Artists

Overview

At the beginning of the 20th century, psychiatry infiltrated Hollywood redefining creativity as a form of neurosis. By legitimizing itself on the silver screen, psychiatry popularised the notion that drugs, analysis and other psychiatric treatments held the secrets to happier living. As a result, many great artists have been lured into the dangerous clutches of psychiatrists and paid with their sanity, sometimes with their lives.

Marilyn Monroe (1926-1962)

Actress Marilyn Monroe was convinced to undergo psychoanalysis to “tap all her explosive energy.” Almost immediately the analysis - with its constant questioning of motives and self - began to take its toll. Monroe was referred to a psychiatrist who prescribed addictive drugs. He also tricked Monroe into signing into a psychiatric ward, telling her it was for a physical examination and rest. In the 7 years prior to her treatment, Monroe made 23 films; in the following 7 she made only 6. On her last day, August 4, 1962, she saw psychiatrist Ralph Greenson for 6 hours before succumbing to a drug overdose.

Frances Farmer (1914-1970)

Upset over a string of failed relationships, Hollywood actress Frances Farmer was arrested in January 1943, after a bout of heavy drinking. Refusing to cooperate with psychiatrist Thomas H. Leonard, she was committed to an institution. For the next seven years, she was subjected to 90 insulin shock treatments and numerous bouts of electroshock. She later told of being raped by orderlies, gnawed on by rats, poisoned by tainted food, chained in padded cells, strapped in strait jackets and half drowned in ice baths. By the time of her release, she was withdrawn and terrified of people. After three years, she was up to working again sorting dirty laundry. Her career and life were ruined.

Judy Garland (1922-1969)

An international singing star at 17, Garland was already experiencing the pressures and price of fame. Her studio contract required her to maintain a certain weight - if she gained weight she could be suspended without pay. She was prescribed anidepressants, amphetamines and barbiturates to help her sleep. She grew more and more addicted and began to see a psychiatrist. In 1949, not yet 27 years old, she was subjected to the violence and degradation of electroshock. In the late 1950s, struggling to make a comeback after a long illness, she was prescribed Valium, Thorazine and at one time, 40 Ritalin pills a day. On June 21, 1969 Garland died from a psychiatric drug overdose.

Stevie Nicks (1948-Present)

Stevie Nicks, lead singer of Fleetwood Mac, went public about her 5-year absence from the music scene: she'd been addicted to a tranquilizer, Klonopin, prescribed to her by a psychiatrist for cocaine withdrawal: "I went to a psychiatrist. It was a bad decision. [He] put me on this medication that nearly destroyed my career, nearly destroyed me, nearly destroyed my parents because they just lost me for those years."Nicks spoke of the intense difficulty she had withdrawing from Klonopin: "[It] was killing me—I was in there [drug rehab] sick for 45 days, really, really sick.

Kurt Cobain (1967-1994)

Cobain, a creative child genius, was labelled hyperactive and prescribed Ritalin, a drug known to lead to illegal drug abuse. It also causes stomach pain. Cobain turned to heroin to “quench the fire in his gut.” Thirty-six hours after admission to a psyciatric rehab centre to kick his drug habit, he flet from the facility and shot himself. Heroin and Valium were found in his bloodstream. Chemically nullified, the music was gone and with this, Kurt Cobain was deprived of his prime reason for existing.

Michael Hutchence

In 1997, Michael Hutchence, lead singer of the Australian rock band INXS, killed himself after combining alcohol and a suicide- and violence-inducing antidepressant. The coroner determined that Hutchence "hanged himself with his own belt and the buckle broke away and his body was found kneeling on the floor and facing the door." INXS guitarist Tim Farris told media, "I can't be angry at Michael—I think the world [people] should be very careful about taking antidepressants."

Ernest Hemingway (1899-1961)

If Nobel Prize-winning author Ernest Hemingway were alive today, he would probably conduct a heated argument with psychiatrists who hold him up as an example of “great writers with mental illness.” Tricked into a psychiatric institution, he was stripped of his clothes and his dignity, and given 20 electroshocks. Several weeks later, he confided, “What is the sense of ruining my head and erasing my memory, which is my capital, and putting me out of business? It was a brilliant cure but we lost the patient …” In July 1961, days after being released from the Mayo psychiatric clinic, Hemingway committed suicide.

What Can I Do?

If you are an artist, stay well away from psychiatry. Advise any artists you know to do likewise.
Read CCHR’s report Harming Artists - please click here

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Use the resources listed in our Useful Links section - please click here
Report any instances of psychiatric treatment using our Online Abuse Report Form - please click here.
Report any side effects from taking psychiatric drugs using our Online Drug Report Form - please click here.
If you or someone you know has been labelled with a psychiatric disorder, then the first step is to first see a competent, non-psychiatric physician to ensure that an undiagnosed, untreated, physical condition is not causing “psychiatric” symptoms.
The next step is to seek out and investigate the use of the many non-psychiatric and workable ideas and practices that can bring about the recovery of mental health, even for the most severely disturbed individuals.

Disclaimer: Please note that the information on this website is for information purposes only.
None of it constitutes medical advice. In order to safely come off psychiatric drugs, we have provided relevant websites in on our Links page. However we provide this information on a buyer-beware basis and you must use your own judgement. No one should stop taking any psychiatric drug without the advice and assistance of a competent, non-psychiatric medical doctor.