From electroshock bans to exposing psychiatric torture, CCHR’s actions since 1969 have helped shape mental health law globally and hold psychiatry and psychology accountable—despite industry resistance
By Jan Eastgate
President CCHR International
July 25, 2025
Since its founding in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and psychiatrist Dr. Thomas Szasz, the Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR) has been on the front lines of restoring human rights to the mental health field. Long before international bodies acknowledged psychiatric coercion as abuse, CCHR had already laid the groundwork, exposing atrocities like electroshock, psychosurgery, deep sleep therapy, and systemic human rights violations in psychiatric institutions.
Landmark Reform: Banning Child Electroshock in California
In 1976, just one year before I joined CCHR in Australia, CCHR in California helped secure the first U.S. law banning electroshock and psychosurgery on children under 12. What should have been a universally condemned practice—strapping a child down and subjecting them to up to 460 volts of electricity—was a routine psychiatric procedure. CCHR fought to end it and succeeded against substantial psychiatric opposition. Indeed, as. psychiatrist Richard Abrams, co-owner of Somatics LLC, which manufactures an ECT device, put it: “Absent Scientology, there would hardly be an organized anti-ECT movement in the United States or anywhere else.”[1]
The National Health Federation Bulletin recognized the impact of our efforts:
“Kudos to the Scientologists!… The catalyst in the seven-year effort to expose…criminal treatment of patients…is the Citizens Commission on Human Rights.”
Those early victories inspired international reforms. In 1979, CCHR worked with lawmakers in South Australia to enact the first informed consent law for electroshock. The Hon. Peter Duncan, Minister of Health, thanked CCHR:
“Their concern for individual patients…reflects a genuine humanitarian endeavor…they are hereby acknowledged.”
From Exposure to Enforcement: CCHR’s Victory in Criminalizing Psychiatric Abuse
Between 1978 and 1983, I led CCHR’s campaign in New South Wales to expose and successfully ban deep sleep therapy (DST)—a lethal practice involving psychiatric drug-induced comas and electroshock. Most of the patients were not informed they had undergone ECT and, as such consent was never obtained. Forty-eight people died. Dr. Szasz attended a coroner’s inquest with me into one of these deaths. Miriam Podio, who had been electroshocked while seriously ill. Szasz knew of Podio’s story, as 60 Minutes in Australia had interviewed him in 1980 for its award-winning show The Chelmsford Scream. “I have seen and heard plenty of horror stories, but this is one of the worst,” he stated. DST “has been disqualified as a treatment for at least 20 years.”[2] CCHR had provided the documented evidence to 60 Minutes, which a producer acknowledged: “The 60 Minutes program would never have been aired if not for the documents provided by Ms. Eastgate [CCHR].”[3]
A New South Wales government Royal Commission inquiry was secured after ten years of work, with Justice John Slattery overseeing the evidence, affirming: Electroshock without consent or by deception “commits a trespass…and is responsible for an assault.”[4] Banned in 1983 because of CCHR actions working with survivors, under the New South Wales Mental Health Act, administering DST is an offense punishable by a fine and jail.[5]
Slattery specifically credited CCHR for helping make the inquiry possible, stating it had “contributed considerably to advance the cause of the Chelmsford patients.”[6]
Prominent lawyer Patrick Griffin added: “CCHR’s campaign…was the most sustained and thorough exercise in whistleblowing, investigatory reporting and public interest work in the history of this country—bar none.”[7]
Decades later, global health authorities are echoing the standards CCHR demanded in the 1970s and ’80s. In 2023, the World Health Organization (WHO) and the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) called for a worldwide ban on DST, insulin coma therapy, psychosurgery, and other inhumane practices.[8]
They affirmed what CCHR had warned all along: “ECT without consent violates the right to physical and mental integrity and may constitute torture.” ECT is not recommended for children. “This should be prohibited through legislation.”[9]
Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital Torture: A 50-Year Battle for Justice in New Zealand
CCHR’s 1970s abuse exposés in New Zealand at Lake Alice Psychiatric Hospital found psychiatrist Selwyn Leeks electroshocked children without anesthetic to their heads, arms, legs, and genitals, as they screamed in pain and passed out. Other psychiatric abuse included sexual assault, chemical restraints, sterilization, starvation, and beatings. For nearly 50 years, CCHR has battled for justice for the victims, which led to a 2022 Royal Commission report acknowledging our critical role: “CCHR has remained involved in advocating for survivors…since 1976.”[10]
In 2024, the New Zealand government accepted that children were tortured at Lake Alice, meeting the UN Convention on Torture threshold. Lake Alice survivor Bruce Harkness said: “CCHR…are the moralistic people that got behind us. They are true champions.”[11]
In March 2025, CCHR NZ received the Mitre 10-Kiwibank New Zealand Community of the Year Award: “CCHR continued its advocacy, taking the matter before government agencies, health officials, and ultimately the United Nations Committee Against Torture.”[12] Victor Boyd, who led CCHR’s 1970s inspections of Lake Alice, was appointed a Member of the New Zealand Order of Merit, endorsed by the King of England.[13]
Exposing Racism and Slave Labor in South African Psychiatry
In South Africa, between 1974 and 1976, CCHR and the Church’s Freedom Magazine exposed psychiatric slave labor camps where thousands of Black patients were electroshocked without anesthesia. The death rate in these facilities exceeded even U.S. psychiatric hospitals. CCHR’s advocacy led to a WHO investigation, which in 1983 concluded: “In no other medical field in South Africa is the contempt for the person, cultivated by racism, more concisely portrayed than in psychiatry.”[14] When apartheid ended, it secured a national health department inquiry into the camps, confirming psychiatric racism.[15] In November 1997, CCHR testified before South Africa’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The South African Minister for Arts, Culture, Science and Technology applauded CCHR “for having identified the inhumanity inflicted on the mentally ill and their untiring campaigns to bring this to the world’s notice. As a country and government, we will work with organizations such as CCHR…Your record in the fight…is laudable and exemplary.”
CCHR’s Legacy Can’t Be Erased
Many of the reforms we fought for—and won—were achieved despite intense institutional resistance, and notably more than 16 years before one contemporary critic and clinical psychologist even earned his Ph.D. in psychology. His revisionist attacks cannot erase a legacy built by survivors, families, and advocates such as CCHR to expose psychiatric abuse and secure protections now recognized by governments and international agencies alike.
Ironically, a prominent psychologist recently acknowledged that CCHR’s campaign against electroshock is “an incredible story that goes back decades… It’s going to be successful at killing an industry.” An ECT device executive confirmed: “Duke, Yale, Harvard—all of the top figures in the field are very worried.”
Governments and the UN Acknowledge CCHR’s Impact
Industry attacks on CCHR are not only self-serving—they are desperate attempts to rewrite a history that’s been thoroughly documented and recognized by survivors, the UN, and governments worldwide.
In 1986—just a year after one critic completed his psychology degree—a UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights stated: “CCHR has been responsible for many great reforms.” He noted that laws worldwide, which would have further restricted patients’ rights or empowered psychiatry to commit minorities and individuals involuntarily, “have been defeated by the actions of CCHR.”[16]
Since then, nearly 200 laws have been enacted thanks in large part to CCHR’s efforts.
- Texas banned ECT for under-16s in 1993. Two other U.S. states have banned it on minors.
- Western Australia criminalized ECT on minors under 14, with jail sentences as a deterrent.[17]
- The Australian Capital Territory bans ECT for children under 12.[18]
- South Australia imposes penalties of up to 4 years in jail for illegal administration of ECT.[19]
The 2023 WHO/UN joint report now advises: “People being offered ECT should also be made aware of…long-term harmful effects, such as memory loss and brain damage.”[20]
Modern Warnings Reflect CCHR’s Early Advocacy
CCHR has exposed such warnings long before they became mainstream. Such warnings are now echoed globally. For example:
- In 2017, Western Australia’s Chief Psychiatrist’s ECT guidelines admitted memory loss “can even be permanent.”
- Western Australia’s Graylands psychiatric hospital warned in its manual: “The electrode set is as lethal as a loaded gun.”[21]
- A woman shocked 100 times described it as “being wheeled down to the gas chamber.”[22]
- Australian Psychiatrist and Critical Psychiatry member, Niall McLaren, stated: If any psychiatrist tells a patient, “‘You need ECT,’ it is really only saying, ‘I don’t know what else to do.’” He is adamant: “No psychiatrist needs to use ECT.”[23]
- CCHR’s recent Freedom of Information requests for electroshock usage in the U.S. revealed children as young as five being electroshocked—tantamount to torture.[24]
- In June 2024, the California Supreme Court ruled that an ECT device manufacturer must warn doctors of the risks of brain damage and permanent memory loss.[25]
- In May 2025, the UN Committee on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities’ Vice Chair declared: “Involuntary medication, electroshock, even sterilization—these are inhuman practices… they constitute torture. There is an urgent need to ban all coercive and non-consensual measures in psychiatric settings.”[26]
Thomas Szasz and the Power of an Informed Public
CCHR co-founder Dr. Thomas Szasz (1920–2012) was a globally respected physician and prolific author, with whom I worked from 1980 until his passing. Describing his affiliation with CCHR, Szasz said: “I got affiliated with an organization long after I was established as a critic of psychiatry called Citizens Commission for Human Rights, because they were then the only organization and they still are the only organization who were active in trying to free mental patients who were incarcerated in mental hospitals with whom there was nothing wrong, who had committed no crimes, who wanted to get out of the hospital. And that to me was a very worthwhile cause; it’s still a very worthwhile cause.”
In 1969, as a founding member of CCHR, Szasz spoke out for Hungarian refugee Victor Gyory, who had been involuntarily committed, stripped naked, isolated, and forcibly electroshocked at Haverford State Hospital in Pennsylvania. Szasz proved that Gyory was falsely labeled schizophrenic simply because he couldn’t speak English. His testimony led to Gyory’s release—a landmark victory against coercive psychiatry.[27]
Szasz stated: “The task we set ourselves, to combat psychiatric coercion, is important. It is a noble task in the pursuit of which we must, regardless of obstacles, persevere. Our conscience demands we do no less.” At CCHR’s 25th Anniversary, Szasz honored CCHR because “it is really the only organization that for the first time in human history has organized a politically, socially, internationally significant voice to combat psychiatry.”
Szasz rejected the “anti-psychiatry” label, noting it was coined by psychiatrists like R.D. Laing—not him. His mission was simple: abolish coercive psychiatry and defend human freedom[28]—a cause CCHR has upheld from the start.
When I once asked him how to protect people from psychiatric abuse, he replied:
“We, ourselves. The pillar…must rest on an informed public.”[29] That principle has always guided CCHR’s work.
For CCHR’s 50th Anniversary, in 2019, Dr. Niall McLaren called CCHR’s work “essential if we are to counter the endless propaganda of dehumanizing psychiatry” and the belief that distressed youth “must be stripped of their human rights and drugged into conformity.”[30]
CCHR Creates Freedoms: History Vindicates the Truth
For over five decades, CCHR has been the watchdog, whistleblower, and warrior for those harmed by psychiatry’s most abusive practices—long before it was politically safe to do so. Every law reformed, every patient protected from electroshock, every abuse exposed, and every survivor we have supported is a testament to the commitment of this organization, its staff, volunteers, and those it represents.
Critics’ attempted attacks only expose the cracks in psychiatry’s crumbling fortress of coercion and profit. In contrast, CCHR’s work has long been and remains aligned with the most authoritative global health and human rights agencies in the world. Let that be the final word on who history will vindicate.
Sample of CCHR Recognitions
- Professor Lothar Krappmann, a former member of the UN Committee on the Rights of the Child, wrote: “When you point out that I have achieved something for the misdiagnosed and incorrectly treated children, then I must add that this was possible because of the good information and documents I have received from CCHR.”
- Oleg Kilkevich, a U.S. college nursing educator, said CCHR “has a long history of fighting bravely and relentlessly for human rights. It has been responsible for many great reforms that now protect patients against ‘cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment,’ as outlined under Article 5 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.”
- For more than 30 years, Texas attorney Andy Vickery has taken on pharmaceutical companies over the violence- and suicide-inducing effects of psychotropic drugs. His $6.4 million judgment for the family of a man who killed three relatives and himself after taking the antidepressant Paxil broke through the industry’s legal defense armor. He stated. “I commend you for that dedication and tenacity and applaud CCHR’s endeavors and your continued support of them.”
- Detroit Civil Rights attorney, Allison Folmar, also gave a special address at the gala, saying, “As a civil rights lawyer that has worked with CCHR for many years, I am honored to be here in salute to CCHR’s 50 years of fighting for justice and freedoms in the mental health system.”
- U.S. HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES RESOLUTION: “Highly commends CCHR for securing numerous reforms around the world, safeguarding others from abuses in the mental health system and ensuring legal protections are afforded them.”
- “RESOLUTION FROM THE COMMONWEALTH OF PENNSYLVANIA: “…the House of Representatives of Pennsylvania congratulates CCHR International…. Its noble humanitarian endeavors will long be remembered and deeply appreciated.”
- “Honor those to whom honor is due…we broadly recognize CCHR’s unprecedented fight in mankind’s history against psychiatric abuses, its protection of children from abusive practices and treatments, and encourage CCHR’s humanitarian work.” – Mexico’s Committee of Science and Technology of the Federal House of Representatives
[1] https://truthaboutect.org/new-study-tells-consumers-the-truth-of-potential-lethal-electroshock-and-antidepressant-risks/ citing Richard Abrams, M.D., Electroconvulsive Therapy, Fourth Edition, (Oxford University Press, 2002), p. 10
[2] CCHR submission to the Royal Commission into Deep Sleep Therapy, 1989; “The Chelmsford Report,” CCHR, 1986.
[3] https://www.cchrint.org/2020/12/01/survivors-of-lethal-drug-shock-deep-sleep-therapy-vindicated-after-30-years/ citing FEDERAL COURT OF AUSTRALIA Herron v HarperCollins Publishers Australia Pty Ltd (No 3) [2020] FCA 1687, 25 Nov. 2020
[4] The Hon. Mr. Acting Justice, J.P. Slattery, A.O., “Report of the Royal Commission Into Deep Sleep Therapy,” NSW Royal Commission, Vol. 6, Dec. 1990, p. 96.
[5] https://www.cchrint.org/about-us/cchr-accomplishments/
[6] NSW Royal Commission into Deep Sleep Therapy, Vol 8, p. 479, Dec.1990
[7] https://www.cchrint.org/2019/04/19/cchr-celebrates-50-years-of-eradicating-psychiatric-abuse/
[8] https://www.cchrint.org/2023/09/18/who-guideline-condemns-coercive-psychiatric-practices/ World Health Organization, OHCHR, “Guidance on Mental Health, Human Rights and Legislation,” p. 59
[9] World Health Organization, OHCHR, “Guidance on Mental Health, Human Rights and Legislation,” p. 58
[10] David Williams, “Torture at Lake Alice admitted to UN for first time,” Newsroom (NZ), 19 Aug. 2024, https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/08/20/torture-at-lake-alice-admitted-to-un-for-first-time/; Pete McKenzie, “200,000 Children and Vulnerable Adults Abused in New Zealand, Report Finds,” New York Times, 24 July 2024, https://www.nytimes.com/2024/07/24/world/asia/new-zealand-abuse-in-care-report.html
[11] https://www.cchrint.org/2024/08/23/the-collapse-of-electroshock/; David Williams, “Torture at Lake Alice admitted to UN for first time,” Newsroom (NZ), 19 Aug. 2024, https://newsroom.co.nz/2024/08/20/torture-at-lake-alice-admitted-to-un-for-first-time/
[12] https://www.cchrint.org/2025/03/28/cchr-and-electroshock-survivors-honored-with-award/
[13] “King’s Birthday Honours: Advocate dedicates award to survivors of abuse in care,” RNX, 2 June 2005, https://www.rnz.co.nz/news/national/562817/king-s-birthday-honours-advocate-dedicates-award-to-survivors-of-abuse-in-care
[14] https://www.cchrint.org/2021/08/09/cchr-supports-south-african-us-inquiries-into-mental-health-patient-deaths/; “Apartheid and Health,” Part II, “The Health Implications of Racial Discrimination and Social Inequality: An Analytical Report to the Conference,” WORLD HEALTH ORGANIZATION (Geneva), 1983, p. 230
[15] https://www.cchrint.org/2021/08/09/cchr-supports-south-african-us-inquiries-into-mental-health-patient-deaths
[16] https://www.cchrint.org/2022/01/10/psychiatrists-wake-up-to-criticisms-of-their-industry/; Erica-Irene Daes, Special Rapporteur to the UN Human Rights Commission, Principles, Guidelines and Guarantees for the Protection of Persons Detained on Grounds of Mental Ill-Health or Suffering from Mental Disorder, 1986
[17] John Read, Ph.D., “Is It Time to Ban Electroconvulsive Therapy for Children? Research suggests that using electricity on developing brains is a bad idea,” Psychology Today, 17 Dec, 2023, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychiatry-through-the-looking-glass/202311/is-it-time-to-ban-electroconvulsive-therapy-for; Western Australia Mental Health Act 2014, S 194, p. 145
[18] Geraden Cann “Thousands of Australians are receiving ECT without consent every year,” ABC News, 8 June 2025, https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-06-09/electroconvulsive-therapy-consent-depression/105302318; Australian Capital Territory Mental Health Act 2015, S 147, p. 178178,https://classic.austlii.edu.au/au/legis/act/consol_act/mha2015128/s157.html
[19] South Australian Mental Health Act, 2009, ECT section, p. 35
[20] John Read, Ph.D., “Is It Time to Ban Electroconvulsive Therapy for Children? Research suggests that using electricity on developing brains is a bad idea,” Psychology Today, 17 Dec, 2023, https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/psychiatry-through-the-looking-glass/202311/is-it-time-to-ban-electroconvulsive-therapy-for
[21] https://cchrvictoria.org.au/ect-electroconvulsive-therapy/; Graylands Hospital Policies and Procedures: MEDICAL, in use in early 2000s, obtained by CCHR under the Freedom of Information Act
[22] https://cchrvictoria.org.au/ect-electroconvulsive-therapy/; “Consent form for electroconvulsive therapy (ECT),” Office of the WA Chief Psychiatrist, see under “Forms,” and then “ECT Consent Form,” http://www.chiefpsychiatrist.health.wa.gov.au/publications/index.cfm#forms
[23] https://www.cchrint.org/2023/11/03/patients-given-electroshock-brain-damage-recourse/; Niall McLaren, “No Psychiatrist Needs to Use ECT,” 27 June 2017, https://www.madinamerica.com/2017/06/no-psychiatrist-needs-use-ect/
[24] https://www.cchrint.org/2016/11/21/cchr-initial-surveys-of-u-s-states-shows-5-year-olds-being-electroshocked/
[25] https://www.cchrint.org/2025/06/27/despite-calls-for-ban-us-child-psychiatry-pushes-electroshock/; https://www.wisnerbaum.com/blog/2024/june/wisner-baum-prevails-in-landmark-win-for-patient/
[26] https://www.cchrint.org/2025/05/23/end-mandated-community-psychiatric-programs/
[27] https://www.cchrint.org/2012/09/11/inmemoriamdrthomasszaszcchrcofounder/
[28] https://www.cchrint.org/about-us/the-anti-psychiatry-movement/
[29] Dr. Thomas Szasz Foreword for NSW Committee on Mental Health Advocacy Psychiatric Drugs report, Australia, 1981
[30] https://www.cchrint.org/2019/04/19/cchr-celebrates-50-years-of-eradicating-psychiatric-abuse/
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