While this book
So long as study is given to the text and the question pages are used without departure, only benefit may accrue.
Symbols have often been used hopefully in an effort to unlock the unconscious mind and derive some answer to its terrible power over Man. The use of symbols is not new. Their employment with these evaluation techniques is new for here they are solidly backed by an understanding of what the unconscious may be expected to contain.
The symbol is not the thing. The symbol is a code form of the thing. Here we use symbols to discover reality, here there is no effort to codify symbols for the sake of codifying symbols. Attempts to standardize symbols have often been made. It had not occurred to past workers that symbols were not standard, but varied wildly from individual to individual.
Here the individual is permitted to evaluate for himself what certain symbols may mean to him and he is further pressed into seeking the reality of these symbols he has himself envisioned with these aids.
It is hoped that this volume will answer the many requests to produce a simple, workable method of counseling which would yet not interrupt the self-determinism of the individual or increase his dependence upon the counselor.
The goal in using this volume is the rehabilitation of the individual ability to differentiate in general.
The process is based upon the axiom that identification is irrational and differentiation is rational.
It is further based upon the axiom that the psychotic is wholly concerned with the past and the problems of the past, the neurotic is concerned somewhat with the past and then only with the present, and the very sane is concerned only slightly with the past, somewhat with the present and energetically with the future.
The volume is used three ways by the same person:
The person being processed goes through the book first without making any marks in it. Page by page he views the unfinished symbols and decides what to make of them. The counselor then requires him, each time he has decided on a symbol, to tell what person or object or thing in the real universe, or what circumstance or state of being, the symbol represents. The person being processed then is required to recall an incident involving this person or object or state of being.
The volume is then turned upside down and the processee goes through it again, first completing the symbol, then finding a real person or object it represents, then discovering an incident involving the person or object. This incident is then identified with every precision so that the exact moment and circumstances are in view. And for each, the counselor demands another involving something this object or person, or similar object or person, did TO the processee. And each time the incident, or incidents similar to it or containing some of the elements of it, is recalled the processee is required to describe it and its elements until it is completely real to him. And if the incident seems of great seriousness to the processee, all similar incidents are recalled until the matter seems no longer important.
Now, working a section or five pages at a sitting, the processee finishes the symbols with colored crayons. And the symbols are then reduced to real incidents. And the color is identified for what it is to the processee, for it may mean much to him. But now the counselor wants to know what the processee did to the person or object and wants to know the action or emotion or thought which was overt or covert toward this object or person.
In other words, when the processee has completed a section, the counselor goes over it with him thoroughly, reducing each symbol into an actuality and then requiring the processee to discover what he did that was vicious and destructive to this actuality.
The questioning of the counselor is as follows:
If there were several times, "Recall the time most real to you." "What is the earliest incident of this kind you can remember?"
Orient the processee in the incident. Have him glance through all such incidents until he is again in present time. (The less talking he does about what he THINKS about it, the better.)
Glance over this entire chain of incidents time after time until they no longer interest the processee.
WHEN THE SYMBOLS HAVE BEEN DRAWN follow the same process but this time alter it so that the processee addresses only incidents which the PROCESSEE has done to the object or person the symbol represents.
IN SCANNING THROUGH CHAINS AVOID ACTUAL PHYSICAL PAIN. IF IT IS HIT ANYWAY, RUN IT UNTIL IT IS DESENSITIZED. Get in particular
when the processee administered this pain to another.
NEVER FORCE A PROCESSEE BACK INTO AN INCIDENT.
ALWAYS SCAN A CHAIN UNTIL IT HAS A HIGH SENSE OF REALITY TO HIM.
The general purpose of this volume is to increase the ability of an individual to differentiate amongst persons and objects and times to the end that his orientation in the environment is enhanced.
The process which is here set forth permits a wide range of self-evaluation and brings about a condition of increased self-confidence.
The counselor’s skill is here expressed in his ability to widen the usages of the actual incidents which are recovered to view by the processee, as well as the skill he may employ in coaxing the processee to find actuality in the symbols he creates or finds.
The process has a very wide latitude, depending mainly upon how much the counselor may understand of the background technology of these processes, for the volume may be used merely as outlined on the earlier pages, or it may be used with an understanding of its texts, or it may be employed by a wide comprehension of the subject of Dianetics, in which many techniques exist which, by this method of discovering incidents by symbols, can alleviate the type of incident discovered.
The goal of the book is to bring into full view the latent and sometimes violent conflicts and turmoils which lie out of sight in what was once referred to as the "unconscious" mind. More bluntly, the use of this book brings to light those things for which the processee will not take the responsibility and for which he was unwilling to have been CAUSE.
In many individuals the symbol alone can be faced, but once that is faced, the person or object of the incident can be faced, and then, at last, the incident itself may be confronted and, by Lock Scanning or Repetitive Straight Wire, may be deintensified.
Skill in the use of Lock Scanning and Repetitive Straight Wire is very desirable. More deeply, skill in deintensifying heavily charged incidents is desirable. More deeply yet, the counselor may acquaint himself with the techniques of eradicating facsimiles entirely. For this volume’s use may bring to view — and with forethought will always bring to view — basic reasons why light and conscious level incidents have been aberrative.
We examine in symbols, not the source of difficulty, but the key to a source of difficulty.
And we carefully permit the processee the fullest possible freedom of evaluation and self-determinism as this volume is worked, a thing many counselors, eager to help, sharply ready with advice and evaluation, may discover difficult, much to the detriment of the processee.
This volume permits the individual to find that he can help himself, easily the most valuable step which can be taken toward a high level of sanity.
The employment of this volume by the counselor should follow a set procedure, for if he is processing several individuals he may thereby keep an accurate accounting of the progress of each.
Each book is made up in such a way as to permit the instruction pages to be torn out. As a general rule, the processee should not be given the instruction pages, and it is not necessary to explain to him what is required save as he approaches each separate phase of the processing.
The volume, then, should have its instruction pages removed. Then it should be labeled with the name of the processee. A data page for this purpose is provided in the back of the instruction section and this, remaining in the book, keeps check on the progress of the processee.
These two things done, the counselor then gives the processee the remainder of the volume and lets him handle it and glance through it. The counselor does not need to indoctrinate the individual in any way and does not need to explain any of the processes to him. He will find that processees, even children, even psychotics, fall readily into the game of WHAT DO YOU SEE IN THIS?
The general steps covered in the earlier section and more expansively in this section are then entered upon successively.
An important part of application is the attitude of the processing counselor. The entire effect of the book can be destroyed if the counselor is challenging, sarcastic or if he seems to want to "get something on" the processee. Additionally, an attitude of constant evaluation, such as "The reason you saw this was ...," will enervate the processee and bring him into apathy, for here the counselor is usurping the processee’s right to evaluate. Further, the counselor should not become involved in arguments with the processee. If the processee says that this is a fire engine in a beauty shop, it is a fire engine in a beauty shop. The counselor should beware evaluating for the processee for an excellent reason: This process is aimed toward restoring the ability of the processee to evaluate. And there is yet another reason: The counselor unwittingly may begin to force his own aberrations at the processee in an effort to process out of him what should be processed out of the counselor.
Quiet, interested insistence that the processee see something and that he must then recall a real incident and must then process that incident will produce results which, while seldom dramatically painful to the processee, will be found to be very beneficial to him.
In general this is a slow process, which is to say that no sudden results are obtained, but in a certain percentage of cases results so sudden and startling as to reverse an entire personality will occur. The counselor should be expecting the former and only gratified at the latter.
THE GENERAL CAUSES OF MENTAL ABERRATION are simple in fundamental and complex only in development.
There are very few factors which mechanically underlie sanity, neurosis and psychosis alike. These are contained in the two hundred and nine axioms and logics of Dianetics.
From these axioms numerous therapeutic processes can be derived easily. A study and understanding of these principles permits the counselor to foresee the effects of various incidents on the mental state of the processee and so to be able to stress what should be processed in the case.
One uses one’s computational powers, memory and past calculations and decisions to estimate past, present and future efforts. As an example of this, consider the simple act of opening a door and you will discover that it is necessary in the present to estimate the future action of putting your hand upon the knob of the door and exerting force. Now, if one in the past has been consistently unable to open doors, he will take great care and possibly some time in estimating this effort and perhaps even approach the simple problem with some anxiety. If one has often opened doors and has consistently experienced something anti-survival when he did so, he will again be involved in the estimation of effort and he will take the data of the past, calculate in the present to know what to do with the future. He will calculate the effort of other things or persons in order to overcome them, resist them or give way to them.
Even imagination is involved in the estimation of effort, and one who imagines or daydreams consistently about being lazy is estimating how nice it would be not to have to experience or deliver effort.
When one has been balked and rendered indecisive about efforts — particularly that (indecisive) over a long period of time — he becomes at first wild in his estimations, then resentful, then afraid, and finally apathetic. His thinking is of the same quality as his success or lack of success in the estimation of past efforts.
Let us view the effort of a child to obtain a nickel. At first he merely asks for it. Not getting it, he begins to think up reasons why he should have it. Not getting it, he may become angry. And when each estimation, when put into action, fails, he at length says he does not want the nickel; he sinks into apathy about nickels eventually.
Now let us examine the reverse situation where the child does NOT want something. He is being made to take a nap. At first he playfully resists, then he resists in earnest. Then he becomes angry. And, as persistence in making him take a nap (counter-effort to him) continues, he finally cries. This unavailing, he sinks into apathy and takes his nap.
There is a scale of emotional tones which the counselor should know, for he can find anyone he processes fixed rather solidly somewhere up or down this scale. The tone scale could be called a scale of "Relative Success in Estimating Efforts." And it could be called the "Scale of Potential Survival."
This scale has an actual series of precisely measured wavelengths, but an arbitrary numerical value is given to each level.
| 4.0 | HAPPINESS | FEW COMPUTATIONS CONFLICTING | USES EFFORT WELL |
| 3.0 | CONSERVATISM | MANY KNOWN CONFLICTS | USES EFFORT CAUTIOUSLY |
| 2.5 | BOREDOM | CONFLICTS KNOWN BUT OPPOSED | USES EFFORT POORLY |
| 2.0 | ANTAGONISM | CONFLICTS CONSIDERED DANGEROUS | STRIKES BACK |
| 1.5 | ANGER | UNKNOWN CONFLICTS BALANCED | HOLDS AND DESTROYS |
| 1.1 | COVERT HOSTILITY | MANY UNKNOWNS | USES EFFORT COVERTLY |
| 1.0 | FEAR | SHARPLY FIXED ON UNKNOWN ATTENTION UNFIXED | USES EFFORT TO WITHDRAW |
| .75 | GRIEF | HOLDS UNKNOWN PAINS | HAS GIVEN UP |
| .5 | APATHY | DOESN’T KNOW OR CARE | EFFORT USES HIM |
There are many aspects in this tone scale and many predictions of behavior are possible from it. The counselor would do well to become thoroughly acquainted with it in order to achieve superior results.
The processee will usually be found in one of the above classifications. From
2.0 up, to generalize, he can be considered relatively sane. From 2.0 down he can be found to be relatively insane.
Just as this is a scale of emotion, so it is a scale of computational confusion. At 2.0, the processee is in an antagonistic mood toward everything. And from there down his mood varies only to the degree that he has been unable to make his environment behave. From 2.0 down there is almost no real control of the environment and stimulus-response and close association the only method of "thinking." At 2.0 there are many "maybes" in the processee’s life, most of which do not exist on a conscious level but have been submerged or denied to conscious thought. From there down the number of maybes and the depth they are buried increase markedly, until at apathy all is confusion and nothing is conscious.
The counselor is chiefly concerned with MAYBE.
A maybe comes about in a very simple fashion. A person receives motion which is antipathetic to his survival. Then, at some future date, he uses this motion and offends against another sphere of existence. As soon as he does this he is regretful and takes decision not to use this motion again. But this is unfortunate because he DID have the motion and he SHOULD have been free to use it, but he COULDN’T use it and still protect his survival along his various interest lines in life. Whether he merely started to use it and stopped (an overt thought) or simply expressed it emotionally (an overt emotion) or struck out with effort in trying to use it and then regretted it, the result was much the same. He has "decided" not to use this motion. But he has it and this seems to indicate that he can use it. But he can’t use it and still remain social. This is a MAYBE.
When we find that a symbol leads to somebody who has done something to the processee, then, we find the processee holding on to a motion received from that person or a person like that person. And we can assume immediately that this motion is such that it cannot be used by the processee.
From 2.0 down we find the processee increasingly protective of the "horrible things which have been done to him" and increasingly unwilling, actually, to give up the hold such incidents have on him. FOR THESE INCIDENTS, THESE MOTIONS TO WHICH HE IS HOLDING SO TENACIOUSLY, ARE HIS JUSTIFICATION FOR HAVING USED THEM OR TRIED TO USE THEM LATER.
If a processee continually complains that he has been abused by some person, BE SURE THAT THAT PERSON HAS BEEN ATTACKED OR ABUSED BY THE PROCESSEE AND THAT THIS LATER OVERT SITUATION IS THE IMPORTANT CLUE TO THE CASE.
Aberration, then, stems from receiving actions or abuses from life which one cannot then use back against life and still remain social.
Aberration, then, is resolved by discovering first what the processee states has been done TO him and then, later, relentlessly tracking down the overt thoughts and emotions and efforts which the processee has done to those of whose actions he complains.
By making the processee go over and over first the act that happened to him and then the act that he did of a similar kind later, one after the other, the incidents become resolved, for they are taken out of the MAYBE classification. Processing, then, is a simple problem of resolving motions. And processing by symbols makes it possible to discover the real motions in the case.
DIFFERENTIATION and IDENTIFICATION are two ends of a scale which could be called from Sanity to Insanity.
So long as an individual can "tell the difference" between one person and another, one object and another, he is sane. As soon as he begins to confuse his wife with his mother, or his coat with his father’s coat, he is on the road toward insanity.
The identification of one person for another is very common. That does not mean that the fact should be accepted as a desirable one or that the average is necessarily sane. Any processee has many confusions and it is the task of the counselor to resolve these confusions.
Because all motion contains time, time could be said to be the one arbitrary. This would include space as an arbitrary since time cannot exist independent of space.
The processee will be found to be confused mainly about time. It is therefore very necessary to cause him to recognize with accuracy and clarity the TIME AN INCIDENT TOOK PLACE. And because space is interdependent with time, the location of the incident should be brought to view.
Location in time and space promotes a feeling of reality. Reality is thus enhanced by precisely locating incidents in time and space.
It may happen that the processee cannot recall anything that seems real to him. This is a dangerous condition. The break between neurosis and psychosis is easily established by the ability of the individual to recall things which are real to him. Therefore it is vital that the counselor establish for his own satisfaction, on each and every incident, whether or not it is real and accepted by the processee.
The consigning of an incident to time and space greatly promotes the ability to differentiate.
When a processee "identifies" badly, it might be said that all his memories were so highly charged that they drew magnetically together and formed a short circuit so that everything seems to be everything else. This state is best processed by orientations, getting anything at all into a proper time and space. Symbols markedly assist in bringing forth those things which must be made to be real for the processee, for he will only envision symbols when he is withdrawn from the actuality and he will only give those symbols which lead to an actuality.
The counselor must work continuously to separate in the mind of the processee those things which, one for another, he has identified.
[When the original booklet was used with a preclear, the above text pages were removed and only the following pages were given to him.]
PROCESSEE _______________________________
Plate No. ________ Date ___________ Results __________
[Each of these symbols was originally on a page (8l/2’’ x 11") by itself. The preclear only used one at a time. As the original booklet is generally unavailable, they have been photographically reduced from the original so that the student studying the related text can see what the symbols were. They are not intended for use in this reduced size.]