Masterful Cinema

A different way of telling a story

Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

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.

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.

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.

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.