Child Molesters and Drug Dealers

Los Angeles Museum Exposes Dark World of Psychiatry 

 

A San Mateo judge ruled August 7, 2007 that William Ayres, a prominent child psychiatrist and former president of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, will stand trial for 20 counts of lewd and lascivious behavior against minors. 

 

Thirty-seven former patients have accused Ayres of molestation. The Citizens Commission on Human Rights (CCHR), a psychiatric watchdog group, says that the Ayres’ case is representative of a larger problem in psychiatry: rampant patient sexual assault. 

 

Studies report that between 10 and 25 percent of psychiatrists admit to sexually abusing patients. According to a 2001 study by Kenneth S. Pope about “Sex Between Therapists and Clients,” one out of 20 clients sexually abused was a minor, the average age was 7 for girls and 12 for boys. Pope, the former head of the Ethics Committee of the American Psychological Association, said that youngest sexually molested patient was 3. A Canadian Journal of Psychiatry study also determined that 80 percent of therapists that abuse clients are repeat offenders. 

 

The risk of sexual assault during psychiatric therapy is addressed at CCHR’s museum in Los Angeles called “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death.” About 14 percent of those who are sexually involved with a therapist will attempt suicide; one in every hundred will succeed. 

 

The Museum documents the New Zealand case of a psychiatrist and psychotherapist who ran a commune of therapists that taught sexual promiscuity and incest were not only normal but also therapeutic. In 1968, Ayers advocated that sexual education for adolescents be taught to children as young as 9 in public schools because “ignorance only leads children to subsequent unwise decisions.” Seven of the male patients he is charged with molesting are aged 8 to 13. Steve Abrams, a former patient who sued Ayres in December 2003, said the psychiatrist began molesting him when he was 12. Ayres agreed to pay $395,000 to settle the lawsuit. 

 

CCHR says that Ayers is one of thousands of psychiatrists, psychologists and psychotherapists that CCHR has investigated, with the three most common charges and convictions relating to patient sexual abuse, drug charges and fraud. CCHR has documented psychiatrists administering drugs to render the patient unconscious while he sexually assaults him or her. In the past year alone, at least 59 mental health workers were criminally convicted, 17 of them for sexual crimes committed in 10 states: California, Colorado, Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Michigan, Montana, New Jersey, New York and Virginia. Canada, Poland and Israel also reported convictions. 

 

The abuse of patients and high rate of death of those who come in contact with psychiatry prompted the “Psychiatry: An Industry of Death” museum which is free as a public interest service, CCHR said. 

 

The museum is at 6616 Sunset Boulevard in Los Angeles. Click here or contact CCHR at 800-869-2247 or humanrights@cchr.org for more information