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| Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health | 
 enlarge | Author: L. Ron Hubbard
Publisher: Bridge Publications, Inc.
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
Buy New: $0.01
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Avg. Customer Rating:  (300 reviews)
Sales Rank: 287099
Languages: English (Unknown), English (Original Language), English (Published)
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 702
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.8
Dimensions (in): 6.9 x 4.2 x 1.5
ISBN: 088404632X
Dewey Decimal Number: 158.9
EAN: 9780884046325
ASIN: 088404632X
Publication Date: September 1, 2002
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Incredibly bad and poorly written March 16, 2008
83 out of 90 found this review helpful
Sorry to people who are believers. I mean no disrespect, it is incredibly hard to read.
My parents have always strived to improve themselves and participated in Scientology in the 70's (they still track my parents down every time they move, and this is a big reason I will have nothing to do with them). They started with Dianetics and also found it hard to read.
My father had a massive stroke and even with the amount of damage still seems to remember everything easily (he is 72) and I started to wonder if it had to do with all of the different techniques he studied over the years. He was always learning and I am convinced it helped.
I bought 3 Dianetics books [...] and they all start the same way (verbatim actually). If anyone knows of a good source of these techniques and others of a similar nature, I would appreciate knowing about them. It would also help if they were better written and actually had applicable techniques and are not just definitions.
Thank you!
Amazing March 16, 2008
82 out of 85 found this review helpful
Quite amazing how this book has received such credit considering it is littered with footnotes, near incomprehensible and verging on the ridiculous.
Have a look right now: use Amazon's Search Inside tool, and turn to page 9 ("Chapter 1: The Scope of Dianetics").
"The shaman of British Guiana makes shift for actual mental laws with his monotonous song and consecrated cigar". Brilliant.
Not worth the time. March 12, 2008
73 out of 76 found this review helpful
If you want the answers to life you would be better served reading a book by Dr. Phil than Hubbard. Hubbard is quoted saying that the only way to truly lead people is to lie to them.
Dianetics is the springboard of the religion Scientology. It's the introduction to a religion that is centered around removing the ghosts of long dead aliens who were brainwashed by an evil warlord named Xenu and flown to Teegeeack (Earth) in space ships that looked just like airplanes and blown apart via H bombs.
If this path sounds like the answers to your questions, dig in.
Otherwise, you may want to use another route.
Dianetics March 10, 2008
66 out of 68 found this review helpful
Let me give Hubbard some credit: if this book was being marketed and sold as a work of fiction, I'd have to give him a constructive 2.5 out of a possible total of 5. His prose is decent -comparable to serial novelists like John Grisham- and reading it as fiction provides the type of humor that's been recently re-popularized in books like Max Brooks' "Zombie Survival Guide". In other words, writing on a completely ridiculous subject in a very serious way.
[...]
So let's do some constructive criticism on this hefty little paper-weight:
made up words, made up aliens, made up problems, made up psychology... I digress. Read the book; learn about "auditors" and "engrams" and "ulcers". If you can hold back the laughter, it's actually a pretty easy read. His structure and style are mildly commendable, and he accomplishes what many great authors could never quite do consistently: Getting the message to the audience.
Of course, the message differs depending upon your mental capacity. For the sake of brevity, I've broken this down into two distinct categories: Nietzsche lets live, and Nietzsche lets die. (Nietzsche was all about survival of the fittest and selective breeding to remove the morons from the human genome. He just didn't put it so eloquently)
Who does Nietzsche let live? Anyone who laughed their way through this ridiculous piece of literature.
Who does Nietzsche let die? Anyone who doesn't fall into the category above.
Granted, that has nothing to do with the underlying message of Hubbard's opus, it just gives a good starting point for some healthy self examination.
[...]
Poorly Researched and Poorly Executed March 7, 2008
86 out of 87 found this review helpful
I did not like this book at all. First, it was poorly written, secondly it had no sources cited regarding any claims that were made, and finally the psychological theories that underpins the author's entire set-up are not only destructive and dangerous, but would seem to border on the mental conditioning related to cult type organizations.
First, his writing. Not only does the author actually make up new meanings for words, but his style of writing can be nicely construed as confused. His explanations for things do not fit with modern understandings of various psychological theories, and when he dismisses modern psychology he gives no definitive reasons why.
This brings me to the second and probably the largest problem with this book, Hubbard's lack of source citation. He is constantly claiming, "In my studies," or, "in my research," and then failing to actually cite what research or studies his is referring to. How can we trust what he has 'discovered' if he offers no evidence to support his claims?. He does this not only in his presentation of new ideas, but also in his refutation of modern psychological principles. Without evidence to support any of his claims his book and his principles falls as flat as such books as, "The Secret," by Rhonda Byrne.
Finally, his usage of 'new' principles and ideas and his re-defining of various other words makes Hubbard's "Modern Science of Mental Health" appear more akin to modern mental condition techniques that are employed by various cult groups. If you would read the book, "Combating Cult Mind Control," by Steven Hassan then you might understand that his techniques are very similar to those described in Hassan's book. I want to make it clear that I am not trying to claim to know what Hubbard's intentions were when he wrote this book. I am just claiming that after a thorough reading and close examination of this book that Hubbard's "New Science" smacks of clumsy mental conditioning techniques.
In conclusion, Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health is far removed from any real Modern Science and any Mental Health that it may attempt to promote is undone by the scientifically unsound principles that could do more harm than good for the serious seeker of psychological understanding.
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