The Fabulous Fifties

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.

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

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