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Hubbard Autobiography: Commander Thompson |
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The Old Man's Case Book
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Here's the second part of L. Ron Hubbard's unpublished autobiography, originally dictated in 1972.[...]
COMMANDER THOMPSON
I travelled with Commander Thompson from Seattle, Washington through the Panama Canal to Washington, D. C. when I was about twelve and knew him during all that time that I was in Washington and later. Commander Thompson was the first man to study with Sigmund Freud from the U. S. Government and had just returned from his studies, bringing psychoanalysis back to the United States Navy. He was a tall, rangy, eccentric individual. His friends called him "Snake" and his enemies called him "Crazy". He had lots of both. He lived a life to very much please himself in spite of being a Naval officer and would read until he fell asleep, falling sideways over onto his bunk and get up and go about his duties when it pleased him, regardless of Navy schedules. Through his friendship I attended many lectures given at Naval hospitals and generally became conversant with psychoanalysis as it had been exported from Austria by Freud. All the various schools which sprung up later, such as Horney, seem a far cry from Freud's original work and it has seemed to me that there are no psychoanalysts who practice Freudian Psychoanalysis. Commander Thompson wrote innumerable monographs on all manner of observations in various parts of the world which he had visited, and all of them dealing with ethnology. He was a very fine man and I was very fortunate to have known him.
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Hubbard Autobiography: Commander Thompson |
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Snake Thompson
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Here's the second part of L. Ron Hubbard's unpublished autobiography, originally dictated in 1972.[...]
COMMANDER THOMPSON
I travelled with Commander Thompson from Seattle, Washington through the Panama Canal to Washington, D. C. when I was about twelve and knew him during all that time that I was in Washington and later. Commander Thompson was the first man to study with Sigmund Freud from the U. S. Government and had just returned from his studies, bringing psychoanalysis back to the United States Navy. He was a tall, rangy, eccentric individual. His friends called him "Snake" and his enemies called him "Crazy". He had lots of both. He lived a life to very much please himself in spite of being a Naval officer and would read until he fell asleep, falling sideways over onto his bunk and get up and go about his duties when it pleased him, regardless of Navy schedules. Through his friendship I attended many lectures given at Naval hospitals and generally became conversant with psychoanalysis as it had been exported from Austria by Freud. All the various schools which sprung up later, such as Horney, seem a far cry from Freud's original work and it has seemed to me that there are no psychoanalysts who practice Freudian Psychoanalysis. Commander Thompson wrote innumerable monographs on all manner of observations in various parts of the world which he had visited, and all of them dealing with ethnology. He was a very fine man and I was very fortunate to have known him.
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Online bio: Ron meets Snake Thompson |
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The Old Man's Case Book
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1922-1923:
L. Ron Hubbard moves north to Puget Sound in Washington State. He joins the Boy Scouts of America in April 1923. As a member of Tacoma Troop 31, he becomes a Second Class Scout on 8 May and two months later, on 5 July, advances to First Class Scout.
In October, Harry Ross Hubbard receives orders to report to the nation’s capital. Ron and his parents board the USS Ulysses S. Grant on 1 November 1923 and sail to New York from San Francisco through the recently opened Panama Canal. They then journey to Washington, DC. During this voyage, Ron meets Commander Joseph “Snake” Thompson, who has recently returned from Vienna and studies with Sigmund Freud. Through the course of their friendship, the commander spends many an afternoon in the Library of Congress teaching Ron what he knows of the human mind.
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Online bio: Ron meets Snake Thompson |
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Snake Thompson
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1922-1923:
L. Ron Hubbard moves north to Puget Sound in Washington State. He joins the Boy Scouts of America in April 1923. As a member of Tacoma Troop 31, he becomes a Second Class Scout on 8 May and two months later, on 5 July, advances to First Class Scout.
In October, Harry Ross Hubbard receives orders to report to the nation’s capital. Ron and his parents board the USS Ulysses S. Grant on 1 November 1923 and sail to New York from San Francisco through the recently opened Panama Canal. They then journey to Washington, DC. During this voyage, Ron meets Commander Joseph “Snake” Thompson, who has recently returned from Vienna and studies with Sigmund Freud. Through the course of their friendship, the commander spends many an afternoon in the Library of Congress teaching Ron what he knows of the human mind.
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Book: [...] selected papers of Clara M. Thompson |
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The Old Man's Case Book
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For comment on the therapeutic practices of Commander "Snake" Thompson, Hubbard's mentor.
Source: The Psychoanalytic Roots of Scientology
by Silas L. Warner, M.D.
Lightly edited by Ann-Louise S. Silver, M.D.
Maurice Green, editor of Clara Thompson's papers (1964) included a biographic chapter
(Inter-personal Psychoanalysis: The Selected Papers of Clara M. Thompson, New York: Basic
Books, 1964).
He writes that on the encouragement of Lucielle Dooley, Clara joined her as
summer staff at St. Elizabeth's Hospital while Clara was still in medical school.
There, she met its
superintendent, William Alanson White, Edward Kempf, author of the first U.S. book on
psychoanalytic applications in treating psychosis, as well as Joseph Thompson.
He was "sincerely
dedicated to the utilization of psychoanalytic concepts and techniques in everyday medical
practice to help patients accommodate to reality more effectively.
A kind man, sympathetic and
compassionate, he interested himself in Clara and encouraged her to seek psychoanalytic help." (p.
352)
She went on to become a psychiatric resident at Phipps Clinic in Baltimore, working under
Dr. Adolf Meyer, the well-known psychobiologist.
In 1923, during her second year of psychiatric
training, she met Harry Stack Sullivan, beginning a long and fruitful friendship.
During her last
year of training, Adolf Meyer honored her by placing her in charge of his private patients.
"This
was the greatest recognition a psychiatric resident could be given at Phipps.
At the same time she
began psychoanalytic treatment with Dr. Joseph C. Thompson.
Her classmates, who had always
known her as rather bitterly unhappy and alone, were impressed with the great rapport that she
had with her analyst.
The two of them were frequently seen dining together or, walking arm in
arm, talking animatedly.
For Clara, this must have been a precious relief from the burdens of her
loneliness and unhappiness." (p. 353)
During the following year, 1925,
Adolph Meyer objected to Clara's being in psychoanalysis with
Joseph Thompson.
Meyer insisted that she discontinue her psychoanalysis; she refused; he
dismissed her.
In 1931 she went to Budapest and finished her psychoanalysis with Sandor
Ferenczi.
The following case history from Interpersonal psychoanalysis : the selected papers of Clara M. Thompson is obviously Clara Thompson herself, commenting on her analysis with Joseph Thompson.
Chapter 14
Notes on the Psychoanalytic Significance of the Choice of Analyst
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The second case is that of a woman with a male analyst. The first meeting was at a social gathering. In the course of the evening they had a conversation together which led to his suggesting that she come to see him professionally and discuss her being analyzed. Her reaction was fear but she realized that she needed analysis, that he would probably accept her for a fee which she could pay, and finally she felt irresistibly attracted to the situation. Analysis was begun, fear continued, sleeplessness developed, difficulty in working appeared, and the patient finally lost her job. The analyst repeatedly urged the patient to seek the sources of her fear of him in her fear of her father-to no avail. The difficulty lay in the analyst. There was in him some tendency to get women away from other men and make them entirely dependent on him. The patient in question had a neurotic attachment to her employer which was reciprocated by the employer, who also had a neurotic need for power. When this situation began to be analyzed, the analyst's jealousy reinforced the patient's own tendency to make indirect aggressions of a serious nature against her employer with disastrous consequences. Although the patient continued in analysis for some months after the loss of her position, she made no further progress, having lost confidence in the analyst on a reality basis. Later her analysis was successfully completed by another. p. 135 1
Interpersonal psychoanalysis : the selected papers of Clara M. Thompson
Thompson, Clara, Green, Maurice R. (Ed.)
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Ron the Sociopath 
