Vi sfido a leggere più di 15 pagine di questa spazzatura senza mettervi a ridere ( )

A pound of of megalomania + a cup of science fiction + 1/2 each of bad history, bad philosophy, and bad psychiatry. Get baked for an hour. Then throw this book away because it's utter garbage that only continues to get sold because of either curious people like me or because members of the cult have to buy it.

Looking at the positive reviews below, one is a total duplicate of the other, apparently by the same person on a different account. ( )

Ugh. I tried to read this book (out of curiosity), but I only got to page 45 before having to stop in utter frustration and disgust. It is all gibberish. All the words are recognizable in themselves, but whatever the author is trying to tell you makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.

One of the things you are supposed to do as you read this book is to stop when you don't understand something and reread that sentence or section, and keep rereading it until you understand. You are not read further until you understand what you have read. Well, when there is no meaning underneath it all, it won't matter how many times you reread it, it just won't make sense. Ah, but that's the beauty of it. You read something over enough times and you either begin to convince yourself that you understand or simply move on and pretend you understand. In any case, nothing becomes clearer in the process. So, is this what it is all about? A kind of self-hypnosis?

Here is a paragraph, chosen at random:
"The engram has the aspect of--and is not--a live entity which protects itself in various ways. Any and all phrases in it can be considered commands. These commands react on the analytical mind in such a way as to cause the analytical mind to behave erratically." Whatever. Or this paragraph: "If you care to make the experiment you can take a man, render him "unconscious," hurt him and give him information. By Dianetic technique, no matter what the information you gave him, it can be recovered. This experiment should not be carelessly conducted because you might also render him insane." Wow. Does anyone ever get through this book? Back in the free pile it goes -- or maybe the trashcan. ( )

A Bit of Background:

The year 2010 marks the Sixtieth year of publication of Dianetics. Clearly, you want the new edition. This entry is Amazon.com's older paperback. Get this one instead: Dianetics: The Modern Science Of Mental Health (English); Or better yet, get the book & audio kit: Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health [With Booklet]; Or get the video presentation of how it works: Dianetics Self-Improvement Package; Dianetics: A Visual Guidebook to the Mind - L. Ron Hubbard.

OK, here's my review. I've actually read the book and used it. It is a manual that is meant to be used. Use it to help your friends and family. Joining organizations and such is not necessary. Just read the book, and use it to help your friends.

First Impressions:

What's new in the new edition? Well, nothing! The publisher didn't change anything in the book itself other than typos and punctuation errors that were introduced by Hermitage House Publishers back in 1950. In comparing the original manuscript and putting those footnotes in the back of the book, enlarging and darkening the font size, it makes for a more comfortable read.

Dianetics is an alternative to psychology and outlines several basic things that can help a person help themselves (thus the phrase "self-help") as well as help others.

Table of Contents:

Among the chapters in this book we find the following: The Goal of Man; The Dynamic Principle of Existence; The Four Dynamics (a dynamic is a drive upon which life is compartmented); a descriptive graph of survival (which was interesting - I never knew survival was more than "just barely making it" until I read Hubbard's definition); and the discovery and complete anatomy of what Hubbard calls the "Reactive Mind", which commands one to act irrationally against their own wishes and goals. Since I have been known to act irrationally, it's good to see what's causing it and what to do about it.

It's a thick book, 491 pages of actual text, divided into Theory and Practical applications; a 5 page glossary of important terms; a chapter called Dianetics in the 21st Century that brings us up to date from those long-gone days of 1950 (the year Dianetics was published) which has reprints from the LA Star and The Daily News, which did news articles on Hubbard and Dianetics at that time. Lots of photos in this section, too.

It's interesting to see what their view was. And finally, an appendix that briefly lists other self-help books by Hubbard, which are all new 2008 editions!

Oh, and finally, finally, The Editor's Glossary, that gives dictionary definitions to English words as they were used in 1950 as well as specialized Dianetics terms, as they were used at that time of writing. This is real handy and makes reading the book that much more easily read.

Summarizing a Long Book!

It's tough for me not to write a long review on a book that is over 600 pages thick. It has every imaginable area of human relationships clearly delineated and how Dianetics can help problems associated with these: alcoholism, post partum depression, divorces, domestic violence and drug abuse amongst them.

Bottom Line:

So get this book but use Amazon's latest and greatest 2008 edition of the book, as I've described above. Remember, Dianetics is not Scientology and Dianetics is not a religion. It does not obligate anyone to just pick up a copy and read it. It is also in Tagalog, Spanish, French, German and a few other languages.

Read this book. ( )

Wow this book goes where no man has gone before! It really does have information not known before which is of very great value to understanding life, the mind and oneself. ( )