • Author: OTANO
    Calling this a documentary is as appalling as this propaganda film itself. There are credible several anti-psychiatry movements around the world that manages just fine without lying, distorting interviews and using flashy fox-like special effects as smokescreens. This Scientology funded project is not one of them.

    I can't believe that some people actually fall for some of these outlandish claims! Like that more people killed by psychiatry than all US wars since 1776... On top of that they exploit the human tendency to fill in gaps of information by eg first only mentioning some of the dubious experiments performed by Pavlov and then stating that Pavlovs theories were very important in the creation of Behaviourism. Both correct but presented in this way the audiences get some wild ideas about it, this is repeated throughout the "documentary". Omitting facts such as that Behaviourism is an approach in psychology, NOT psychiatry, is also prevalent.

    Finally to make it easier for the audiences to swallow all the lies explore the real nightmares of the early days of Psychiatry. Now a documentary focusing on that would be something I'd like to watch but abused in this way it's just sickening, horrid and appalling.

    I'm sorry if my writing seems disheveled but this propaganda film greatly upset and sickened me. If I weren't opposed to banning films I'd strongly advocate a banning of this one.
  • comment
    • Author: Reemiel
    This is not a documentary. It is a libelous piece of rubbish put forth by the scumbag Scientologists in order to discredit psychiatry. The outlandish dialog is superseded only by the distinct lack of any credible resource within. Honestly, Tom Cruise seems more sane and credible than this piece of tripe. Do yourself, and humanity, a favor and leave this rubbish on the shelf (along with Scientology). It is high time that people push back against the garbage spewed forth against logic and reason. Spit back in the face of rubbish like Scientology and the obvious fiction it is derived from.

    When the originator of Scientology says, "The way to make a million dollars is to start a religion." You know it's time to run kicking and screaming.
  • comment
    • Author: Steel_Blade
    This documentary is just not cool. From the first minute it is too aggressive to the watcher. Almost like a trailer to some movie - only the most "juicy" things are put up. Very very very aggressive to be true...

    The point is, in fact it is true to say psychiatry in US is really a business and really it smells. That is just true, but making a movie like this will not persuade an intelligent watcher about this true. On the contrary it makes him disgusted and really not about to believe what he see.

    In conclusion, the base of this movie might be truthfully, but the form of delivering the information is really not cool... Plus many supportive arguments are just fake...
  • comment
    • Author: Jay
    It goes without saying that this documentary is seriously biased and not meticulously researched. Also, the creators of the documentary are affiliated with the Scientologists making it fairly easy to identify their hidden agenda. The primary purpose of this documentary is to fully discredit psychiatry and to make a convincing case against not only psychiatry but also psychology. Some of the most outrageous claims in the documentary are that psychiatric disorders such as schizophrenia and mood disorders are actually made up and do not even exist. The evidence is abundant that schizophrenia and for instance bipolar disorders exist and affect people worldwide. Also, the documentary uses various techniques to make a strong case against psychiatrists whom it portrays as evil, manipulative and insidious. They are somehow always working for pharmaceutical companies by advocating their drugs. The documentary continues to overgeneralize and distort the field of psychiatry by invoking conspiracy theories which do not hold water.

    Despite what is mentioned above, psychiatry has been responsible historically for some gruesome human rights abuses by employing highly questionable and unethical techniques such as the electric shock therapy and lobotomy. Also, psychiatry played a pivotal role in Eugenics and has helped justify horrendous crimes throughout history, let alone slavery and the Holocaust. Psychiatrists have asserted that intellectual inferiority and propensity towards violence is inherently related to race. We can keep denying these truths at our own peril.

    One interesting aspect of the documentary is the fact that it claims that psychology has no scientific merit and that it must be dismissed on the grounds that it is a pseudoscience. Nonetheless, it then goes on to discuss psychological techniques used by the governments worldwide to extract intelligence from prisoners of war. The psychological techniques effectively remove the defense mechanisms in these prisoners by breaking them down. If the creators of this documentary in fact oppose psychology then these techniques must be non-existent. They cannot even be used because psychology as a pseudoscience must be fully and completely spurious and worthless. There are numerous contradictions in the documentary which seriously undermine its credibility. The arguments are one-sided and sweeping over-generalizations take place throughout the entire documentary.

    Scientologists largely responsible for creating this documentary have an insidious agenda, which is to completely dismiss psychology as a whole and to convince you that psychiatry is inherently evil. While psychiatry has a dubious history it has important current real-life applications without which the suffering of many people would continue and their symptoms would not subside any time soon. I recommend the documentary but remember to be source critical.
  • comment
    • Author: Inerrace
    CCHR! Job well done. They did a great job at "taking down" their target, "Psychiatry". It was hard to sit through the whole movie as it looked more like a volley of advertisements and head cracking visualizations all targeting one simple agenda, "Psychiatry is Evil". They did a great job at compiling plethora of instances from medieval times to vilify this profession. Their greatness did not stop there and they went on to connect Psychiatry with German Holocaust, USSR crisis, 9/11, school killings and what not. I am sure if they had more time, they would have linked Psychiatry with each wrong doings in the society because they seem to be just too good at it. I wish this documentary could have been done in a scientific way rather than "plain, simple and poor vilification". I am sure if someone views this documentary, the already stigmatized mental illness phenomenon will leave that person even more stigmatized. Brain is complex, the way it works is even more complex and products of its function are way too complex than a man's brain can dare to imagine and understand. Neuroscientists after the genome project have revealed solid evidence tracing the cause of mental illness and such poor documentaries are just too stigmatizing towards a healthy scientific venture. While watching this documentary I googled the vice president of CCHR Jan Eastgate and what I found out was not surprising. Here is the link: http://blogs.villagevoice.com/runninscared/2011/06/jan_eastgate.php I hope better documentaries with scientific basis do make their way into mass media so that the already stigmatized mental illness can be de- stigmatized.
  • comment
    • Author: Cashoutmaster
    I came through mental hospital treatment in Poland. What is in this movie is true also about Poland. As long as you have cash you will be kept, your relatives cheated that you need all this pills , even electric shock. Mental hospitals are places where people are left without help, forced into believing into lies, changing pills one after another. Its a sick system.

    My advice - If you feel bad , turn to God or true friends or some anonymous support group but don't come to this greedy heartless people. If you take pills - try to resign from them step by step. I was in mental hospital nearly 11 years ago. Now I don't smoke, don't drink alcohol, nor take any medicine and do my best to treat myself the best way I can. This is the best therapy - be your friend. If there is anything that scares me on this world is being put into hands of psychiatrists. This movie together with "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest" are real pictures of mental hospital like Toszek in Poland.
  • comment
    • Author: Rivik
    Everyone that is taking some kind of medicationshould watch these, I don't care if this is a doc or not, the truth is that if you are under medication, you will find a lot of thing that happened or will happen to you.

    I don't want answers I don't care about dates, but I DO care about how the psychiatrist have no idea , NO IDEA, what there giving us, just ask yours and he woulnt know.

    THIS IS A MUST HACE, FORGERT THE PROPAGANDA.You will feel that you're not alone, I'v been in the situation like many kids in this doc.

    THEY ARE TESTING WITH US, they are playing with your mind
  • comment
    • Author: Vrion
    Most of the footage was edited to make it seem like they are right (cut out the parts they didn't like or didn't justify their sayings). As a psychology student, I'm aware that my profession has some weaknesses and in the United States it is quite industrialized but I don't think that just because of some economic interests it should be called a worldwide conspiracy. Because this is what they call psychology, a conspiracy with some very evil folks behind it. Most of it is fake and the whole concept is illogical. Furthermore even if what they say would turn out to be true, they're so aggressive and only looking at one side of situation that it is very hard to believe anything they say.

    SPOILER

    They quote Nietzsche to justify one of their chapters or whatever that is and right after that they start talking about eugenics, of course about how wrong it is. If we look at Nietzsche's lifework then we may realize that it was pretty much similar to the idea of eugenics. So they only use those sentences that they like but not the whole source. This does not work that way, thus it's a fake. One moment they like the guy, the next moment they hate his ideas.

    They claim that there are no mental illnesses, on the other hand they are calling psychiatrists sadists and many other things, they mention mostly psychopathic traits which are pretty much mental illnesses according to their terminology.

    There is a chapter where a guy visits a few different psychiatrists with a set of symptoms and according to the movie it is the proof that psychology does not have any scientific basis. The problem is that all the psychiatrists came up with the same 3 or 4 possible diagnoses after a few minutes of talk. If it were such a fraud as they claim, each therapist should have come up with very different diagnoses.

    SPOILER END

    In my opinion, the reason why the creator of this rubbish is denying the existence of mental illnesses because that way he wouldn't have to face his own sh*t.
  • comment
    • Author: Mardin
    This is a great documentary. It IS a documentary because it interviews people who are authorities in their own profession. Nevertheless, this film shows a hard truth and it needs ability to confront in order to understand what is really happening. Respect for all those in the film for the courage to stand out and shout the truth.

    This film shows in a very simple way how psychiatry acts as a fraud and its original origins and motives. Covered with facts. How the "science" based on opinions became an official medial practice. If you take in consideration what you'll see, you will understand much more about the world you live in.
  • comment
    • Author: Gugrel
    This entire film is full of Scientology followers who are giving their opinions not facts. The leader and founder of Scientology suffered from mental illness. This religion is dangerous. Psychiatry, Psychology is a science just like every other medical field. There will be trial and error. In all medical fields we have advanced in knowledge. To treat Psychology as a fake medical practice is showing you having no experience with someone who is seriously mentally ill. Schizophrenia, Autism, OCD, are all very real and treating these can be extremely hard.
  • comment
    • Author: Altad
    Documentary should be based on facts, this is not the case. I was under heavy impression while watching this movie, thinking they're telling true facts, until timing 1:33:00 where Edward Klain appeared telling his lines. They wrote in movie that Edward Klain was Serbian military adviser, which is outrages because that man during the 1991-1992 war in Croatia created, established, and headed the Headquarters for Psychologic Aspects of War at the War Headquarters of Croatian Ministry of Health Care (see for yourself http://www.cmj.hr/advisoryboard.htm). Another false claim in this so cold 'documentary' was that Dr Jovan Raskovic was spreading Nazi propaganda against Croats and Muslims, which is absolute nonsense. Shame on you, mastermind of the movie.
  • comment
    • Author: Balhala
    Any documentary that includes contributions from Thomas Szasz "and" Charlotte Iserbyt has the makings of a truly great film. Unfortunately, a worthy attack on the junk science of psychiatry was almost allowed to degenerate into an ad hominem filled polemic against eugenics and something called racism. For that it loses one point.

    "Psychiatry: An Industry Of Death " is actually the name of a museum, one founded by Szasz with the backing of the Church of - wait for it - Scientology. It is ironic that a sham religion founded by a con man should be in the forefront of the anti-psychiatry movement, but this one worthy deed will have earned L. Ron Hubbard a pair of angel's wings.

    Although "...Industry Of Death" does appear to go over the top - there are many people out there who are more evil than any psychiatrist - it is the evil good men do that has always been the bigger problem. The film does not dwell too much on the quackery that is psychiatry, concentrating instead on the powerful vested interests, ie big money, that have turned America in particular into a charlatan's paradise, often at the expense of children who are diagnosed with ADHD at the drop of a hat.

    We are also shown the historical perspective and the horror shows of psychiatry from the insane asylum to the lobotomy and beyond. You will probably disagree with much of what this film says, but most people will agree that whether or not it actually exists, the extent of mental illness has been greatly exaggerated, that psychiatric drugs should be used as a last resort if at all, and that the financial influences on psychiatry should be reigned in.
  • Credited cast:
    Walter Afield Walter Afield - Himself (as Dr. Walter Afield)
    George W. Albee George W. Albee - Himself (as Dr. George W. Albee)
    Garland Allen Garland Allen - Himself (as Dr. Garland Allen)
    R. Christopher Barden R. Christopher Barden - Himself
    Lewis Bass Lewis Bass - Himself
    Michael Berenbaum Michael Berenbaum - Himself (as Dr. Michael Berenbaum)
    Mary Ann Block Mary Ann Block - Herself (as Dr. Mary Ann Block)
    Samuel Blumenfeld Samuel Blumenfeld - Himself (as Dr. Samuel Blumenfeld)
    Arthur Caplan Arthur Caplan - Himself (as Dr. Arthur Caplan)
    Paula Caplan Paula Caplan - Herself (as Dr. Paula Caplan)
    Beth Clay Beth Clay - Herself
    Ty Colbert Ty Colbert - Himself (as Dr. Ty Colbert)
    Dennis Cowan Dennis Cowan - Himself
    Moira Dolan Moira Dolan - Herself (as Dr. Moira Dolan)
    Beverly Eakman Beverly Eakman - Herself
    All rights reserved © 2017-2024 hd.thomson-multimedia.com