Background
Before the publication of Dianetics, L. Ron Hubbard was a prolific writer for pulp magazines. He attended George Washington University Engineering School, but did not graduate.
According to Hubbard, the ideas in Dianetics were developed over twelve years of research, although many of his friends at the time said this was entirely mythical. The first public outline of those ideas was an article in the pulp magazine Astounding Science Fiction, titled "Dianetics: A new science of the mind" appearing a few weeks before the publication of the book but published in the May 1950 issue of the magazine, the same month the book was published; the book-length article was later published as the book Dianetics: the evolution of a science. This advance publicity generated so much interest that in April 1950, Hubbard and Astounding editor Joseph Campbell {with other interested parties established the Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation. Hubbard claimed to have written Dianetics in three weeks. His writing speed was assisted by a special typewriter which accepted paper on a continuous roll and which had dedicated keys for common words like the or but. An early version of the book Abnormal Dianetics, intended for the medical profession, was rejected by numerous publishers as well as the medical profession but was passed in mimeograph form from hand to hand and was later sold under the name Dianetics: The Original Thesis; the same book is published at present as The Dynamics of Life. Like other works by L. Ron Hubbard, Dianetics: the modern science of mental health has been subject to continuous editing since its inception so that at present it hardly resembles the original 1950 edition.
Read more about this topic: Dianetics: The Modern Science Of Mental Health
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