Deep sleep therapy, a procedure that has been used in the United States and throughout the world, consists of placing people in a comatose state via barbiturates, hypnotics, and sedatives for two to three weeks, and shocking their brains on a daily or twice-daily basis. Jan Eastgate, the international president of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights, reports on its damaging effects: "Patients suffered brain damage, pleurisy, double pneumonia, blood clots, and at least 48 people died. It was used in mind control experiments during the 1960s up in Canada as well. And yet it was passed off as a therapy."16
Deep sleep therapy has been combined with psychosurgery for the treatment of asthma, Eastgate reports: "Women who had asthma attacks were given deep sleep therapy. One woman who had an asthma attack was also given psychosurgery. Sixteen years later she was washing her scalp and cut her finger. She was rushed to the hospital and they said, did you know that you had metal plates sticking out of your head? She didn't realize that when they did the psychosurgery they had actually left metal plates with a serrated edge inside her head. They had to be removed."16
Eastgate says that the treatment has been banned in certain countries, such as Australia, but that international cooperation between psychiatrists allows patients to be transported from nations where the procedure is prohibited to places where it is used. For example, Eastgate says that some Australian patients were sent to a Santa Monica psychiatrist. "So you have, internationally, some pretty horrific abuses."l6 The Citizens Commission on Human Rights is currently carrying out an international investigation into the matter.
Sexual Abuse
"Whatever houses I may visit, I will come for the benefit of the sick, remaining free of all intentional injustice, of all mischief and in particular of sexual relations with female and male persons, be they free or slaves."
These words are part of the Hippocratic Oath, sworn to by all physicians. You'd never know it, though, considering the results of a 1987 survey of over 1400 psychiatrists,l7 described in the Journal of the American Medical Association. The survey found that 65 % of the psychiatrists reported treating patients who had been sexually involved with previous therapists, and 87% of the psychiatrists surveyed believed that the previous involvement had been harmful to the patients. An interesting finding was that only 8% of the psychiatrists polled reported their colleagues' behavior to a professional organization or legal authority. This finding does not speak well for the concept of professionals policing their own ranks. One factor here might be that they all have a vested interest in keeping malpractice insurance premiums down.
Sydney Smith, in a report on "The Seduction of the Female Patient," reports that nearly half of the patients that are sexually abused by psychiatrists have previously been the victims of sexual abuse of one type or another. Confusion arising from these earlier experiences can make patients easier to victimize - and less willing to come forward with complaints when they are victimized. Plus if they do come forward, they may seem less credible in their complaints; perhaps it was all a result of garbled memories.
Sometimes patient confusion is induced by psychiatrist-administered drugs. Consider the case of Barbara Noel, who, in the book You Must Be Dreaming,19 details her years of sexual abuse by a renowned psychiatrist. Indeed, Dr. Jules Masserman was known worldwide as a leader in the psychiatric field.
The Citizens Commission on Human Rights summarized Noel's story:20 "A past president of the American Psychiatric Association (APA) and honorary president for life of the World Association for Social Psychiatry, Masserman was a powerful man who abused that power often.
"Barbara Noel, who worshipped him and considered herself lucky to have him as her psychiatrist, realized how deep the deception ran when she awoke during a frequent drug-induced sleep administered by Masserman to find him panting loudly as he sexually assaulted her.
"Although this was just a step above necrophilia, Masserman convinced Noel that she could get in touch with her 'real feelings' by taking sodium amytal (a barbiturate), which ironically had been used in mind control experiments and was found to block memory rather than, as Masserman claimed, enhance it.
"Noel became enraged when she finally realized how she had been abused for years by a supposedly 'respected' professional. However, with Masserman claiming Noel was 'sick' and lying, it took seven long years, court victories by her and two other women who went public after hearing of Noel's case, and even more women breaking their silence, before the APA upheld the Illinois Psychiatric Society's decision to suspend Masserman for only five years. And even that suspension was for inappropriate use of drugs, not rape.
"Scandalously, Masserman remained as a member of the APA's Board of Trustees."
Comments the CCHR: "It is hard to imagine a teacher who molests a young student would ever be allowed to teach again, but apparently a different set of standards exist for psychiatrists."20
In psychiatric facilities, patients are commonly sexually exploited as they are made to barter sex for freedom. Joanne Toglia, whose story is further told in a later section, says, of her abuse by a mental health counselor in a private hospital: "Finally, the bottom line came down to, if I slept with him, I'd get out. If I didn't, I'd go to the state mental hospital. And at the time, I had four children - 2, 3, 4 and 6. I was desperate to see them, so after three weeks of being locked up, I finally slept with him."2
Reports of sexual abuse are less frequent in outpatient settings, where psychiatrists, psychologists, and counselors generally act in supportive and professional ways. But in too many instances they do betray their patients' trust, as the Masserman saga illustrates. Attorney Steve Silver, who represents clients that were sexually abused by their therapists, gives one account of how unethical behavior on the part of a therapist can devastate patients' lives:
"I prosecuted a case against a female alcohol counselor who was roughly ten years older than her male patient, a married man with a couple of kids. The alcohol counselor ended up doing 'psychotherapy' on this gentleman, his wife, and on their two children. Ultimately, she seduced the man while telling his wife that because of her background of psychological problems she should withhold sexual relations from her husband.
Cont ...