"psychiatry: an industry of death", in hollywood. tom cruise actor tom cruise, a vocal critic of psychiatry tom cruise has been highly vocal in attacking the use of psychiatric medication, gaining particular attention for becoming extremely animated on the subject during an interview on today on june 25, 2005. his position has attracted considerable criticism from psychiatrists and other physicians (american psychiatric association and national mental health association), and individuals suffering from depression. in january 2004, cruise made the controversial statement "i think psychiatry should be outlawed." further controversy erupted in 2005 after he openly criticized actress brooke shields for using the drug paxil (paroxetine), an anti-depressant to which shields attributes her recovery from postpartum depression after the birth of her first daughter in 2003. cruise asserted that there is no such thing as a chemical imbalance and that psychiatry is a form of pseudoscience. shields responded that cruise "should stick to saving the world from aliens and let women who are experiencing postpartum depression decide what treatment options are best for them". this led to a heated argument between matt lauer and cruise on nbc's today on june 24, 2005. medical authorities view cruise's comments as furthering the social stigma of mental illness. shields herself called cruise's comments "a disservice to mothers everywhere." in late august 2006, cruise apologized in person to shields for his comments. scientology is well known for its opposition to mainstream psychiatry and the psychoactive drugs which are routinely prescribed for treatment. it was reported that cruise's anti-psychiatry actions led to a rift with director steven spielberg. spielberg had reportedly mentioned in cruise's presence the name of a doctor friend who prescribed psychiatric medication. shortly thereafter, the doctor's office was picketed by scientologists, reportedly angering spielberg. books by scientologists bruce wiseman from cchr published the book psychiatry: the ultimate betrayal (scientology's freedom publications, 1995), in which he portrays psychiatry as creating adolf hitler. the german scientologists thomas roder and volker kubillus wrote the book psychiatrists: the men behind hitler (also published by scientology's freedom publications, 1995–2001), that advances a conspiracy theory of all-powerful psychiatrists to overwhelm the world. death of lisa mcpherson in 1994, scientologist lisa mcpherson moved from dallas, texas, to clearwater, florida, with her employer, amc publishing, which was at that time owned by bennetta slaughter and operated and staffed primarily by scientologists. during june 1995, the church placed mcpherson in an "introspection rundown" due to perceived mental instability. lisa completed the rundown, and she attested to the state of clear in september. on november 18, 1995, mcpherson was involved in a minor car accident. paramedics initially left her alone because she was ambulatory, but after she began to remove her clothes, the paramedics decided to take her to the hospital. she remarked to the paramedics that she had taken off her clothes in hopes of obtaining counseling. hospital staff agreed that she was unharmed, but recommended keeping her overnight for observation. following intervention by fellow scientologists, mcpherson refused psychiatric observation or admission at the hospital and checked herself out after a short evaluation. pinellas-pasco circuit judge frank quesada concluded: lisa mcpherson refused psychiatric observation or admission at the hospital; she expressly stated her desire to receive the religious care and assistance from her fellow congregants that she and they wanted her to have. mcpherson was then taken to the flag land base for "rest and relaxation" according to the church of scientology, but sworn statements demonstrate that mcpherson was brought there for another introspection rundown. mark mcgarry, an attorney with the florida office of the state attorney, characterized mcpherson's stay at the flag land base as an "isolation watch": my understanding now is, from talking to many, many witnesses, the purpose of her being there in the church, correct me if i'm wrong, she was experiencing some mental problems, and you guys were going to stabilize her through an isolation watch. and after that watch occurred, there was going to be a procedure run on her, and the procedure was an introspection rundown. the church accommodated mcpherson in a cabana and kept a "24 hours' watch" over her. detailed logs were kept on mcpherson's day-to-day care. these logs were handwritten on plain white paper. most of these logs were kept but the logs for the last three days were summarized from the originals and the originals shredded. brian j. anderson, the then commanding officer of the church's office of special affairs (osa) in clearwater, said in his sworn statement: i saw the handwritten notes, gave a cursory look to see if the summary—see if they matched and matched, and i threw the handwritten reports in my shred basket, and i had the report, kept the report. mcpherson's "care logs" narrate the last seventeen days of her life: she was incoherent and sometimes violent, her nails were cut so she would not scratch herself or the staff, she bruised her fists and feet while hitting the wall. she had trouble sleeping and was being given natural supplements and the drug chloral hydrate to help her sleep. a church staffer noted that mcpherson "looked ill like measles or chicken pox on her face." on repeated occasions she refused food and protein shakes that the staff offered. on november 26 and 30 and december 3 to 4, the staff attempted to force feed her, noting that she spat the food out. she was noted to be very weak, not standing up nor on some days moving at all. scientologists who questioned this handling were told to "butt out". on december 5, 1995, the church staffers contacted david minkoff, a scientologist medical doctor who twice prescribed mcpherson valium and chloral hydrate without examining her. they requested for him to prescribe an antibiotic to mcpherson because she seemed to have an infection. minkoff refused and stated that mcpherson should be taken to a hospital and he needed to see her before prescribing anything. they objected, expressing fear that mcpherson would be put under psychiatric care. dr. janice johnson, a senior medical officer at flag land base who was assigned to care for mcpherson, stated that mcpherson had been gasping and had labored breathing while en route. however they passed a total of four hospitals along the way to their ultimate destination. when they arrived at minkoff's hospital 45 minutes north of clearwater, mcpherson exhibited no vital signs. hospital staff attempted to resuscitate her for 20 minutes before declaring her dead. jeremy perkins on march 13, 2003, scientologist jeremy perkins killed his mother, elli, by stabbing her 77 times. jeremy, previously diagnosed with schizophrenia, never received treatment after previous incidents with violence and hallucinations. his mother, active in the buffalo church of scientology, felt that vitamins and scientology routines were better than psychological counseling and anti-psychotic medication. linda waliki on july 5, 2007, a 25-year-old australian woman, linda waliki, killed her 52-year-old father michael, 15-year-old sister kathryn, and injured her mother sue with a knife. her name was released in the print edition of the sydney morning herald, on july 7, 2007. it was previously unreleased due to one of the victims being under age. she was diagnosed with a psychiatric illness, but her parents denied her continued psychiatric treatment due to their scientology beliefs. instead they replaced this medication with one specially imported from scientologists in the united states. relations with anti-psychiatry movement main article: anti-psychiatry the citizens commission on human rights was co-founded by anti-psychiatrist thomas szasz and the church of scientology in 1969. some anti-psychiatry websites and psychiatric survivors groups have sought to distance themselves from scientology and the cchr. in particular, the organisation mind freedom has specifically made public statements to emphasise that it is not connected with either cchr or the church of scientology. despite sharing notable anti-psychiatry views on some issues with the secular critics, scientology doctrine does differ in some respects. scientology has promoted psychiatry-related conspiracy theories, including that psychiatrists were behind the yugoslav wars and that september 11 was caused by psychiatrists. scientologists are religiously committed never to take psychiatric drugs and to reject psychology outright. the socio-political roots of the movements have different origins. advocates of the anti-psychiatric world view such as david cooper, r. d. laing and michel foucault had ties with the political left of the 1960s; thomas szasz, with the civil libertarians of the right, as well as an outspoken atheist. many advocates of the anti-psychiatry movement have stated that they consider the idea of "mental illness" as a convenient and inaccurate label assigned by society rather than an objective biomedical state, rejecting psychiatric terms such as schizophrenia which they may see as stigmatizing. by contrast, hubbard referred to "schizophrenics" in his writings on scientology theory, and developed the emotional tone scale to, in part, gauge the health of a person's mental state. furthermore, in his science of survival hubbard suggested putting people very low on the scale into quarantine, a practice at odds with, for instance, the aim of the american association for the abolition of involuntary mental hospitalization: an organization co-founded by szasz to end involuntary commitment.