|
||||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||||
Dianetics has been highly controversial since its introduction. The scientific community has never recognized Hubbard's "Modern Science of Mental Health" as a valid scientific theory, and it has repeatedly been dismissed in print as pseudoscience or quackery by scientists, medical doctors and science historians. The troubled histories of the organizations established to promote Dianetics have added to the controversy surrounding it.
Basic conceptsHubbard coined Dianetics from the Greek stems dia, meaning through, and nous, meaning mind, resulting in a word similar to the already-existing Greek adjective dianoētik-os διανοητικ-ός, meaning "mental" (compare Aristotle's dianoetic virtues). His choice of the suffix "-etics" (meaning, roughly, "discipline") may have been inspired by cybernetics, a vogue idea at the time of Dianetics' establishment. Indeed, Hubbard stated that Dianetics "forms a bridge between" cybernetics and General Semantics, a set of ideas about education originated by Alfred Korzybski that was receiving much attention in the science fiction world in the 1940s. [3] Hubbard described Dianetics as "an organized science of thought built on definite axioms: statements of natural laws on the order of those of the physical sciences". [4] These Dianetic axioms can be found in many Hubbard books such as Scientology 0-8: The Book of Basics and Advanced Procedures and Axioms. Unlike conventional medical or mental therapies, Hubbard said, Dianetics would work every time if applied properly and "will invariably cure all psychosomatic ills and human aberrations." In April 1950, before the public release of Dianetics, he wrote: "To date, over two hundred patients have been treated; of those two hundred, two hundred cures have been obtained."[5]
Hubbard proposed that physical or mental traumas caused "aberrations" (deviations from straight thinking) in the mind, which produced adverse physical and emotional effects. The conscious or analytical mind, out of a desire for survival, would instinctively shut down during moments of stress. The memories recorded during this period would be stored as engrams in the unconscious or reactive mind. (In Hubbard's earliest publications on the subject, engrams were variously referred to as "Norns" [1], "Impediments," and "comanomes" before "engram" was adapted from its existing usage at the suggestion of Joseph Winter.)[7] Some commentators noted Dianetics' blend of science fiction and occult orientations at the time.[1] Dianetics identifies these engrams as the cause of almost all mental and physical problems. In addition to containing memories of physical pain, engrams can also include unfortunate words or phrases overheard by the patient while he was unconscious. For instance, Winter cites the example of a patient with a persistent headache supposedly tracing the problem to a doctor saying "Take him now" during the preclear's birth. [8] Hubbard similarly claims that the cause of the blood cancer leukemia is traceable to "an engram containing the phrase 'It turns my blood to water.'" [9] While it is sometimes claimed that the Church of Scientology no longer stands by the claims of Hubbard that Dianetics can treat physical conditions, it still publishes them: "... when the knee injuries of the past are located and discharged, the arthritis ceases, no other injury takes its place and the person is finished with arthritis of the knee." [10] "[the reactive mind] can give a man arthritis, bursitis, asthma, allergies, sinusitis, coronary trouble, high blood pressure ... And it is the only thing in the human being which can produce these effects ... Discharge the content of [the reactive mind] and the arthritis vanishes, myopia gets better, heart illness decreases, asthma disappears, stomachs function properly and the whole catalog of ills goes away and stays away." [11] Some of the psychometric ideas in Dianetics can be traced to Sigmund Freud, whom Hubbard credited as an inspiration and was said to have used as a source.[12] Freud had speculated forty years previously that traumas with similar content join together in "chains," embedded in the unconscious mind, to cause irrational responses in the individual. Such a chain would be relieved by inducing the patient to remember the earliest trauma, "with an accompanying expression of emotion."[13] With the use of Dianetics techniques, Hubbard claimed, the reactive mind could be destroyed and all stored engrams could be purged. The central technique was "auditing," a two-person question-and-answer therapy designed to isolate and dissipate engrams (or "mental masses"). An auditor addresses questions to a subject, observes and records the subject's responses, and returns repeatedly to memories or areas of discussion that appear painful until the troubling memory has been identified and confronted. Through repeated applications of this method, the reactive mind could be "cleared" of its content and permanently done away with entirely; a person who had completed this process would become a "Clear." The benefits of going Clear, according to Hubbard, were dramatic. A Clear would have no compulsions, repressions, psychoses or neuroses, and would enjoy a near-perfect memory as well as a rise in IQ of as much as fifty points. He also claimed that atheism, "zealotism" (by which he seems to have meant fundamentalism) and homosexuality could be "cured" through Dianetics, if they were caused by engrams. [14] He further believed that widespread application of Dianetics would result in "A world without insanity, without criminals and without war," [15] Hubbard stated that as many as seventy percent of physical illnesses are psychosomatic and can be cured by Dianetics, including asthma, poor eyesight, color blindness, hearing deficiencies, stuttering, allergies, sinusitis, arthritis, high blood pressure, coronary trouble, dermatitis, ulcers, migraine, conjunctivitis, morning sickness, alcoholism, tuberculosis and the common cold, to which Clears would be immune.[16] The Church of Scientology has consistently advertised Dianetics as a means to physical cures, and its website includes claims that while a student seeks spiritual gain with Dianetics "the arthritis vanishes, myopia gets better, heart illness decreases, asthma disappears, stomachs function properly and the whole catalog of ills goes away and stays away."[17] According to a Scientology Journal called "The Auditor," the total number of "Clears" as of May 2006 stands at 50,311.[18] One critical organization's analysis, however, brings the accuracy of the official figures into question.[19] Scientific evaluationsDianetics sets forth the non-germ theory of disease, embracing, it has been estimated by competent physicians, the explanation of some seventy percent of man's pathology. Hubbard's original book on Dianetics attracted highly critical reviews from science and medical writers and organisations.[21] The American Psychological Association passed a resolution in 1950 calling "attention to the fact that these claims are not supported by empirical evidence of the sort required for the establishment of scientific generalizations." [22] See Scientific method. Subsequently, Dianetics has achieved no general acceptance as a bona fide scientific theory. [23] Many scientifically informed voices have criticized Dianetics as a classic example of pseudoscience.[24] Few scientific investigations into the effectiveness of Dianetics have been published. Professor John A. Lee states in his 1970 evaluation of Dianetics:
The MEDLINE database records two independent scientific studies on Dianetics, both conducted in the 1950s under the auspices of New York University. Harvey Jay Fischer tested Dianetics therapy against three claims made by proponents and found it does not effect any significant changes in intellectual functioning, mathematical ability, or the degree of personality conflicts;[26] Jack Fox tested Hubbard's thesis regarding recall of engrams, with the assistance of the Dianetic Research Foundation, and could not substantiate it.[27] Hubbard claimed, in an interview with the New York Times in November 1950, that "he had already submitted proof of claims made in the book to a number of scientists and associations. He added that the public as well as proper organizations were entitled to such proof and that he was ready and willing to give such proof in detail."[28]In January 1951, the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation of Elizabeth, NJ published Dianetic Processing: A Brief Survey of Research Projects and Preliminary Results, a booklet providing the results of psychometric tests conducted on 88 people undergoing Dianetics therapy. It presents case histories and a number of X-ray plates to support claims that Dianetics had cured "aberrations" including manic depression, asthma, arthritis, colitis and "overt homosexuality," and that after Dianetic processing, test subjects experienced significantly increased scores on a standardized IQ test. The report's subjects are not identified by name, but one of them is clearly Hubbard himself ("Case 1080A, R. L."). [29] The authors provide no qualifications, although they are described in Hubbard's book Science of Survival (where some results of the same study were reprinted) as psychotherapists. Critics of Dianetics are skeptical of this study, both because of the bias of the source and because the researchers appear to ascribe all physical benefits to Dianetics without considering possible outside factors; in other words, the report lacks any scientific controls. J.A. Winter, M.D., originally an associate of Hubbard and an early adopter of Dianetics, wrote an account of his personal positive experiences with Dianetics, but criticized the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation for failing to undertake "precise scientific research into the functioning of the mind".[30] Commentators from a variety of backgrounds have described Dianetics as an example of pseudoscience, that is, information which claims to be scientific but which fails to meet the basic criteria for science. For example, philosophy professor Robert Carroll points to Dianetics' lack of empirical evidence:
W. Sumner Davis similarly comments that
In the years since its introduction, Dianetics has become a sub-study of the spirtually focused "applied religious philosophy" of Scientology, and the Church of Scientology places little emphasis on Hubbard's original claims to have created a "modern science." Current practitioners of Dianetics typically believe that charges of pseudoscience are irrelevant, emphasizing that their own experience of the therapy's "workability" is far more important to them than the imprimatur of official science. Procedure in practiceImage:Dianetics tent.jpg Scientologists promoting Dianetics at the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books The procedure of Dianetics therapy – known as auditing, from the Latin audire, "to listen" – is a two-person activity. One person, the "auditor", guides the other person, the "preclear" (often also referred to by Hubbard as the "patient"), through a series of steps set out in Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health and the accompanying Hubbard Dianetics Seminar work-book. The preclear's job is to look at the mind and talk to the auditor. The auditor acknowledges what the preclear says and controls the process so the preclear may put his full attention on his work. The auditor and preclear sit down in chairs facing each other. The process then follows in eleven distinct steps: [33]
Auditing sessions are kept confidential. However, a few transcripts of auditing sessions with confidential information removed have been published as demonstration examples. Some extracts can be found in Dr. J.A. Winter's book Dianetics: A Doctor's Report. Other, more comprehensive, transcripts of auditing sessions carried out by Hubbard himself can be found in volume 1 of the Research & Discovery Series (Bridge Publications, 1980). Examples of public group processing sessions can be found throughout the Congress Lecture series. According to Hubbard, auditing enables the preclear to "contact" and "release" engrams stored in the reactive mind, relieving him of the physical and mental aberrations connected with them. The preclear is asked to inspect and familiarize himself with the exact details of his own experience; the auditor may not tell him anything about his case or evaluate any of the information the preclear finds. The validity and practice of auditing have been questioned by a variety of non-Scientologist commentators. Commenting on the example cited by Winter, the science writer Martin Gardner asserts that "nothing could be clearer from the above dialogue than the fact that the dianetic explanation for the headache existed only in the mind of the therapist, and that it was with considerable difficulty that the patient was maneuvered into accepting it." [34] Other critics and medical experts have suggested that Dianetic auditing is a form of hypnosis[35] [36] [37], although the Church of Scientology has strongly denied that hypnosis forms any part of Dianetics. [38] Critics also point out that subjects in a hypnotic state, even a light one, are more susceptible to suggestion. Winter [1950] comments that the leading nature of the questions asked of a preclear "encourage fantasy", a common issue also encountered with hypnosis, which can be used to form false memories. The auditor is instructed not to make any assessment of a recalled memory's reality or accuracy, but instead to treat it as if it were objectively real. Professor Richard J. Ofshe, a leading expert on false memories, suggests that the feeling of well-being reported by preclears at the end of an auditing session may be induced by post-hypnotic suggestion [39] HistoryHubbard's ideas of Dianetics originated in the 1920s and 1930s. He claimed to have spent a great deal of time in the Oak Knoll Naval Hospital's library, where he would have encountered the work of Sigmund Freud and other psychoanalysts. In April 1950, Hubbard and several others established the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation in Elizabeth, New Jersey to coordinate work related for the forthcoming publication. Hubbard wrote Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health at that time, allegedly completing the 180,000-word book in six weeks.[40] The success of selling Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health brought in a flood of money, which Hubbard used to establish Dianetics foundations in six major American cities. The scientific and medical communities were far less enthusiastic about Dianetics, viewing it with bemusement, concern, or outright derision. Complaints were made against local Dianetics practitioners for allegedly practicing medicine without a license. This eventually prompted Dianetics advocates to disclaim any medicinal benefits in order to avoid regulation. Hubbard explained the backlash as a response from various entities trying to co-opt Dianetics for their own use. Hubbard blamed the hostile press coverage in particular on a plot by the American Communist Party. In later years, Hubbard decided that the psychiatric profession was the origin of all of the criticism of Dianetics, as he believed it secretly controlled most of the world's governments.[41] By the autumn of 1950, financial problems had developed, and by November 1950, the six Foundations had spent around one million dollars and were more than $200,000 in debt.[42] Disagreements emerged over the direction of the Dianetic Foundation's work, and relations between the board members became strained, with several leaving, even to support causes critical of Dianetics. One example was Harvey Jackins, founder of Re-evaluation Counselling, originally a sort of discrete reworking of Dianetics, which L Ron Hubbard later declared suppressive to Scientology. In January 1951, the New Jersey Board of Medical Examiners instituted proceedings against the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation in Elizabeth for teaching medicine without a licence.[43] The Foundation closed its doors, causing the proceedings to be vacated, but its creditors began to demand settlement of its outstanding debts. Don Purcell, a millionaire Dianeticist from Wichita, Kansas, offered a brief respite from bankruptcy, but the Foundation's finances failed again in 1952. Because of a sale of assets resulting from the bankruptcy, Hubbard no longer owned the rights to the name "Dianetics", but its philosophical framework still provided the seed for Scientology to grow. Scientologists refer to the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health as "Book One". In 1952, Hubbard published a new set of teachings as "Scientology, a religious philosophy". Scientology did not replace Dianetics but extended it to cover new areas. Where the goal of Dianetics is to rid the individual of his reactive mind engrams, the stated goal of Scientology is to rehabilitate the individual's spiritual nature so that he may reach his full potential. In 1978, Hubbard released "New Era Dianetics," a revised version supposed to produce better results in a shorter period of time. The New Era Dianetics course consists of eleven rundowns.[44] Notes
References
Chronology of Dianetic Texts by Hubbard
|
Sites |
Searched sites for "Dianetics" |
|
No sites found. |
Sorry, no matching site records were found. |
Want your site listed here?
|
||||||||||||||
