A Doctor's Report on Dianetics
A Doctor's Report on Dianetics: Theory and Therapy is a non-fiction book analyzing Dianetics. The book was authored by physician Joseph Augustus Winter, with an introduction by German gestalt therapy research psychiatrist Frederick Perls. The book was first published in hardcover by the Julian Press Julian Messner, in 1951, and published again in 1987, by Crown Publishing Group. The work was the first book published that was professionally critical of L. Ron Hubbard. About the author Joseph Augustus Winter, an American medical doctor and "psychosomatacist", had previously served on the board of directors and as the medical director of L. Ron Hubbard's Hubbard Dianetic Research Foundation (HDRF). He also wrote the 1950 original introduction to Hubbard's Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. Winter resigned from the HDRF in October 1950, stating "there was a difference between the ideals inherent within the dianetics hypothesis and the actions of the Foundation". He also felt that Dianetic techniques were potentially dangerous if performed without medical training and disapproved of the lack of scientific evidence supporting Hubbard's claims. Prior to their falling out, Winter had stated that the Dianetic technique of auditing had cured his six-year-old son of fears of ghosts and the