The Stigma of Mental Illness and Scientology Protests

The closing keynote speech at the San Francisco Learning and the Brain conference was by Stephen P. Hinshaw on The Mark of Shame: Attitudes Toward Mental Illness (With Emphasis on Children). I thought it was excellent.  You should read his memoir of his father's life-long struggle with mental illness, The Years of Silence are Past: My Father's Life with Bipolar Disorder.  An interview is here;  the Amazon link is here.

World Health Organization's Global Burden of Disease: of the 10 most impairing illnesses, 4 of the most impairing illnesses are mental illnesses.

Hinshaw mentioned Scientologists twice: mental illness is real and impairing, not just "problems in living", as the Scientologists have it.  And he did say he'd like ten minutes with Tom Cruise, implying that Cruise has set back the movement to end the stigma of mental illness.

Mark Plummer, a former Scientology member for fourteen years, states:

“Their goal is to take over entirely the field of mental health. Their beliefs stem from Hubbard’s dogma that psychiatry is evil. Scientology teaches that psychiatry views people as ‘meat bodies’ without a spiritual aspect, and that Scientologists alone should be allowed to treat mental illnesses.” Church leader David Miscavige agreed, stating quite clearly at the International Association of Scientologists in Copenhagen: “Objective one—place Scientology at the absolute center of society. Objective two—eliminate psychiatry in all its forms.”

Via Boing Boing, there's evidently a movement called Anonymous that intends to "expel Scientology from the internet."  Sunday, February 10, 2008 was a "world-wide protest against Scientology". The date was chosen because it would have been Lisa McPherson's 49th birthday.

Update: via Chris Hoofnagle the at the Denialism Blog, I learned that it is now called Project Chanology.

Project Chanology is a large scale plan to bring down the  Church of Scientology in its present form. On January 16, 2008; Anonymous decided to spread the message that Scientology is a dangerous and suppressive organization. We are doing this for the ex-Scientologists dare not speak up in fear of the cult, for the innocent members who are frauded out of their savings and broken down mentally, for those who have lost a relative or friend to the cult and for those who have already lost their lives.

At Agoravox , Paulette Cooper tells of The Scandal Behind "The Scandal of Scientology":

You may not believe this, but you can write something that some group doesn’t approve of and then have a quarter of your life almost ruined. I know because it happened to me.

• Metroblogging LA (January 22, 2008;  January 28, 2008; photos from February 10, 2008).
• YouTube: Anonymous Protest Suggestions
• YouTube: Code of Conduct
• Protests in Boston, Feb 10 2008
• Second Life News Network (SLNN) January 31 2008 on Anonymous protest
• Flickr stream tagged Anonymous vs. Scientology (Edmonton, London, LA)
• Religion News Blog: Anonymous Scientology Protest in Scotland
• Religion News Blog: Anonymous Scientology Protest in Brussels, Belgium
• Religion News Blog: Anonymous Scientology Protest in London
• Religion News Blog: Anonymous Scientology Protest in Ireland
• Religion News Blog: Anonymous Scientology Protest in Clearwater, Florida
• Religion News Blog: Anonymous Scientology Protest in Australia