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Cruise Is 'Mentally Ill,' Pinsky's a 'Nazi'
June 12, 2008 12:46 PM
You mess with Top Gun, you get called a Nazi. Then, apparently, you apologize.
Late Thursday, Dr. Drew Pinsky apologized to Tom Cruise for insinuating he's mentally ill, but refused to let the star's lawyer, who compared him to the Nazis, have the last word.
"Dr. Drew meant no harm to Mr. Cruise and apologizes if his comments were hurtful," Pinsky's representative said in a statement. "Although Mr. Fields' intent is clearly to slander and discredit Dr. Drew, under no circumstances is Dr. Drew making a blanket diagnosis about Scientology nor Mr. Cruise whom he does not know. Dr. Drew was simply using Mr. Cruise as an example of someone who is recognizable to help the public understand. Again, Dr. Drew meant him no harm."
Pinsky, the fatherly MD who tries to save stars from substance abuse on VH1's "Celebrity Rehab with Dr. Drew," waxed poetic about psychiatry to the July issue of Playboy, saying, "A lot of people in the public eye who behave strangely have mental illness we can learn from, and much of it is based on childhood trauma, without a doubt. Take a guy like Tom Cruise. Why would somebody be drawn into a cultish kind of environment like Scientology?"
"To me, that's a function of a very deep emptiness and suggests serious neglect in childhood," he added, "maybe some abuse, but mostly neglect."
Pinsky's unsolicited analysis didn't sit well with Cruise's camp, despite the fact that in 2006, the "Mission Impossible" star told Parade magazine that his father was a "bully and a coward -- the person where, if something goes wrong, they kick you." Cruise's lawyer, Bert Fields, eviscerated the doc in Thursday's New York Post.
"This unqualified television performer who is obviously just looking for notoriety is so grotesquely unprofessional as to pretend to diagnose Tom and others without ever meeting them," Fields said. "He seems to be spewing the absurdity that all Scientologists are mentally ill. The last time we heard garbage like this was from Joseph Goebbels."
Joseph Goebbels: the Minister for Public Enlightenment and Propaganda in Nazi Germany and one of Adolf Hitler's closest compadres. Pinsky: a board-certified internist/addiction medicine specialist and an assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Southern California's Keck School of Medicine. Peas in a pod? Not exactly.
But Cruise loves lashing out at proponents of psychology. In 2005, he famously bashed Brooke Shields for treating her post partum depression with Paxil, saying there's no such thing as a chemical imbalance and calling psychiatry is a form of pseudoscience. That led to a heated argument with Matt Lauer on the "Today" show, which peaked when Cruise uttered what's arguably the most famous line of his almost 30-year-long career:
“You don’t know the history of psychiatry. I do.”
Since Cruise can't slam an MD and psychiatry prof with those choice words, apparently, the Nazi comparison will have to do.
Sheila Marikar
Click here to see photos of Hollywood's fiercest feuds.
June 12, 2008 | Permalink | Share | User Comments (179)
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Cruise is a member of one of the biggest monetary scam cults of all time masquerading as a "religon".
He's a piece of fecal matter .
Posted by: CK Fernschreiber | Jun 12, 2008 1:59:58 PM
Tom is a nutjob who has been further warped by his cult.
Posted by: ELE | Jun 12, 2008 2:03:34 PM
Just another thing to add to the list of why Tom Cruise is a "has been"!
Posted by: Grandmare | Jun 12, 2008 2:04:27 PM
The problem with psychiatry is, it uses medication to treat an intermediate symptom of a mental illness. Psychiatry does not address the underlying root cause. In theory it should, but in practice psychiatrists have abandoned psychoanalysis in favor of writing scripts.
Cruise's choice of words was poor, but his criticism of psychiatry is quite valid.
Posted by: Jim B | Jun 12, 2008 2:04:44 PM
While I'm certainly no fan of Tom Cruise or Scientology, I do think that his lawyer makes a good point when he says that Pinsky is being unprofessional by attempting to publicly diagnose Cruise or anyone else without even meeting and talking to them. Also, Pinsky has been having some of his own problems of criticism within the psychiatric profession about the questionable ethics of attempting to treat celebrities dealing with addiction problems on his ratings driven television "reality" show.
Posted by: Michael | Jun 12, 2008 2:06:31 PM
You haters can all go to hell, along with your hackjob "article" Sheila Marikar! Tom didn't do anything to Drew. Why did the guy have to go slam on Cruise like that. You don't publicly try to diagnose someone. YOU'RE AN IDIOT PINSKY!!!
Posted by: BabeRuth | Jun 12, 2008 2:14:47 PM
Go to http://forums.enturbulation.org/ how bad Tom and this cult is!
You would be shocked at the things Tom has said and done that the mainstream has not reported.
Posted by: Biggins | Jun 12, 2008 2:18:40 PM
Has anyone ever noticed that you don't see Scientologist celebrities getting pulled over for DUI, accidentally overdosing, checking into rehab clinics, etc., etc.? And how many celebrities treated by Drew Pinsky end up going right back to their addictions? Pinsky's a big faker masquerading as an expert. And his bogus diagnosis of the mental state of Tom Cruise, whom he has never even met, is an embarrassment to competent and professional MD's the world over.
Posted by: WorldRanger88 | Jun 12, 2008 2:22:12 PM
It boils down to trained and qualified skills.
PINSKY has the skills in healthcare.
CRUISE has the skills in acting.
Which is more nuts?
The one that goes on already stated statements and makes an easy educated conclusion or the one that refers to a World War Two Nazi and calls a modern day doctor, a Nazi?
Thats Scientology at its best, crawling out of the gutter and plain evil.
Posted by: Tom is nuts | Jun 12, 2008 2:23:41 PM
Is Will Smith involved in this cult now?Please tell me not so....they will try and suck anyone in won't they to that "sick cult". That is sad....
Posted by: Barbara | Jun 12, 2008 2:24:28 PM
great actor. who cares about his crazy personal ife.
Posted by: Dave | Jun 12, 2008 2:25:19 PM
great actor. who cares about his crazy personal ife.
Posted by: Dave | Jun 12, 2008 2:25:21 PM
i'm a gay man and i'm ashamed that he hides his
Posted by: frank | Jun 12, 2008 2:26:05 PM
"This unqualified television performer who is obviously just looking for notoriety is so grotesquely unprofessional as to pretend to diagnose Tom and others without ever meeting them," Fields said.
How about this: "This unqualified motion picture performer who is obviously just looking for notoriety is so grotesquely unprofessional as to pretend to know the history of Psyciatry and diagnose others as not needing psychiatric medciations without ever meeting them." Eebie on Tom Cruise
Posted by: Eebie | Jun 12, 2008 2:28:33 PM
You may not see Scientologist celebrities busted for narcotics addictions, but you do see humble Scientologists who aren't celebrities but people looking for hope committing suicide under shady practices and many horrible stories of broken homes and ruined lives.
There's no faster way to lose an argument that to compare your opposition to Nazis.
Posted by: LordFanny | Jun 12, 2008 2:29:23 PM
Will Smith is involved in this cult now. A couple of weeks ago he opened up his own private school staffed by scientology teachers.
This has been well reported and the information can be found all over the net.
Even clips of the televised news reports of this can be found on you_tube.
Will Smith denied for a while he was a cult member but he eventually came out when the funded and staffed this mad school personally. He became involved with Scientology thru his totally nutty wife.
Posted by: Tom is nuts | Jun 12, 2008 2:32:42 PM
Pinsky was dumb to mention Cruse and use him as an example. But Pinsky is only repeating what Cruse has already admitted. Cruse's dad was not much of a father at best. Pinsky should have just left out the Scientology remark but it must have been to tempting. Looks to me that he was trying to pick a fight with Cruse and Cruse took the bait. Cruse's comments only make him look like a bigger nut then he already is. Get a grip Tom!
Posted by: brownies4breakfast | Jun 12, 2008 2:34:51 PM
Get informed. The writer is biased, so this must have been an opinion article. Check out the CCHR.org website. Citizen's Commission for Human Rights. Learn about psychiatry.
Posted by: John | Jun 12, 2008 2:37:12 PM
Remember the policy Hubbard instilled in all of his cultists - and still practiced to this day - "Never defend, always attack."
Rather than address Cruise's bizarre behaviour, or the similarly bizarre behaviour of Katie Holmes-Cruise since she got roped into the Cult, they attempt to deflect the attention off of themselves and on to their Critics. Calling Dr. Drew a Nazi (which, of course, is nothing but childish name-calling) has no merit, because all Drew is doing is expressing an opinion. Professional or not - he's entitled to it as much as the rest of us. Maybe even more so - because he is, after all, a highly skilled and trained professional.But what has Cruise ever done or said to single himself out as anything OTHER than a self-absorbed, delusional and completely "out of touch" megalomaniac?
Posted by: GS | Jun 12, 2008 2:38:27 PM
Inventing Mental Illness: The DSM
See the video
Posted by: VIDEO_from_John | Jun 12, 2008 2:39:27 PM
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