World premieres in Norway 23-26 September for our two documentary films: Cochranium and The illusion of psychiatry

Cochranium is a film about censorship, which worsened considerably during the Covid-19 pandemic. Scientific freedom is constantly under attack, particularly in healthcare, which is dominated by the drug industry and other vested interests. An additional and related focus is the moral and scientific collapse of the Cochrane Collaboration. It was once highly respected for its reviews of the benefits and harms of healthcare interventions but is no longer impartial and is too close to industry. The film also addresses what happens to whistleblowers who think scientific honesty is more important than political expediency and commercial and guild interests. As this is particularly bad in psychiatry, the film has a special focus on this specialty.

The illusion of psychiatry is a film that documents that the emperor has no clothes. It reveals the major lies that are propagated by leading psychiatrists to maintain a specialty that causes more harm than good. Psychiatric diagnoses are so unscientific and arbitrary that most normal people could get one or more diagnoses, and they lead to such colossal overuse of psychiatric drugs that they are the third leading cause of death, after cardiovascular diseases and cancer. It is also a disaster that we allow forced treatment that kill many people with drugs they don’t want. There are many reasons why I entitled my most recent, freely available book about psychiatry, Is psychiatry a crime against humanity?

Both films present a long array of very interesting people living in the USA, Europe and Australia, and the recordings cover a time span of 11 years. We have also started preparations for an evidence-based documentary about vaccines, which is very much needed. You can donate to our filmmaking here.

My filmmaker Janus Bang and I expect that our two documentaries will get quite some attention, and we hope some of you will consider coming to Lillehammer, which is two hours by train from Oslo, to see them.

We will present Cochranium at 7 p.m. on 23 September in the Culture House during “Research days” which this year has the theme, Trust. More information to follow.

The illusion of psychiatry will be shown in the morning, Saturday 26 September during Mad in Norway’s international filmfestival “Rethinking mental health“ 24-26 September. You can see the programme here where you can also buy tickets.

See also our film and interview channel, Broken Medical Science, and the lists of my freely available books and my most recent articles, which - with very few exceptions - are also freely available.

Finally, I wish to note that there is a good reason why we have Socrates on the opening page for the Institute for Scientific Freedom. What we wish to obtain with our films is the same as what we wish to obtain with our institute:

Socrates (c. 470–399 BC) was a Greek philosopher who is credited as the founder of Western philosophy. Socrates and his interlocutors examined a subject in the style of questions and answers. In 399 BC, he was accused of impiety and corrupting the youth. After a trial that lasted a day, he was sentenced to death. He spent his last day in prison, refusing offers to help him escape. We are indebted to Socrates. Even today, people are executed for asking questions. The Institute for Scientific Freedom works to preserve honesty and integrity in science and to help develop a better healthcare where more people will benefit; fewer will be harmed; and more will live longer in good health.