CCHR, Campus Campaigns, and Dr. Thomas Szasz
This section examines the Citizens Commission on Human Rights from its founding in 1969, its public campaigns, its connection to the Church of Scientology, and the distinct intellectual role of psychiatrist Thomas Szasz.
Founding in 1969
CCHR describes itself as having been co-founded in 1969 by the Church of Scientology and Dr. Thomas Szasz. Szasz was a psychiatrist and civil-liberties advocate known for opposing involuntary commitment and coercive psychiatric treatment. He was not a Scientologist, and his collaboration with CCHR should not be treated as agreement with every Scientology belief or institutional objective.
Campus campaigning after 1969
Colleges and universities were important arenas for public disputes about psychiatry, civil commitment, psychosurgery, electroconvulsive therapy, diagnostic authority, and psychiatric medication. A full historical treatment of CCHR’s campus activity should document where and when chapters or representatives appeared, which speakers participated, what materials were distributed, whether events were sponsored by recognized student groups, and how university communities responded.
This edition creates the structure for a documentary chronology. Recovered material and newly located primary sources can be added under the following headings:
- 1969–1974: founding-era outreach, lectures, leaflets, and alliances around patients’ rights and opposition to involuntary treatment.
- 1975–1989: public exhibitions, campus debates, student press coverage, and campaigns involving psychiatric drugs, electroshock, and institutional practices.
- 1990 onward: traveling exhibits, online campaigns, recruitment-oriented events, and responses from psychiatric, academic, and civil-liberties organizations.
Thomas Szasz: a separate intellectual record
Szasz argued that psychiatric labels could function as instruments of social control and repeatedly opposed involuntary hospitalization. His views generated extensive criticism as well as support from some civil-liberties and libertarian scholars. The archive will present his writings, critics, and relationship with CCHR separately, rather than collapsing Szasz’s work into Scientology doctrine.
Was Szasz disciplined in New York?
No disciplinary action has been identified in the public biographical and professional sources reviewed for this initial edition. This is not a legal certification that no record exists. A definitive page should preserve the date of each search and link to the New York physician-discipline databases or archived responses from the responsible agency.