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The New Republic Review
August 14, 1950
Dianetics book review
DIANETICS, by L. Ron Hubbard (Hermitage House; $4).
By MARTIN GUMPERT
It is not so much the content of this book which deserves analysis
as its effect on the average reader's mind. "Dianetics" has been
steadily climbing on the best-seller list since its publication,
and, next to the spectacular success of the Velikovsky book, its
popularity is the most frightening proof of the confusion of the
contemporary mind and its tendency to fall prey to
pseudo-scientific concepts.
The book opens with the statement: "The creation of dianetics is a
milestone for Man comparable to his discovery of fire and superior
to his invention of the wheel and arch." Dianetics, we learn (from
the Greek "dianoua" -- thought), is the science of mind. "The
hidden source of all psychosomatic ills and human aberration has
been discovered and skill have been developed for their invariable
cure." With the help of these skills everybody can achieve
"release" within less than 20 hours, and can grow into a "dianetic
clear," or an individual with intelligence considerably greater
than the current norm. A few lines later we learn: "It is new that
life has as its entire dynamic urge only survival."
The dianetic prophet, L. Ron Hubbard, a civil engineer and
science-fiction writer, has revealed "as an established scientific
fact" that man is uniformly and invariably good. He claims as one
of his great discoveries "a hitherto unsuspected sub-mind." The
concept of the unconscious mind is replaced by the "reactive
mind." The reactive mind receives its recordings as cellular
"engrams" when the "conscious" mind is "unconscious." These
engrams disturb our thought processes. No physical or emotional
pain is ever forgotten unless it is removed by dianetic therapy.
The dianetic patient "returns" to his pain and changes into an
individual full of memories but without pain. Lying in a quiet
room he falls into a state of "dianetic reverie" and his "auditor"
(and everybody can be everybody else's auditor) tells him "to go
to rather than remember" various periods of his life, including
his prenatal existence. So he travels on his "time track" back to
his mother's womb and draws checks on his "standard memory bank,"
reaches his "cellular level engrams," and -- in the re?xperiencing
of them -- they are finally erased and refiled automatically as
"standard memory." The result of this treatment is the dianetic
"clear," who "is to a current normal individual as the current is
to the severely insane."
I must confess I have never been confronted by such a bold and
immodest mixture of complete nonsense and perfectly reasonable
common sense, taken from long-acknowledged findings and disguised
and distorted by a crazy, newly invented terminology. Most
revolting is the repeated claim of exactitude and of scientific
experimental approach, for which every evidence is lacking. The
author lives continuously on borrowed concepts, though at the same
time he attacks them most ungraciously and ungratefully. Whatever
makes sense in his "discoveries" does not belong to him, and his
own theory appears to this reviewer as a paranoiac system which
would be of interest as part of a case history, but which seems
quite dangerous when offered for mass consumption as a therapeutic
technique.
Hubbard's concept of psychosomatic disease is definitely wrong.
Psychosomatic ailments are not simply caused by emotional
disturbances; they are diseases in which the emotional and the
organic factor are closely involved and interdependent. But the
author does not stop at the usual group of recognized
psychosomatic ailments. He announces (p. 93): "At the present time
dianetic research is scheduled to include cancer and diabetes.
There are a number of reasons to suppose that these may be
engramic in cause, particularly malignant cancer." He prescribes
that "the pre-clear should take a daily dose of ten to twenty
milligrams of vitamin B1 while in therapy," because otherwise he
might have nightmares. And, of course, like the leader of any
crackpot movement, he suspects and condemns the skeptic and
disbeliever:
"Should the pre-clear discover that anyone is attempting
to prevent him from starting or continuing dianetic
therapy, the fact should be communicated immediately to
the auditor. Anyone attempting to stop an individual
from entering therapy either has a use for the
aberrations of the individual or has something to hide."
This physician has no use for the aberrations of
dianetics-addicts, but he earnestly hopes to prevent readers of
the book from trying their luck with its methods. There can be no
doubt that many will feel helped by the new fad, and
unfortunately, it was only to be expected that somebody would get
the idea of inventing some kind of home-psychoanalysis. No method
of psychotherapy exists -- however bizarre it may be -- which will
not exert a temporary effect in the hands of disciples who are
haunted by anxiety and despair. However, the harm that may be done
by dianetics-auditors and their victims should not be
underestimated. Hubbard says:
"A pre-clear should not be disheartened or dismayed to
find himself with a flicker of "coronary trouble" on
Tuesday, the shadow of a "migraine" on Saturday and a
cough on Wednesday. . . . Anything so restimulated by
therapy cannot reach any dangerous heights and is of
passing duration."
The flicker of coronary trouble may be a serious occlusion, the
psychosomatic ulcer may be a disguised cancer, and the cough a
tumor of the lungs. While the patient is spending his hours in
dianetic revery, precious time for saving his life may be lost: it
may prove fatal to have put too much trust in the promises of this
dangerous book.
The examples of dianetic auditions which are quoted are of
fantastic absurdity, especially where they are concerned with the
poor patient's pre-natal life and his mother's sex habits and
abortions. I wish there were enough space to reprint some of them.
This reviewer, in exploring the book, suffered a most painful
"cellular engram" -- to use the author's language. And he ardently
wishes that something could be done to prohibit the activities of
psycho-therapists of this sort. Our exploiters of mass anxiety are
a serious menace to public health.
Dr. Martin Gumpert, born in Berlin, studied medicine at Heidelberg
and Berlin Universities and practised for a decade in his native
land before coming to the United States. Especially interested in
the problems of old age, he has written many books in that and
other fields. He is a member of the staff of Goldwater Memorial
Hospital, New York City.
Letters to the Editor
The New Republic
11.9.1950
No Authority
SIR: To Dr. Martin Gumpert and to all who may be disposed to take
seriously his tirade against "Dianetics" (the NR, August 14) I
commend the words of advice attributed to Oliver Cromwell: "I
beseech ye, in the bowels of Christ, to consider whether ye may
not be mistaken." In vain I warned the Literary Editor of the NR a
month ago NOT to submit this book to review by an "Authority"
unwilling to put its postulates to a test. Dr. Gumpert has not
only put them to no test, but has carefully refrained from asking
the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation in Elizabeth, New Jersey,
for documentary evidence and case studies -- now being prepared
for later publication. He also "hopes to prevent" others from
testing the postulates and believes (shades of the AMA on
socialized medicine!) that dianetics should be "prohibited."
Happily, his efforts will be futile. The only thing "dangerous" or
disgraceful in this matter is that the "New Republic" should print
such utterly ignorant and irresponsible statements, under the
editorial delusion that they constitute a critical evaluation, and
thereby make itself the laughingstock of the rapidly growing
throng of people who know what dianetics is about. Not the book,
but the review, is "complete nonsense," a "paranoiac system" and a
"fantastic absurdity." There are no authorities on dianetics save
those who have tested it. All who have done so are in no doubt
whatever as to who is here mistaken.
FREDERICK L. SCHUMAN
Williamstown, Mass.
[While Dr. Schuman is a distinguished authority on political
science, we do not feel that on issues involving psychiatry he is
entitled to any more respect than any other layman. His suggestion
that no one should write about dianetics without having
experienced it seems to us like saying that no one can be an
authority on cyanide of potassium unless he has eaten some. -- THE
EDITORS]
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