Author: Hubbard, L. R., Hubbard, L. R., Hubbard, L. R., Hubbard, L. R.
Document date: 23 September 1950, 23 September 1950, 23 September 1950, 23 September 1950
Document title: What Dianetics Can Do, What Dianetics Can Do, What Dianetics Can Do, What Dianetics Can Do
Document type: lecture transcript, lecture transcript, lecture transcript, lecture transcript
Event: Oakland Public Lectures, Oakland Public Lectures, Oakland Public Lectures, Oakland Public Lectures
Location: Oakland, California, Oakland, California, Oakland, California, Oakland, California
Document ID: 5009C23B, 5009C23B, 5009C23B, 5009C23B
Description: Hubbard makes psychiatric claims for Dianetics., Hubbard makes psychiatric claims for Dianetics., Hubbard makes psychiatric claims for Dianetics., Hubbard makes psychiatric claims for Dianetics.
I am fascinated right now, as is the research and psychometric section of the Foundation, to discover better and newer tests that will show us where the engrams are and what we have to hit to resolve the case. For instance, Rorschach is a wonderful test. It will invariably show up a paranoid. The engram that causes paranoia is the “against me” engram–”They’re all against me.” And when we know from a Rorschach that a person is a paranoid, we can then go into the case immediately and look for the “they’re all against me” engram and we will find it.
Perhaps there is one for a certain type of schizophrenia, and there may be a certain type that causes manic-depressives. There may be a whole catalog of engram types, and that is the type of psychometry we are trying to do.
The psychometrist uses these tests to demonstrate what happens in the mind. They are used in universities, and they are very ably administered and very thoroughly authenticated.
I will now answer some questions which have been asked:
“In your book you say that psychotic cases can be treated by any auditor, but recently you have said that such cases should await physicians trained in Dianetics. Has new information made this warning necessary?”
No, it is not that a terrific warning is necessary. But perhaps at first I may have underestimated some of the slightness that would be given to the data in the Handbook.
More importantly, it might be possible to make a psychotic worse. I don’t know of any psychotics who have been made worse by this type of auditing, and I certainly would have been the first to hear about them, but such a possibility exists.
Another thing is a burying of the hatchet with psychiatry. At first I kept quite an aplomb about psychiatry and psychoanalysis. I said, “I don’t think these people are against me” (I didn’t have an engram to that effect); “I think that they will welcome this as soon as they know about it.”
People said, “Get yourself set for a terrible battle. This is going to be awful. They’re going to run you off the face of the earth. You’re flying in the teeth of authority.”
I didn’t believe it, and I think I was justified, since those psychiatrists who have studied the techniques, and particularly those who have cared to apply them, have become very enthusiastic about Dianetics.
There was one at Missouri State Institution who was very open-minded about Dianetics. A Dianeticist talked to him and the two of them got together on a schizophrenic, a young lady who had been insane for quite a while. They worked her for several sessions, and then one day when she got up off the couch she was sane! This psychiatrist was no longer open-minded about Dianetics. He knew that he had something new with which to treat his mental patients, and so he started to work with it.
Naturally, when some engineer and mathematician suddenly walks up to men who have studied the human mind for 12 years and says, “I have the answer,” they say, “This is impossible!” because he is not a specialist, and arguments ensue. But if these gentlemen test it, they go ahead.
Therefore, I don’t try to sell Dianetics to any of them. I don’t have to sell Dianetics to anyone. I wish sometimes that I didn’t have quite as many people interested in it! But the information should be available.
It is very good medical practice and very good psychiatric practice when a person is severely ill that a psychiatrist or doctor who is interested in this case be consulted about it. An auditor should not go in just because he knows Dianetics and suddenly steal the case away and make a big show out of it. What we are doing here is trying to instill some good manners into the professions.