MUTT ETO Me Met Mtr Tin Tee PEEL Ont OT Ee Ot Pt) tT OO MMe ee ee ee eee eT _ Truth about — Dianetics — \ a STEVE MURDOCK and ‘ HELEN CLARK. tara UTC IE G t t He Me EE TE Hi NE GE HY ET nT Ty ft | , A NEW cure-all fad is claiming | Fi its devotees in all walks of life, including, it must be said, Many with a generally Progressive outlook, and the question naturally arses: What is Dianetics? Is it, 88 some. claim, “‘the poor man’s Psychiatry?” Is it, in fact, a new Science of the mind or is it merely tokum presented in pseudo-scien- tific language and designed to con- fuse the mind. ‘ Dianetics was founded by L. Ronald iHubbard, a 39 year-old American author of “science” fic- tion for pulp magazines who pick- &d up much of his current know- ledge during the Second World Var while a patient at Oak Knoll Naval hospital in Oakland, Cali- fornia (where he wangled access ‘© the medical library). It is all Set forth in Hubbard’s 452 page book, Dianetics — @he Modern Science of Mental Health. Dianetics is a fraud, Hubbard’s Claims to science dissolve under the Spotlight of true scientific ex- amination, Indeed) the'first para- Staph ‘of his synopsis is ill-for- mulated to withstand critical an- alysis, a “The creation of dianetics,” writes its Creator, “is a milestone of Man Somparable to his discovery of fire and superior to his inventions of s Wheel and arch.” Taking a look at the assorted S of mankind, Hubbard claims Modestly to have all the answers. ie *ssence, he’makes the follow- & contentions: it (2) Any two persons with reas- able ‘intelligence can, after a oie Study of the book, cure each h &r of whatever happens to ail et (2) Dianetics can cure any- _ / "ng from arthritis to a migraine baonene. For Hubbard. has de- €d that.a wide range of illnesses ©’ Psychosomatic —° mental in Srigin, iu j : Pa One denies the existence of § hag “somatic ills, but Hubbard Dr Opened up a catch-all ap- ach to the question. He even ay Cancer and diabetes will ti be cured by dianetics, Hav- fw Sone that far, he takes the Plunge and says such matters tigg UeAtion, sociology, and poli- dihass by nature problems that What, CS can solve. In short, A it is, where it is, di- rn tes is the answer. tas is a vast vulgarization of Shin SY, all decked out with Rup, new terms that are either trom ardian‘in origin or salvaged then. me Scrap heap of scientific @nd refurbished with Hub- Nn definitions, ; ave blithely divides the & Mind into three parts, the the “analytical” and: Somatic,” “reactive” mind is the & place of psychosomatic Worg is brings us to the key ~«. “the new Hubbard lexicon a =) &rams,” ose x “We'll soon work out our ‘engrams’ Having borrowed the word “en- _ gram” from a now-defunct school of psychology called the Psycho- Lemarqueian, Hubbard has given it his own popular definition: “Engrams are a complete re- cording, down to the last accurate detail, of every perception present in a moment of partial or full ‘unconsciousness.’ They are just as accurate as any other recording in the body, but they have their - own force. They are like phono- graph records or motion pictures, if these contained all perceptions of sight, sound, smell, taste, or- ganic sensation, “ete.” The so-called “reactive” mind is the storage place for engrams. Hubbard calls this mind an “en- gram bank.” It is in this mind that the engrams live, and you can take it from Hubbard they are something to reckon with, “The engram,” he says, ‘is the sole and single source of aberra- tions and phychosomatic illness.” To hear Hubbord tell it, a per- son goes about his daily tasks with the analytical mind in full control—until, bang! along comes pain or some distressing incident, mind is and’ the “analytical” knocked unconscious. The in- coming. sensations by-pass the “analytical” mind and find their way into the “reactive” mind, where they are stored away 4S engrams. ‘ This wouldn’t be so bad except that the “reactive” mind is some- what of a moron and cannot make sensé out of these sensations. So it lies there muttering idiocies to itself. Time passes, and the per- son is restored to consciousness and resumes business as usual until something comes along to “key in” the engrams. The re- sult of all this, says, Hubbard, is Ss aberration and psychosomatic ill- ness. * The alarming part is that one supposedly stores engrams willy- nilly. Hubbard would have us believe engrams are being stored long before birth. For example, Mama sneezes and Baby is knock- ed unconscious. Mama has hys- terics and Baby gets an engram. This state of affairs continues and Baby is born with a flock of engrams guaranteed to drive him to the snake pits unless cured by dianetics. The most simple of simple ther- apy is offered for all this con- fusion. Since the trouble lies in the “reactive” mind, in the en- grams stored away in an engram “bank,” it follows, Hubbard says, that the cure is to “empty out” this engram bank. To do this, one must go back on the “time track”—back to the time of con- ception. After a period of travel- back and forth on the “time track,” one is cured, or more pre- cisely, “clear.” “Clear,” is another Hubbardism. “Dianetically,” writes Hubbard, “the optimum individual is called the ‘clear.’ A clear can be tested for any and all psychosis, neuro- ses, compulsions and repressions. (all abberations) and cam be ex- amined for any autogenic (self- generated) diseases referred to as psychosomatic ills.” A “pre-clear” is a person who is undergoing dianetic therapy but has not yet discharged all en- grams from his “bank.” A clear, says Hubbard, has a complete recall of everything that : has ever happened to him, plus everything he has ever learned and, in addition, is one third more efficient than before dianetics. e In #n attempt to give an evolu- tionary validity to his self-creat- ed “science,” Hubbard says: “The cells (of the body) evolved into an organism and in the evolu- tion created what was once a necessary condition of mind. Man has grown up to a point where he creates now the means of overcoming that evolutionary blunder. Examination of the clear proves he no longer needs it. He is now. in a position where he can take an artificial evolu- tionary step on his own. The bridge has been built across the canyon.” Hubbard, having constructed this dianetic bridge out of the assorted gleanings from a U.S. Navy medical library, envisions it even as a path to peace. In a section of the book entitled “Di- anetics and War,” he says: “The social organism which we call states and nations behave and react in every respect as though they were individual organisms. The culture has its analytical mind, the combined sentience of its citizens in general and artists, scientists and statemen in par- ticular. The social standard mem- ory bank is the data accumulated along the generations. And the social organism has as well its reactive mind as represented by the prejudices and irrationalities of the entire group. “This reactive mind is served by an engram bank wherein lie past painful experiences which dictate reactive action on certain sub- jects wherever those subjects are restimulated in the society.” This weird formulation of the course of history is further evolvy- ed as follows: “The quarrel of society with society, nation with nation, has many causes, all of them more or less irrational.- There have been many times when one society was forced to crush another less sen- tient than itself. But with each’ new class, new engrams were born both in the international scene and within the societies themselves.” Hubbord’s concept of man’s problems and their solution is materialist in only one basic sense, and that’s related to Hubbard’s bank account. He’s seized on a long-recognized truth — that it makes people feel better to talk about their troubles—and built it into a good thing. While cheaper. by far than psy- choanalysis, Hubbard’s alleged bargain basement panacea is by no-means easy on the pocketbook. His book, which costs $5 in Can- ada, is a sort of minimum entry fee in the big dianetics sweep- stakes. Beyond that, without saying so explicity, Hubbard of- fers to cut each convert in on a share of his take. For a mere $500 the Hubbard Foundation will train a person in one month to become a professional “auditor,” the dianetical equival- ent of a psychoanalyst. There is also a bargain $200 course of 15 lectures’ that permits ‘the recipi- ent to operate only within the confines of his own family, pre- sumably. ‘ The-impact of this handy home psychoanalysis should be of seri- ous. concern. to the progressive movement. Hubbard’s utopian scheme, masquerading as it does under the name of science and aimed at capitalizing on the mis- eries and fears of a troubled peo- ple, presents a real danger. He reduces-a human being to a kind of recording machine, a passive receptacle of the blows inflicted upon him. ‘He says, in effect, people play no role in solving their problems, outside of getting themselves “cleared.” Since he blames the ils of man upon “engrams” rather than upon the society in which some men live, he ignores the ‘possibility that man might change that society. Dianetics essentially turfs an individual inward, not outward, and so can neutralize and divert people from the only kind of struggle that can assure them peace and security. It’s no secret that a person is. helped by “talking out” a prob- lem, but history offers abundant proof that no people ever won peace or security while lying flat on their back—talking. United front in Indonesia THE HAGUE - Ld, democratic parties in Indo- -nesia have formed a united front behind the unity program proposed by the Indonesian Com- munist party (PKI). The pro- gram calls for cancellation of the Round Table ‘Conference agree- ment with the Nethérlands under which many vestiges of Indo- nesia’s colonial status are main- tained, and for an active peace policy. , Among the 15 parties ing the unity program second largest group in the In- donesian parliament, the Nation- alist party (PNI). It has been asked by President Achmar Soe- karno to form a new government to replace the cabinet of Moham- med Natsir, which resigned March 20 following defeat by a coalition of the Nationalist party and left wing parties in parlia- ment. : Development of unity around a . endors- is the * progressive program is made pos- sibie by the leading role of the Indonesian Communist party in Indonesian politics. Despite the fact that the Communist party has no parliamentary strength, its mass support from the work- ers and plantation laborers has made it clear in Djakarto that there can be no stable govern- ment without Communist sup- port. The being wide unity which is now achieved {behind the pro- gram of the Communist party clears the way for a democratic solution of the Indonesian cab- inet crisis. Only major parties which have withheld support from the unity program are the two extreme right-wing groups, the Masjumi (Muslim) party of Natsir, and the Indonesian Socialist party backbone of the former govern- ment. The program is based on the broad program adopted by the democratic parties and peoples organizations on July 14, 1948. Its main points are: @ Complete independence for Indonesia through cancelling the RC Tagreement. @ Repeal of the anti-strike legislation introduced by the Nat- ‘RCT agreement. @ Adoption of a peace policy,, with no agreements with foreign powers against the interests of the Indonesian people, and sup- port for the liberation struggle of the colonial people. @ Land Reform—“Land to the Tiller,” nationalization of foreign- owned estates and cancellation of ‘Small farmers’ debts. . @ Nationalization of vital en- terprises jand large enterprises owned by foreign capital. @ No treaty with foreign mon- opolists for exploitation of the Indonesian economy. @ Support for small and middle enterprises owned by Indonesians. PACIFIC TRIBUNE — MAY 4, 1951 — PAGE 5 ee RS Oe