Looking for a Dianetics therapist

August 21, 2014 3:37 AM

Hello, I'm looking for a therapist who does Dianetics, and who's NOT affiliated with the Church of Scientology. If anyone knows of such a person or persons and could somehow help connect between us, I would be very grateful to them.

Dianetics is a technique related to Primal Therapy. In fact, it's a superior form of Primal Therapy, IMO. I will be happy to answer any questions.

posted by rodent to Health & Fitness (14 answers total)

I know nothing about this subject but I have a feeling you won't find much in the way of constructive answers here. Previously.
posted by Ted Maul at 3:50 AM on August 21, 2014 [6 favorites]

These will be few and far between - you might want to consider working remotely with a therapist who does Skype consultations.
posted by Mistress at 4:27 AM on August 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

I think you are going to have trouble finding anyone advertising themselves as a non-Scientology dianetics therapist, even if they are one. There are three reasons for that - as far as I know you can only train in dianetics via Scientology, the Scientology legal dept is probably not going to let breakaway dianetics therapists use the name, and few people are going to trust that a dianetics therapist isn't going to try to convert them at some point, so potential clients will be driven away by the name. So all in all that term is probably not going to be used unless they are affiliated with Scientology.

I think your best bet is to look at primal therapists in your area and see which one is the closest fit. You are kind of asking for a Big Mac that doesn't come from McDonalds here.
posted by tinkletown at 4:34 AM on August 21, 2014 [2 favorites]

I asked the question Ted Maui refers to; no, it's highly unlikely (I want to say impossible) you'll find anyone because the CoS shuts down independent contractors (non-CoS people) immediately.

The person I referred to in my question tried to practice Dianetics independently and the CoS immediately ceased and desisted them, so they couldn't.
posted by kinetic at 4:36 AM on August 21, 2014 [7 favorites]

The CS department at Carnegie Mellon has a pretty comprehensive page about e-readers - maybe you could build (or buy) your own e-reader and bring it to a therapist's office? It's a long shot, but then again, so is finding a non-Scientology affiliated Dianetics therapist. Hope you find something that works for you!
posted by oceanjesse at 6:02 AM on August 21, 2014

Would an ex-Scientologist be acceptable to you? Some of them are independently doing the Dianetics part and can be found on forums for ex-members. But most are independent Scientologists though so you'd need to be specific about what you want. If not, Tinkletown's suggestion to ask primal therapists about their practice would be your best bet.
posted by harriet vane at 7:03 AM on August 21, 2014

Response by poster: I'd like to thank everyone who answered.

What about the Free Zone? They practice various scientology 'techs' without permission from the Church. What if you don't call it Dianetics? Nobody can own the rights to a therapeutic technique/approach, no more that they can patent human genes.

As for Primal Therapy - I've honestly tried. It has many shortcomings, all explained by the Dianetics theory. And I got tired of doing it the wrong way. The price is too high. I found myself feeling more and more sympathy for the 'debunkers' of PT, since they were making more sense than my therapists were. Anyways....
posted by rodent at 7:08 AM on August 21, 2014

Best answer: Full disclosure: I was/am part of the Project Chanology (though I am not, nor have never been, a member of Anonymous). I oppose the Scientology and their illegal activities and have protested against them many many times. That being said,I am all for the freedom of religion and the members of the Free Zone (mentioned below) I have met are typically good people that have the same thoughts regarding the Organized structure of the Church of Scientology as I do. Beyond that, I will attempt to be as neutral as possible, but I do not believe Hubbard was qualified to open a can of beans.

So your best bet is to see if you can contact any Free Zoners. These are a group of people that took the church teachings and left because they didn't agree with the money sucking, shady business dealing, cult like aspects of the CoS. Be advised, each group can be as different as one Christian demonetization and another but per their tenants it should be pretty laid back and no pressure. If you find them pressuring you into doing things I suggest you leave.

They can be tricky to find because (as has been mentioned above) CoS will attempt to shut down anyone who tries to "operate with their sanction" as it were.

This is a great resource from a great group of people comprised of Exes from the Church.

There may be some Free Zone stuff located Here but I am not able to fully dig around at the moment. Also another good resource for Ex Scientology in general.
posted by Twain Device at 7:17 AM on August 21, 2014 [3 favorites]

No joke, the Nation of Islam is now promoting Dianetics. So maybe you can get in touch with them to get non-Scientology Dianetics resources.
posted by Flunkie at 8:50 AM on August 21, 2014

Mod note: Rodent, this isn't the place for a discussion, sorry.
posted by restless_nomad (staff) at 11:26 AM on August 21, 2014

Ah. Forgive my inability to find the information ( I have a book at home I could reference, but can't remember the name of it) but I seem to recall that Hubbard was not the only author of Dianetics. In the book, written in the 90s I believe, it was mentioned that Hubbard had someone who wrote a lot of the book with him. In the book it was mentioned that shortly after writing Dianetics, Hubbard moved on for a bit and did some other stuff. The other guy kept the rights to the book. Hubbard ended up suing, or otherwise wrestling the rights back from him around the mid-late 50s.

Knowing Hubbard, most of what "works" in Dianetics was probably not even of his creation, seeing how much of a huckster he became later in life.

I'll see if I can dig up some details when I'm home. I don't trust Wikipedia as a cite.

I mention this because some of the original co-authors (who are no longer mentioned in Dianetics obviously) might be useful material for you.
posted by Twain Device at 11:27 AM on August 21, 2014 [1 favorite]

mods If my last comment is out of line, I won't be offended at a delete. I can reword it if necessary.
posted by Twain Device at 11:29 AM on August 21, 2014

I think the book you are referring to is A Piece Of Blue Sky by Jon Atack. It details (among other things) the publication of the original Dianetics book and subsequent copyright battles in the 1950s. On a quick flick-through of my copy, Hubbard wrote the book, 'borrowing' many concepts from other sources, but it was intended as a self-help manual and amateur groups formed around it to work on the therapy together. By 1952 the fad had passed and most groups had moved on to other methods.

Hubbard's foundation group included John Campbell (editor), Dr Joseph Winters (medical advisor) and Arthur Ceppos (publisher). After Hubbard alienated them, he got financial backing for the re-invention of Dianetics into Scientology from Don Purcell. To the best of my knowledge none of these associates continued to believe in the efficacy of Dianetics but it might be worth a look into their later projects, particularly Winters.
posted by harriet vane at 6:42 AM on August 25, 2014

My apologies, I meant to list the other sources Hubbard was leaning on: Freud's early work before he changed his focus to dreams; and Dr Nandor Fodor, psycho-analytic researcher who credits Otto Rank with earlier research.
posted by harriet vane at 6:53 AM on August 25, 2014