Blog: Scientology Inc. versus the Psychs - 2012-06-17
Scientology Inc. versus the Psychs June 17, 2012,
L. Ron Hubbard was clearly not keen on the subject of psychiatry.
But, it wasn't always that way. In the late forties and early fifties Hubbard put a lot of effort into selling the psychiatric profession on the virtues of Dianetics. In response, he was not only rebuffed but targeted by a well- financed campaign directed by the "very best" psychiatrists to expose Hubbard and Dianetics as alleged frauds. That campaign gained momentum for a couple of decades as it was joined along the way by numerous Federal and State agencies.
Increasingly, Hubbard fought escalating fire with escalating fire. He gradually came off his original, soft conclusion from his first book, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, that psychiatrists and psychologists did not achieve results mainly because they did not possess a workable mental technology. In the early fifties he often poked fun at the unworkability of psychiatry, psychology and psycho-analysis (their practioners collectively referred to as 'psychs' in Scientology) in his lectures. Then he began to deride mental health professionals as working not to help humankind but instead to control it. His position, while stated with increasing vehemence that betrayed a personal hurt at being attacked instead of recognized by the mental health establishment, was not without support. A four-part BBC documentary, Century of Self (available for free at freedocumentaries.com), though evidencing no connection with Scientology or Hubbard, very competently sums up the valid criticisms Hubbard had been levying for decades prior to its making and airing. It documents the primary use of mental health methodologies for controlling populaces rather than in improving or curing them.