http://www.improbable.com/ig/ig-pastwinners.html

Hubbard won the prize for "literature" in 1994.

"L. Ron Hubbard, ardent author of science fiction and founding father of Scientology, for his crackling Good Book, 'Dianetics,' which is highly profitable to mankind or to a portion thereof."

Stephen A. Kent
Department of Sociology
University of Alberta
Edmonton, Alberta, CANADA
T6G 2H4
March 23, 1992 (3rd Draft)

[....]

In the early 1980s Scientologists undertook a dramatic plan to establish their leader among the world's elites. Called the Nobel Peace Prize Project, it "was intended to win the Prize for Hubbard's development of the Purification Rundown" (Atack, 1990: 260), which the group claims eliminates drug residues from people's bodies. Despite the fact that Hubbard "authorized the expenditure of unlimited Scientology funds" to the effort (Armstrong, 1983: 6), Hubbard never was nominated {7}.

[....]

According to Hubbard, it was in 1938 that he first discovered the basic axioms of dianetics and began his twelve years of research. Many of his friends insist, however, that these twelve research years are entirely mythical, and that it was not until 1948 that dianetics was hatched. At any rate, one of his earliest patients was John Campbell, Jr., editor of "Astounding Science Fiction." Campbell was suffering, among other things, from chronic sinusitis. His treatment by Hubbard so impressed him, that in May 1950, he published in his pulp magazine the first public report on dianetics. It was an article by Hubbard, written in a few hours, and in a style resembling the broadcast of a football game. The article apparently aroused science-fiction fans to such a pitch of anticipation that when Hubbard's book, "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Healing," was published a few weeks later by Hermitage House, they grabbed the first copies they could lay their hands on.

"Hubbard reveals a deep-seated hatred of women....When Hubbard's Mama's are not getting kicked in the stomach by their husbands or having affairs with lovers, they are preoccupied with AA [attempted abortion]--usually by means of knitting needles." --Martin Gardner, Fads & Fallacies in the Name of Science (New York: Dover Publications, 1957), p.267.

Based on the concept that what ails us humans stems from a run-in with the evil-doing ghosts of aliens ostracized from their home galaxy and vaporized by their leader Xenu some 75 million years ago, "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health" is a treasury of self-help humor, replete with screwball explanations for such things as constipation (which, by the way, "can be caused or cured by positive suggestion with remarkable speed and facility"), gays and lesbians ("The sexual pervert ... is actually quite ill physically") and even the common douche bag (not a recommended tool for abortion).

This book could be more accurately titled "Dianetics: one crackpot's collection of abortion fantasies." As I was reading this book, I could not help but also think about such crackpots as Velikovsky, Erich Von Daniken, Flat Earthers, and Young Earth Creationists. This book can sit comfortably along side such intellectual giants as "Chariots of the Gods, "Worlds in Collision," and "Flood Geology."

When the author does not have women aborting their pregnancies by the hundreds every year, he is having women being beat up and tortured by men. It seems unlikely to me that any woman can read this book and not be insulted by the authors seemingly insane hatred of women.

As the author's son, Ron DeWolf said in a magazine interview: "All the examples in the book --- some 200 'real-life experiences' --- were just the result of his obsessions with abortions and unconscious states... In fact, the vast majority of those incidents were invented off the top of his head." And this shows up very well in the book: I found the "examples" are so absurd and inane that one can only wonder at why the publisher was willing to inflict this nonsense on its readership.

The book's poor grasp of reality also shows just how much effort the author put into both "researching" and writing it: roughly one month from concept to finished product.

Though the author claims "12 years of research," his family members reported a different story. "Dianetics" was first thought of by the author in May of 1950: it was a science fiction short story published in the pulp science fiction magazine "Astounding Science Fiction" (now called "Analog"). The editor, John Campbell, Jr., was so impressed by the letters the science fiction story generated, that he asked the author to write more on the subject. The author accepted the task and few weeks later he had expanded the science fiction story into the book "Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health," which was very soon published by Hermitage House.

If Dianetics is "modern science," God help us all!