Tom Responds

Image credit: Cruise: Alessandra Benedetti/WireImage.com; Shields: John Sciulli/Wireimage.com

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Tom Cruise

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You are aware that your views about psychiatry come across as pretty radical to a lot of people.
In the 1980s, you were supposed to say no to drugs. But when I say no to drugs, I'm a radical? 'He's against drugs — he's a radical! He's against electroshock treatments — he's a radical!' [Laughing] It's absurd!

Yeah, but Scientology textbooks sometimes refer to psychiatry as a ''Nazi science''...
Well, look at the history. Jung was an editor for the Nazi papers during World War II. [According to Aryeh Maidenbaum, the director of the New York Center for Jungian Studies, this is not true.] Look at the experimentation the Nazis did with electric shock and drugging. Look at the drug methadone. That was originally called Adolophine. It was named after Adolf Hitler... [According to the Dictionary of Drugs and Medications, among other sources, this is an urban legend.]

Well, Freud wasn't a Nazi, but the point I'm getting at here is that expressing these views isn't necessarily a public relations bonanza for you.
What choice do I have? People are being electric-shocked. Kids are being drugged. People are dying.

There's a perception that you've become more passionate about this issue recently, about Scientology in general...
I've always been passionate about it. I've always talked about it when people asked about it. The only change that's occurred since the early 1990s has been the increase in the amount of drugs being used. That's what's changed.