Reference: A History of Man
This paper presents CHAPTER NINE from the book SCIENTOLOGY: A HISTORY OF MAN by L. RON HUBBARD. The contents are from the original publication of this book in 1952.
The paragraphs of the original material (in black) are accompanied by brief comments (in color) based on the present understanding. Feedback on these comments is appreciated.
The heading below is linked to the original materials.
.
CHAPTER NINE
GENERALIZED INCIDENTS would include anything the preclear has done which is an opposite motion to the incident in which he is “hung-up”. The opposite motion is what hangs the incident up.
A MOTIVATOR is an incident which happens to the preclear and which he dramatizes.
AN OVERT ACT (which may also be covert or accidental) is an incident which the preclear does to another dynamic.
An overt act is a dramatization of the motivator.
A DED is an incident the preclear does to another dynamic and for which he has no motivator—i.e., he punishes or hurts or wrecks something the like of which has never hurt him. Now he must justify the incident. He will use things which didn’t happen to him. He claims that the object of his injury really deserved it, hence the word, which is a sarcasm.
A DED is an overt act done out of ignorance. It is not a dramatization.
A DEDEX is an incident which happens to a preclear AFTER he has a DED. It is always on the same chain or subject, is always after the DED. It means THE DED EXPOSED. It is covered guilt. Its effect on the preclear is all out of proportion to the actual injury to him. One would think he was murdered by the harsh word or the scratch. He will explain violently how terribly he has been used. Whenever you have a preclear who has been too abused for words and keeps on giving you incidents which tend to fix their guilt on the family or women or some such thing, the auditor can recognize these as DEDEXs and know that he must look for the DED. The preclear is usually quite unwilling to give up the DED but the E-meter will find it. It is on the same subject as the DEDEXs—if he has many incidents about things his mother did to him and these seem fairly routine, there is a previous incident about his mother or some earlier life mother where with an unmotivated cruelty he executed a DED.
A DEDEX is a justification given to hide or minimize DED.
A MISASSIST is an incident wherein the preclear has tried to help on some dynamic and failed. These are very aberrative. The incident may be short and harsh, or it may be a large number of small incidents. The MISASSIST is a failure to assist either by omission or commission. It is always preceded by a MOTIVATOR-OVERT situation lock-up or a DED-DEDEX situation. The preclear. having injured some dynamic has come into the state of protecting that dynamic out of all proportion to the other dynamics. Perhaps he has many times succeeded in his protection and such incidents are not aberrative. But one day he tries to assist and fails, or he should have assisted and didn’t and the result is the straw added to the weight of an earlier facsimile hang-up.
The MISASSIST is a failure to assist. It is preceded by a MOTIVATOR-OVERT or a DED-DEDEX situation.
A DEGRADER is an incident or chain of incidents whereby a low-toned person seeks to bring down the tone of a higher-toned person. The actual intent of the low-toned person is to get another low enough so that the latter can be helped. The low-toned person believes he cannot be of assistance to anything higher on the scale than himself. Therefore, he will attempt to reduce the tone of another and then, when he has him well down by degrading him, he will be unable to assist, becomes sympathetic and conducts himself properly until, of course the person is up again. The preclear will, if very low-toned, try this on the auditor. Any low-toned person will do it. The preclear may have many DEGRADERS he has done. Or he may have had many DEGRADERS happen to him. IF THE PRECLEAR IS PRONE TO DEGRADERS HE HAS A DED-DEDEX SITUATION on the same dynamic he permits to DEGRADE him. If he accepts criticism from women, he has a DED-DEDEX on women. If he claims it was father who got him down, who invalidated him, he has a DED DEDEX on his own father or some past father or man who looks like his father. If you find a DEGRADER situation, look for the DED-DEDEX on the same subject. If the preclear is given to invalidating he has a DEGRADER chain, he has done. The dynamic he DEGRADES has a prior DED-DEDEX.
A Degrader is an attempt to reduce the tone of another. It is preceded by a DED-DEDEX.
.
