and suggested further interrogation under the influence of sodium pentathol and hypnosis. Patty Hearst trial During Patty Hearst's 1976 trial, West was appointed by the court in his capacity as a brainwashing expert and worked without fee. Believing that Hearst displayed all the classic signs of coercion, brainwashing, and the Stockholm effect, West wrote a newspaper article after the trial, asking President Carter to release Hearst from prison. Some weeks after her arrest, Hearst repudiated her SLA allegiance. Conflict with Scientologists According to West, Scientologists attempted to discredit him and get him fired, using methods similar to those used in Operation Freakout. This was allegedly done after his contributions to a 1980 textbook that classified Scientology as a cult. West participated in an American Psychiatric Association panel on cults. Each speaker had received a letter threatening a lawsuit if Scientology were mentioned; apparently others were intimidated. Only West, the last speaker, referred to the letter and the cult: "I read parts of the letter to the 1,000-plus psychiatrists and then told any Scientologists in the crowd to pay attention. I said I would like to advise my colleagues that I consider Scientology a cult and L. Ron Hubbard a quack and a fake. I wasn't about to let them intimidate me." Personal life In 1999, West died at his home in Los Angeles at age 74. His family said the cause of death was metastatic cancer. However, West's son John would later assert in a 2009 memoir that he helped his father end his life at the latter's choice by using prescription medication due to the terminal illness. Works "Pseudo-Identity and the Treatment of Personality Change in Victims of Captivity and Cults." In: Dissociation: Clinical and Theoretical Perspectives, with Steven Jay Lynn and Judith W. Rhue, eds. New York: Guilford Press (Aug. 1994). . Drug Testing: Issues and Options, with Robert H. Coombs, eds. New York: Oxford University Press (Apr. 1991). . Alcoholism and Related Problems: Issues for the American Public. American Assembly Series. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall (Oct. 1984). . "Cults, Quacks and Non-professional Psychotherapies" (with M.T. Singer). In: Comprehensive Textbook of Psychiatry, with H. Kaplan and B. Sadock. 3rd ed. Baltimore: Williams and Wilkins (1980), pp. 3245–58. Hallucinations: Behavior, Experience, and Theory, with Ronald K. Siegel, eds. New York: John Wiley & Sons (Oct. 1975). . "Brainwashing, Conditioning and DDD (Debility, Dependency, and Dread)," with I. E. Farber