L. Ron Hubbard

This article about the fundamental principles of Dianetics (and later Scientology) called the “Axioms” was written for The Underground Bunker last week and is being re-published here so I’ll have a record of my work on my own blog too!

Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health took the United States by storm when it was published in May 1950. However, the fantastical claims and promises made by its author, L. Ron Hubbard, were quickly diminished by the uncertain results it produced on only a percentage of its users. Reviews by clinical psychologists, psychiatrists and other science professionals lambasted the work as pure pseudoscience. For example, on June 31, 1950, the New York Times published psychologist Rollo May’s scathing review, which was not at all shy about calling Hubbard out on his nonsense when he wrote, “I believe my review is open to one sound criticism, namely, that of trying to deal with Dianetics as a scientific work.”