One opened, more to go... Operation Clambake & Joe Cisar present:

The Fabulous Fifties



Astounding Science Fiction magazine 1950
Cover of SF magazine where
Dianetics was released.
Click image for full size

The first Hubbard article on Dianetics was published in the Spring of 1950, in an unusual place for a "science of the mind," The Explorers Club Journal, under the title "Terra Incognita: The Mind." In the article Hubbard explained that Dianetics "was intended as a tool for the expedition commander and doctor who are faced with choosing personnel and maintaining that personnel in good health." Hubbard had arrived in Bay Head, New Jersey, in mid-1949, armed with the fundamentals of his new science. He was widely known in science fiction, having contributed to Astounding Science Fiction for over eleven years. John Campbell, the highly influential editor, had been convened to Dianetics by a counselling session which relieved his sinusitis, and became an eager recruiter. Soon, a small group of disciples gathered around Hubbard. Among those brought into the Hubbard circle by Campbell was Joseph Winter, M.D., who had written medical articles for Astounding. Winter wanted to break down the mystique surrounding medicine. He specialized in endocrinology, and had tried to modify behavior with hormones, in experiments at the University of Illinois. Hubbard was later to claim that he had himself been involved in such experiments at Oak Knoll Hospital. An early letter to Winter, written in July 1949, shows Campbell's enthusiasm for the new subject:

With cooperation from some institutions, some psychiatrists, he [Hubbard] has worked on all types of cases. Institutionalized schizophrenics, apathies, manics, depressives, perverts, stuttering, neuroses - in all nearly 1,000 cases... He doesn't have proper statistics... He has cured every patient he worked. He has cured ulcers, arthritis, asthma.

Winter, Campbell, Hubbard and Don Rogers, an electrical engineer, worked together refining techniques and coining a new language to voice Hubbard's ideas. Hubbard was probably the major contributor to these discussions, and certainly the final arbiter. Winter submitted papers to the Journals of the American Medical Association and the American Psychiatric Association. The papers were rejected, because of a lack of clinical experimentation, or indeed of any substantiation. The Bay Head group then decided to publish the therapy in Astounding Science Fiction, and by January 1950, Hubbard had prepared an article, a modified version of which later became the book Dianetics: The Evolution of a Science. Unbeknownst to his co-workers, while they were refining Hubbard's cure-all, he was still trying to obtain a naval disability retirement to augment his Veterans Administration award.

(from the book A Piece of Blue Sky by Jon Atack)

This is a list of media coverage in the early, early years of Dianetics and Scientology.

DATE TITLE PUBLICATION
July 24, 1950 Of Two Minds Time
August 5, 1950 A Cure for all Ills By Milton R. Sapirstein The Nation
August 14, 1950 The Dianetics Craze New Republic
August 21, 1950 BOOKS Industry: Best Seller Newsweek
September 3, 1950 "Dianetics" - For Seekers of Prefabricated Happiness by Erich Fromm The New York Herald Tribune
September 9, 1950 Psychologists Act Against "Dianetics" by Lucy Freeman New York Times
September 11, 1950 No Authority by Frederick L. Schuman. PRO-DIANETICS New Republic
September 15, 1950 Lo, the Poor Scientific Mind Fortnight
September 16, 1950 Psychologists Hit "Dianetics" Publishers Weekly
October 16, 1950 Poor Man's Psychoanalysis Newsweek
October 17, 1950 Book Is Clever, Disarming by Walter L. Welch The Post Standard
October 29, 1950 Can we doctor our minds at home? by W. A. Sprague and Roland Wild Oakland Tribune
December 5, 1950 Dianetics - Science or Hoax? By Albert Q. Maisel Look
December, 1950 The Hermit Scientist by Martin Gardner Antioch Review
January, 1951 Review of Dianetics By Isaac Isidor Rabi Scientific American
January 3, 1951 After Dark: Dianeticians, Mr. Harper Harper's Magazine
March 30, 1951 Zilboorg Denounces "Dianetics" at Forum New York Times
April, 1951 Peace of Mind in Dianetics? by Frederick L. Schuman. PRO-DIANETICS Better Homes & Gardens
August, 1951 A critical appaisal ... Consumer Reports
August, 1951 Boiled Engrams by Willard Beecher and Calder Willingham American Mercury
September 3, 1951 Departure in Dianetics Time
1951 A Doctor was not satisfied... from a book by Dr. Joseph A. Winter A Doctor's Report on Dianetics
Theory and Therapy
1952 Dianetics from a book by Martin Gardner Fads & Fallacies
In the Name of Science
December 22, 1952 Remember Venus? Time
June 30, 1953 Dianetic Therapy: An Experimental Evaluation by Harvey Jay Fischer Submitted in partial fulfillment
of the requirements for the
degree of Doctorof Philosophy
in the School of Education of
New York University

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Operation Clambake