Registered: Apr 2005
Location: SE Virginia
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LOS ANGELES, California (Reuters) -- The American Psychiatric Association on Monday sharply criticized actor Tom Cruise for televised remarks in which he called psychiatry a "pseudo science" and disputed the value of antidepressant drugs.

"It is irresponsible for Mr. Cruise to use his movie publicity tour to promote his own ideological views and deter people with mental illness from getting the care they need," APA President Dr. Steven Sharfstein said in a statement.

During interviews promoting his latest film, "War of the Worlds," Cruise has discussed his deep skepticism of psychiatry to explain his belief in the teachings of the Church of Scientology, founded by science-fiction writer L. Ron Hubbard.

In one such interview last Friday on NBC's "Today" show, Cruise was asked about his recent criticism of actress Brooke Shields for revealing that she had taken the antidepressant Paxil to cope with postpartum depression.

"Before I was a Scientologist, I never agreed with psychiatry," Cruise said. "And when I started studying the history of psychiatry, I understood more and more why I didn't believe in psychology. ... And I know that psychiatry is a pseudo science." (Full story)

Disputing the effectiveness of antidepressants generally, Cruise said, "all it does is mask the problem." He added, "There is no such thing as a chemical imbalance."

Cruise also singled out drugs, such as Ritalin, that are used to treat children for attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, calling Ritalin "a street drug."

As "Today" host Matt Lauer pressed the 42-year-old actor on his views, Cruise said, "Here's the problem. You don't know the history of psychiatry. I do."

The rebuke from the APA, which represents nearly 36,000 physicians specializing in the diagnosis and treatment of mental illness, challenged Cruise's assertion that psychiatry lacks scientific merit.

"Rigorous, published, peer-reviewed research clearly demonstrates that treatment (of mental illness) works," the APA statement said. "It is unfortunate that in the face of this remarkable scientific and clinical progress that a small number of individuals and groups persist in questioning its legitimacy."

Cruise remains one of Hollywood's biggest stars, but since his manic, couch-hopping appearance on "The Oprah Winfrey Show" last month, he also has leaped to the forefront of celebrity punch lines.




You know, what...Tom is half right. You can study anything and call it a science, but name one law or one event that is predictable with 90+% certainty that is in Pyschiatry or even Psychology? They have phenomenons and theory's, but nothing like 1+1=2. Nothing like "if I pick up this pencil and let go it will fall towards earth until something stops it." So I agree it is a pseudoscince, for now. Not that it couldn't someday be that way, it's just that today niether of those fields have anything legit to claim.
And even all these people that claim all those drugs are helping them.... OK but do they help everyone? Of course not, and of course there is the infamous PLACEBO EFFECT, which that in itself fucks everything up in mind science. The human mind, in my opinion, is a greatly underestimated and misunderstood organ in the human body, and hopefully through the test of time and the rigor of science we can push the Pysch----- fields into the realm of legitimate, repeatable, a provable science.

BTW- Tom Cruise is a sexy bitch.

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Registered: Dec 2004
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For what it's worth, I've taken a lot of science courses over the last couple of years, and I found my psych professor to be overly sensitive on this topic. When pressed about things like repeatability, predictability, or the fact that it seems like many currently accepted theories of psycho-analysis seem to contradict one another, she would merely get angry and talk at you as if you're questions were not worth the time it would take her to answer*. She also liked to play hippy meditation music and she would make the whole class stand up and do slow motion stretching.

*I'm not saying that there are not valid answerrs to these questions, btw.

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
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Does anyone else find it humorous that a practitioner of "Scientology" would call psychology a "pseudo-science"?

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Registered: Sep 2000
Location: Kansas City
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The scientific validity of Psychiatry is questionable, but not as questionable as putting this thread in PDM.

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Registered: Sep 2001
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Why not it's "unfair and unbalanced".

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Registered: Nov 2003
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Scientology? So, there must be some Scientologists? What the hell do they do?

And who's Tom Cruise?

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Registered: Sep 2001
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Practice scientology and Tom Cruise is a cunt.

Any more questions before your editting time runs out?

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Registered: Nov 2003
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Oh no, you pretty much answered all my questions. Why is he a cunt?

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Registered: Sep 2001
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He's a pretty boy Hollywood tosspot, in my book that equals cunt, and not the front-bottom type.

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Registered: Nov 2003
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Apparently he ordrered Nicole not to wear heels at premiers and stuff. What a snivelling little shit he his.

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Registered: Sep 2001
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Fucking midgets.

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Registered: Nov 2003
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No wonder she divorced him. At least it wasn't a struggle for him to go down on her though.

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Registered: Sep 2001
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Probably was, he probably demanded that she douched first.

Tosspot.

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Registered: Jul 2000
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Between this and the water squirting reaction, I'm gettin to like Tom Cruise more and more lately.

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Registered: Nov 2003
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I'm looking forward to The War Of The Worlds, though. Apparently it's a rather good film. Let's see, hey.

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Not to mention that he appears to be helping Paint CHiPs out of his closet.

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Registered: Nov 2003
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I remember the gay allegations that were thrown at him (Tom Cruise, that is). No smoke with out fire?

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Registered: Sep 2001
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Best ask Paint.

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Registered: Sep 2001
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On a sidenote, if it hadn't been for this internet thingy the odds of me ever typing a sentence along the lines of "Best ask Paint" would have been, well, nonexistent.

Unless I was a druggie of course.

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Registered: Apr 2005
Location: heat
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skalie is all judgmental now that he's stopped drinking.

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Registered: Jan 2002
Location: US
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I'm glad Mr. Cruise knows the history of psychiatry better than anyone. Maybe if we all became Scientologists we could eliminate the ailments of schizophrenia and world hunger, simultaneously! (without medication or food)

Perhaps the biggest dilemna psychology/psychiatry has is the fact that two people with the same symptoms have two completely different minds...and these minds have been impacted by completely different factors--an infinite amount of factors and differences that cannot be thrown into an equation like other sciences. Social, cultural, biological, etc, it's hard to say psychology is a pure science because, for the most part, the various theories of psychology will not work out for every individual, this is the same reason that its numerous theories provide flexibility and are destructive to it being considered a "real" science. However, psychiatry can be helpful for many people, and undermining the whole field is just ridiculous. This being said, drugs are overprescribed, and people expect that popping a pill will cure all of their problems, and that's just not how it works.

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Registered: May 2002
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Edgy.

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Registered: Aug 2001
Location: Hilbert Space
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quote:

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Originally posted by Paint CHiPs
Between this and the water squirting reaction, I'm gettin to like Tom Cruise more and more lately.

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Registered: Mar 2004
Location: USA
Posts: 24756

quote:

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Originally posted by Smug Git
That just isn't enough. He's a crazy cultpushing cunt.

Humourously, popbitch were suggesting that Tom Cruise's recent excitability is to do with him coming off ADHD medication...

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