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| Scientology vs Psychiatry [message #56] |
Tue, 10 July 2007 16:32  |
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 Number Two
Messages: 96
Registered: April 2007 |
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From http://www.theaustralian.news.com.au/story/0,20867,22044493- 2702,00.html
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A SYDNEY woman accused of fatally stabbing her father, sister and injuring her mother was denied psychiatric treatment by her parents who were Scientologists, a court was told today.
The 24-year-old woman, who cannot be named, was diagnosed with a psychotic illness in late 2006 and recommended follow-up treatment at Bankstown Hospital, in Sydney's south-west.
Dr Mark Cross, the consultant psychiatrist and clinical director of Liverpool and Fairfield Mental Health Services, said the woman's parents refused this treatment.
“She had a history of being diagnosed with a psychotic illness in late 2006 at Bankstown Hospital, but follow-up from the mental health team was apparently declined by her parents because of their alleged scientology beliefs,” Dr Cross said.
The woman allegedly stabbing her 53-year-old father and 15-year-old sister to death at the family home in Hydrae Street at Revesby in Sydney's south-west on Thursday.
It is also alleged she stabbed her 52-year-old mother, who raised the alarm as she collapsed in a neighbour's driveway.
The woman told the neighbour her daughter had just killed her husband but that it wasn't her fault because she was “sick”.
According to a police fact sheet tendered to Bankstown Local Court, the neighbour saw the 24-year-old still holding a knife as he put a blanket over the injured mother-of-six.
It's alleged that he stood up and looked over the fence and saw the woman walking calmly towards him, but after he told her the police were coming she walked away.
Police said the blood-soaked 24-year-old then got into a passing car and asked the driver if he was the person that was taking her to Croatia.
It's alleged that when the man said no, the woman appeared annoyed, and got out of the car only to stop it again moments later.
She then agreed that the driver take her to the police station, before getting out again when they were passed by a police car, which was responding to the triple-0 call.
When she was arrested minutes later, she allegedly said: “I've just butchered my family. I stabbed dad, mum and sister.
“They are all dead.”
She was then taken to hospital where she allegedly shouted at staff that she wanted a knife and wanted more killing.
According to Dr Cross's report, instead of receiving follow-up treatment by Bankstown Hospital's mental health team, the woman had instead seen a private psychiatrist as well as a psychologist.
She also was prescribed an anti-depressant as well as an anti-psychotic treatment that she took until January this year, which made her feel anxious, and depressed. She also experienced poor sleep and felt unsafe at home.
“She stated that her parents did not want her to take the prescribed medication she had been on in 2006, and apparently started her on medication they got from America - which was not psychiatric in nature,” Dr Cross said.
The woman told Dr Cross that her feelings started to worsen three weeks before the killings and that her parents allowed her to restart her anti-psychotic medication as it helped her to sleep.
The woman was supported by about 20 family and friends at Bankstown Local Court where she was charged with two counts of murder and one count of inflicting grievous bodily harm with intent to murder.
She was formally refused bail to face Burwood Local Court on Wednesday.
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Sometimes religious beleifs has life or death consequences.
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| Re: Scientology vs Psychiatry [message #134 is a reply to message #56 ] |
Tue, 31 July 2007 14:59  |
Lafayette
Messages: 13
Registered: July 2007
Location: London |
Junior Member |
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Forgive the cross post, but this is The Beacon's take on this news:
Scientology Cited in Australian Murders
The daughter of a Scientologist couple is currently on trial for the murder of her father, her fifteen-year-old sister, and the attempted murder of her mother. She was diagnosed as psychotic in late-2006 and it is alleged that her parents, being good Scientologists, refused her medical treatment. Scientology has painted psychiatry as the villain in the history of the human race, even in being co-conspirators (along, tellingly, with the tax man) of Xenu in the Teegeack genocide, the so-called Incident II. One of the key pursuits of scientology is the defamation and destruction of the field of psychiatry. The Church used their 2007 New Year celebration to push their desire of the global obliteration of the field, complete with the same kind of metaphorical calls to arms that put critic Keith Henson in prison. Ironically many of the criticisms CoS have of psychiatry, Scientology itself is guilty of. They claim psychiatry is not an evidence-based science, that it has inhumane practices, that it denies individuals their human rights, that it is criminal but manages to evade justice on a meaningful scale due to a conspiratorial web of power.
Yet Scientology states it has evidence to back up its own scientific claims, from the supposed benefits of Dianetics, through to its rehab programs and even the more outlandish claims of past lives and the powers said to open up to a scientologist when he reaches the top of the bridge to freedom - this evidence is often cited but never seen. Scientologists have been guilty of crimes as seen in Operations Snow White and Freakout. In the "treatment" of Lisa McPherson she was confined against her will, as documented by the watch logs. Scientology has a long history of out-of-court settlements and a habit of offloading its crimes onto its followers so that the Church itself never appears in the dock (despite the fact that when a psychiatrist breaks the law, he is seen by Scientology as committing a crime on behalf of psychiatry itself).
The case in Australia is not unique; in fact it parallels closely the Elli Perkins murder. She, too, tried to treat her psychotic child, Jeremy, with vitamins. She too was stabbed to death for her troubles. That Scientology's attitude to psychiatry and psychiatric illness seems clearly irresponsible (Lisa McPherson, once taken out of the "evil" care of psychiatry was then looked after by Flag staff members clearly unable to deal with her illness) goes almost without saying. Even if their criticisms of psychiatry stand up, Scientology does not satisfactorily provide a replacement. The big mistake is that Scientology relies on standard procedure - Hubbard praised himself for establishing rundowns that worked for everyone so long as they are followed to the letter. One of the things that psychiatry realises, and struggles with, is that the various conditions they encounter are fantastically difficult to categorise, and, as a result, treat effectively. Scientology, from what this blogger has seen, finds it even difficult to recognise the difference between clinical depression and a case of the doldrums.
The tragedy in Australia is not as clear-cut as the death of Elli Perkins, however. The daughter had been allowed back onto her medication for the last three weeks as it helped her sleep. If we attempt to find a cause, or apportion blame, how are we to tell whether it was the deprivation of medication, or the medication itself. In a sense, that the waters are muddied like this will only serve to invite debate, which I suspect will be detrimental to the Church's position. There are few critical thinkers out there who cannot see the lack of logic in the following: a psychotic person is put on medication; the psychotic person then commits murder; the murder occured due to the medication. This is what Scientology believes. They also believe this: a depressive person is put on anti-depressants; the depressive person commits suicide; the medication caused the suicide. It is an oft-repeated observation, but the Church's position is akin to blaming cancer deaths on chemotherapy. The Church has long since withdrawn its support for Hubbard's statement that Dianetics can cure leukemia. I suspect it is about time that they withdraw their claims regarding serious psychological disorders.
"Do not allow the authority of any one person or school of thought to create a foregone conclusion within your sphere of knowledge."
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| Re: Scientology vs Psychiatry [message #259 is a reply to message #258 ] |
Mon, 24 August 2009 14:53 |
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Matthew
Messages: 24
Registered: April 2007 |
Junior Member |
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Well I'm a psychologist, all you have to do to become a psychologist is to say you are one. It's a bit like being a nutritionist or a reflexologist. The psychiatrist is another matter. The point being that these two acted in accordance with the family's religiously inpisred predjudice against psychiatric drugs. That asaid it appear the the accused did start taking her anti-psychoitics again a couple of weeks before the murders.
Who knows how it might have played out otherwise in differwent circumstances without religious interference.
"All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act their dream with open eyes, to make it possible"
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