After media reports about conspiracy theories and questionable therapy methods in the psychiatric clinic in Littenheid, the canton of Thurgau has launched an investigation. An examination report now gives the clinic a miserable certificate.
The Clienia Littenheid in the canton of Thurgau.
Children being roasted over the fire. Patients who have suicide apps on their phones. Occult groups that brainwash victims into hundreds of personalities. The investigative report on the events in the Thurgau private clinic Clienia Littenheid reads in parts like a collection of ideas for a third-rate horror film.
The trigger for the investigation was an SRF documentary from December 14, 2021 entitled “The devil in our midst – Satanic Panic”. The documentary featured people who believe in a satanic conspiracy. A central location of the SRF documentary was the Clienia Littenheid. Following the broadcast, a private individual filed a supervisory complaint with the Canton of Thurgau against a doctor and the clinic. In the spring of 2022, the canton launched an administrative investigation into the clinic.
“Probably even disease-promoting”
The examination report that is now available gives the clinic a miserable certificate. It is undisputed that there are victims of organized or even ritual violence. The methods of the two trauma therapy stations were “technically incorrect” and “probably even disease-promoting”. In most cases, the veracity of the patients’ stories was never clarified. Allegedly horrific memories of organized violent crime were treated as historical facts without ever involving the judiciary.
In fact, such stories were apparently not only taken seriously by patients in the clinic, they were even encouraged. According to the investigation report, therapy methods based on a conspiracy story known as “mind control” have been introduced in recent years.
Doctors and nurses who were convinced that satanic ritual violence existed in Switzerland worked in the clinic’s trauma therapy wards. They believed that underground covens used cruel rituals to sexually abuse and torture children to the point of death. Or that children and adults are split into different personalities through ritual violence and specifically “programmed” for abuse (“mind control”).
According to witness reports, the topic of ritual violence on the two wards was “everyday life”. There was always talk of “bad men” and “groups, grandparents who are in the clan”. The idea that children can be “programmed and called up by the perpetrator” was part of the thinking of severely traumatized patients. An attending doctor and other psychologists and nursing staff believed in these ideas.
A comparison of reality never took place. When a patient came to the clinic and said she had been sexually abused, nothing was done to clarify this with a medical examination or a pregnancy test. The clinic has also conducted several training courses on the subject of ritual violence, including one with Claudia Fliss, a well-known representative of the “mind control” conspiracy theory.
Multiple criminal charges and fines
The trauma therapy in the clinic was shaped “by the convictions of a small minority, largely isolated and acting uncontrolled from the psychological and psychiatric world,” which self-confidently presented itself as a specialist, according to the investigation report. The medical director was accused of not intervening sufficiently despite clear indications that something was wrong in the treatment of a patient. In addition, after the allegations became known, the clinic did not proceed carefully in their processing. It is also striking that training, supervision and certification are carried out by one and the same body (Swiss Institute for Psychotramatology SIPT).
The Department of Finance and Social Affairs has taken regulatory action against the clinic based on the report. A doctor’s license to practice was revoked, and a disciplinary reprimand and several fines were issued and criminal charges were filed. When asked, the canton did not want to say how many criminal charges there were. All measures are not yet legally binding.
The investigation report also contains nine recommendations for clarification and processing. Among other things, the establishment of an ombudsman for complaints from patients is to be examined. The measures and recommendations relate exclusively to the two trauma therapy stations, the other departments of the clinic are not affected.