Traveling Exhibit Opens Exposing Psychiatric Violations of Human Rights
Groups Decry Abuse; Dedicate Themselves to Protecting and Promoting Human Rights in Mental Health
AUSTIN, TX, June 17, 2026 -- The exhibit, from the non-profit Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), offered the history of abuses in the field of psychiatry. It toured Austin visitors through the graphic panels and video excerpts of the documentary, Psychiatry: An Industry of Death.
Public touring the exhibit were impressed with the data and found it very informative.
The panels depict the history of false science claiming Man is an Animal and could be treated as such, through the brutal treatments that ensued, such as lobotomies and electroconvulsive therapy (ECT), to the current era of massive drugging of populations with psychotropic drugs.
"Knowing history is supposed to be the best protection against history repeating itself," said Lee Spiller, Director of the Texas chapter of the Citizens Commission on Human Rights. "Ironically, and in spite of global efforts to reduce force and coercion in psychiatric treatment, psychiatry seems bent on repeating such history."
"There has never been a more important time to promote human rights," said Nelson Linder, President of Austin NAACP. "Working together, we can and should protect the rights of those accused of being mentally ill."
"There is absolutely no reason that someone should lose basic human rights because of a label," Linder continued.
Spiller expressed his pleasure at working alongside groups, including NAACP for decades. "You may not believe it, but less than 30-years ago, we stood with NAACP in protest of a psychiatrist who said that foster kids, predominantly Black and Brown and with it well known that African Americans were overrepresented in foster care, were so heavily drugged because they came from bad gene pools," said Spiller. "Psychiatry should have dispensed with these ideas centuries ago."
"We will continue to speak," said Linder. "We must continue to have these conversations because the rights of people to live in peace and dignity depend on it."
Other opening speakers addressed such things as parental rights in school mental health, and the importance of rights education. One speaker described how rights education from CCHR helped calm his family and helped them navigate the situation after a loved one was placed under emergency psychiatric detention.
"The information we received from CCHR helped us to get through this and come out the other side," he said. "I'm not happy about it, but the information from CCHR, and their calming influence made it bearable."
This CCHR exhibit travels through major cities in the Western United States and issues the warning to parents and community members that psychiatric treatments kill. There are 14 identical traveling Exhibits in countries all over the world.
For more information, visit the CCHR website, or watch documentaries on the work of CCHR volunteers in countries around the world and the film Psychiatry: An Industry of Death on the Scientology Network.
The work of Citizens Commission on Human Rights is inspired by visionary humanitarian and Scientology Founder L. Ron Hubbard, who urged Scientologists to expose and help abolish any and all physically damaging practices in the field of mental health, help clean up and keep clean the field of mental health, and bring about an atmosphere of safety and security in the field of mental health by eradicating its abuses and brutality.
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Contact Information
Lee SpillerCitizens Commission on Human Rights Texas
Austin, Texas
US
Voice: 512-428-9840
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