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Holy Cows Ser. 8

Suppressive Means BAD!
 
The use of 'Suppressive Person' in Scientology™ is not very well defined - but one thing is for sure: It's bad! 
It's used to describe a case condition; It's used as a Justice Label and it's used as a Boogie Man to keep you on the narrow path and Bridge to "Total Freedom".

 

 

  • "Suppressive Person" is partly used as a technical term which is defined in HCO Bulletin of 27 Sept. 1966,
    "The Anti-social Personality, The Anti-Scientologist"    . 
    The technical data describes the SP Case.

  • It's also used as a legal term in Scientology™ Justice to describe declared enemies of the group. As a legal term a person or group labeled "SP" is a known and publicized enemy to the group. It's used much like we use 'convicted criminal' in daily life. 
    To CoS members being labeled 'SP' this justice use has a very sinister ring to it. Members, which get ex-communicated can experience being 'banished by the Church' and feel sentenced to 'Eternal Condemnation'.

  • In Scientologese (Scn slag or popular use) it's used as a 'Boogie Man' and a swear word, much like you call somebody 'insane', 'psychopath' or 'criminal' etc. in daily life. In this looser sense, which derives its meaning from the two points above, it's used as a battle cry of 'Let's get the SP's' etc. It's helpful when you rally the troops and to keep the members on their toes and on the straight and narrow path. It's used to paint opponent groups and individuals black and dangerous with - It's like a big sign: do not enter, do not contact - do not even look! 

The loose and multiple use of the term has unfortunately led to considerable confusion. The SP is a much looked for character in CoS. He is seen as a major factor in any bad situation. If a project fails you look for "the Who" - the SP: The bad guy that covertly worked against it. If a preclear isn't getting stable gains, you again look for the villain that invalidates the pc between sessions. If you experience opposition from the press or the environment - again - who is the hidden SP behind the attacks? There is usually a wild goose chase going on to label and deal with these characters. This easily develops into a witch hunt. This very concern is mentioned in "The Anti Social Personality": 

"Man in his anxieties is prone to witch hunts.
All one has to do is designate "people wearing black caps" as the villains and one can start a slaughter of people in black caps."

But let's look at each of these areas - one at a time and see what we can learn.

 

 

"The Anti Social Personality"

There are given 12 characteristics in the LRH bulletin mentioned, which are listed in the table below. It describes a character, which is known to cause a lot of trouble, usually through covert means. The SP can be hard to detect and this is probably the reason for, that the term has become so loaded. 

That such a personality type do exist is nothing new. It's a type of  villain, well known from literature. It's "who has done it" in crime stories. It's Blofeld in the James Bond movies. It's maybe the Boogie man from your childhoods fairy tales. You see him in the news and in entertainment every day. As far as pathological description goes, 'anti-socials'  have been well known to criminologists and psychiatrists for over 50 years. 

In 1941 the American psychiatrist Henley Cleckley published a book called: "The Mask of Sanity". This quote from the book seems to correspond very well with Hubbard's descriptions of 'SP'. (Cleckley uses the word 'psychopath'):

"It must be remembered that even the most severely and obviously disabled psychopath presents a technical appearance of sanity, often with high intellectual capacities and not infrequently succeeds in business or professional activities for short periods, some for considerable periods. Although they occasionally appear on casual inspection as successful members of the community, as able lawyers, executives or physicians, they do not, it seems, succeed in the sense of finding satisfaction of fulfillment in their own accomplishments. Nor do they, when the full story is known, appear to find this in an ordinary activity."

Here are some other quotes:

"Psychiatrists are often helplessly manipulated by the psychopath; just as are the psychopaths other victims."

From Dr. Ken Magid's "High Risk, Children Without a Conscience."

"There are psychopathic personalities in the highest echelons of government, and even within religious hierarchies in America. You can't just assume that a person with the title of judge or hospital orderly got there honestly and won't manipulate the hell out of you."

Letter from Psychologist Schreibman to H. Cleckley, 2/10/86

 
Cleckly and others mainly studied the prison population, which not surprisingly has the highest concentration of anti-socials.

Cleckley and later authors have settled on 20 characteristics, that describes the same vile, anti-social character. Take a look at the table and you will see how criminology and Hubbard match up pretty well:

 

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Adolph Hitler, SP in history

 

SP - A Case Condition

 

 

 

SP - A Justice Label

 

 

 

SP - The Boogie Man



Heinrich Himmler, another SP

If a project fails you look for "the Who" - the SP

 There is usually a wild goose chase going on to label and deal with these characters. This easily develops into a witch hunt.

 

 

 

 

 

The SP can be hard to detect and this is probably the reason for, that the term has become so loaded. 

 

That such personality type do exist is nothing new

 

In 1941 American psychiatrist Henley Cleckley published a book called: "The Mask of Sanity". It seems to correspond very well with Hubbard's descriptions of 'SP'

"psychopaths presents a technical appearance of sanity"

 

 

 

 

 

 

"There are psychopathic personalities in the highest echelons of government, and even within religious hierarchies in America."

 

Cleckly and others mainly studied the prison population, which not surprisingly has the highest concentration of anti-socials.

He settled on 20 characteristics

Criminology/psychiatry

Scientology™

Anti-social Personality, Sociopath, psychopath
Characteristics:

The anti-social personality (Suppressive Person)
Characteristics:
  1. Glibness/superficial charm.
    They have freed themselves from the social conventions about taking
  2. Grandiose sense of self-worth.
     Sociopaths are arrogant people who believe they are superior human beings.
  3. Need for stimulation/proneness to boredom
     Sociopaths often have a low self-discipline in carrying tasks through to completion because they get bored easily. They fail to work at the same job for any length of time, for example, or to finish tasks that they consider dull or routine. 
  4. Pathological lying
     they can be shrewd, crafty, cunning, sly, and clever; in extreme form, they will be deceptive, deceitful, manipulative, and dishonest.
  5. Conning/manipulative
     a lack of concern for the feelings and suffering of one's victims.
  6. Lack of remorse or guilt
     tendency to be unconcerned, dispassionate, coldhearted, and unempathic. 
  7. Shallow affect
     emotional poverty or a limited range or depth
  8. Callous/lack of empathy
    inconsiderate and tactless.
  9. Parasitic lifestyle
     an intentional, manipulative, selfish, and exploitative financial dependence on others as reflected in a lack of motivation, low self-discipline, and inability to begin or complete responsibilities.
  10. Poor behavioral controls
     inadequate control of anger and temper; acting hastily.
  11. Promiscuous sexual behavior
    superficial relations, indiscriminate selection of partners; attempts to coerce others into sexual activity.
  12. Early behavior problems
     prior to age 13: lying, theft, cheating, vandalism, bullying, running away from home.
  13. Lack of realistic, long-term plans
     nomadic existence, lacking direction in life.
  14. Impulsivity
     inability to resist temptation, unpredictable, erratic, and reckless.
  15. Irresponsibility
     not paying bills, being absent or late to work, failing to honor agreements.
  16. Failure to accept responsibility for own actions
     low conscientiousness, an absence of dutifulness, antagonistic manipulation, effort to manipulate others through denials.
  17. Many short-term marital relationships
     lack of commitment to a long-term relationship
  18. Juvenile delinquency
    Behavior problems between age 13-18
  19. Revocation of conditional release
  20. Criminal versatility 
     taking great pride at getting away with crimes.

(More extensive description in Appendix)

 1. Speaks in generalities
"They say", "Everybody thinks" "Everyone knows" etc., particularly when imparting rumors. 

2. Deals in bad news
"Gossip" or "harbinger of evil tidings" or "rumor monger" 

3. Stops or worsens good news
Good news is stopped and only bad news, often
embellished, is passed along.

4. Does not respond to treatment
 Does not respond to treatment or reform or psycho-therapy.

5. Is surrounded by sick and failing associates
 The near associate of the anti-social
personality has no stability of gain but promptly relapses or loses his advantages of knowledge
Such people make trouble for others.

6. Habitually selects the wrong target.
 If A is the obvious cause, the anti-social personality inevitably blames B, or C or D.

7. Cannot finish a cycle of action.
They become surrounded with incomplete projects.

8.  No sense of responsibility
Will freely confess to the most alarming crimes when forced to do so, but will have no faintest sense of responsibility for them.

9. Supports only destructive groups and rages against and attacks any constructive or betterment group.

10. Approves only of destructive actions and fights against constructive or helpful actions or activities.

11. Destroys  in the name of help
Helping others is an activity which drives the anti-social personality nearly berserk. Destrution in the name of help is closely supported.

12. Bad sense of property
The idea that anyone owns anything is a pretense made up to fool people.
(A list also exists for the social personality, who has the opposite characteristics. It's used to balance the evaluation with).

(More extensive description in Appendix)
Percentages: Some say 4%, others (APA) says: 3% of male population and 1% of females. Some estimates will have the prison population around 65-75% (APA) Others say around 20%.
(APA: American Psychiatric Association)		 Percentages: Original HCOB states 2 1/2% of population. In CS Ser 22 (1971) the percentage is suddenly raised to 20%! (But it is not repeated later).
There are a number of terms in use: Psychopath, Sociopath and Anti-social Personality Disorder. True to psychiatry they have countless "diagnoses", but it's hard to see more than one group of cases. Although the description and emphasis vary somewhat in criminology/psychiatry and in Scientology™, there is no doubt (based on the percentages and main characteristics) that it's the same group of anti-socials they both are talking about.
Basic Research:  

Hervey Cleckley (1941): " The Mask of Sanity", is the classic work on the subject - still used.
R.D. Hare. (1980). " A research scale for the assessment of psychopathy in criminal populations", and a number of other books.
Prison populations are the primary group being studied. I have seen studies of military groups as well. Saw a British study of 'bullies in the work place' which refers to the same phenomenon.

A  Canadian Correction Agency's  Comments on the Problem		 Basic Research: We have no records of research, but assume it's based on psychiatry's (Cleckley's) data with a restatement of characteristics. The dramatic increase of the estimated % of SP's in the population, (in 1971 to 20% - CS ser. 22, Psychosis), was based on tech research that led to 'False Purpose RD'. This figure wasn't repeated in later writings. Hubbard operated with a total 20% of the population were PTS or SP.  PTS are under heavy influence from SP's. We take the figures 2.5% SP's and 17.5% PTS as the figures that stand.
 Hubbard did supervise auditing but pc's are not a good representation of the population in general, so we believe he only wild guessed the %.
Method of detection:

The Psychopathy Checklist consists of 22 items (e.g. callousness, impulsivity) which were modeled after the psychopathy criteria originally proposed by Cleckley. In order to complete the checklist, the tester, usually a psychologist, must conduct a detailed interview and a comprehensive review of the offender's file. Recent analyses of the checklist items have demonstrated that the Psychopathy Checklist measures not only the lack of empathy described by Cleckley, but also factors related to their chronic, unstable lifestyle and social deviance.

 Method of detection:

The basic "Checklist" are the 12 characteristics quoted above and the list for "social personality" for elimination.
The OCA personality test can give some hints, but is not geared for this and can thus be misleading to use.

Determination is riddled with errors and often a very subjective 'crying wolf'. In the PTS RD you have pcs name people suppressive to them and they often come up with "parent(s)" due to problems with them.
The PTS RD works, but the labeling can be unfair. This can lead to new, serious problems in life.
Easy to recognize? No. The whole point of Cleckley's "The Mask of Sanity", was that they can appear completely 'normal'. They can be career criminals (detected or undetected), but can also rise to responsible positions in society, if they are well educated and intelligent. Easy to recognize? As pc's or staff members they will gradually reveal a pattern. The correct labeling is however made troublesome as Scn Justice codes redefines 'Suppressive Person' "as those which seek to destroy Scn" - here meaning people you want to separate yourself from or kick out of the group for a variety of reasons.
Reason given for condition
Bad childhood; broken homes. No father figure at home. A high percentage of sociopaths has this background (up to 70%). Condition is manifest from around age 13 (juvenile delinquents) and carries on into adulthood. Also speculations on genetic reasons and due to brain chemistry. Typical juvenile delinquent behavior is the most obvious dramatization of the characteristics of  anti-social behavior.  		 Reason given for condition
The basic reason is the person being completely stuck in a past, life-threatening incident, and he replays all his trickery to survive. An SP is considered 'out of valence' and stuck in the incident and dramatizing evil intent.
"The SP is sure everyone is against him personally and if others became more powerful they would dispose of him." Thus he fights back against imaginary enemies.
 

As you can see:  it's not a 100% match - but then again literature describes them in hundreds of different ways. When you look at the percentages, it is clear, that they are talking about the same group of anti-social people. 

The difference in the details can most likely be assigned to the different purposes or viewpoints behind the two columns. Cleckley's work mainly has interest to law enforcement, to the courts and prison systems. Hubbard's work is used in Scientology™ organizations to spot ill intended trouble makers (internally and externally) and to isolate the organization from them. 

It's also used with preclears, connected to such persons (SP's), to identify them and handle or disconnect from them (handling of PTS phenomena). The case condition known as  PTS (potential trouble source) is an important discovery in Scientology™. It is estimated to affect 17.5% of the population and can be tackled by educating and coaching the pc as an important first step.

 

 

How Many and Where?

The real discrepancy is the estimation of how likely you are to run into these anti-socials and where. Since the prison population is estimated to consist of as many of 75% (the estimates I have seen swing from 20% - 75%), you for sure are dealing with them a lot in law enforcement, in the courts and in the jails.

If you are looking at a self improvement activity as Scientology™, the probability - I would estimate - is well below the average population percentage of about 2.5 %. According to theory, SP's in the Orgs are there to purposely sabotage the system - something they will have to do either at extreme low pay (as staff) or at very high expense (as public). You have to be pretty determined to keep going under those circumstances; and that's something the anti-social personality is known not to be in either of the columns. 

PTS'es (people crippled from close contact with SP's) can display some of the characteristics. They would have a genuine interest in recovering from this influence and could have enough determination to go through with the program. This is what you mainly can run into in CoS.

Since no reliable tests are administered in Scientology™, I think this has been dramatized way out of proportion and this very campaign to 'get the SP's' has acted as a 'Merchant of Chaos' phenomenon. It has been a dramatization of the very thing the orgs tried to fight and get rid of. In my estimation less than 0.5% of people active in Scientology™ would fall in the category of SP. Many times, when I thought "I have finally found one" and started to investigate, it all resolved rather peacefully and undramatically. I am not saying I haven't met such people; because I certainly have. But in Scientology™ it has mainly been on the fringes. When confronted they would usually blow immediately as they hate discovery.

In my estimation there is a lot of 'crying wolf' and this has all by itself done far more harm, than any true suppressive could ever dream of or hope to accomplish. The mislabeling of PTS for SP has been a major source of self generated troubles for CoS. 

The labeling of unwanted elements and personal enemies as SP's is another source. It has an uncanny likeness of labeling political opponents and dissidents 'insane', a practice known from the former Soviet Union and elsewhere. 
(There was even a LRH policy from 1971, which ordered, that staff that left (blew) the Sea Org, should be labeled 'SP' and 'Insane').

This Policy was from the same period as CS Series 22, "Psychosis", where Hubbard researched Evil Purposes and their influence on cases. It led to Expanded Dianetics™ and Later 'False Purpose RD'. Both are dealing with 'False PTS'ness' or SP characteristics, of which some can be present in a PC without making him a criminal or SP. As a matter of fact, the PC will often recognize it as his main problem. Working with the PC's basic goodness, these are very powerful technologies. How the development of good technology in the area could lead to such an SP scare, is one of the riddles in Scientology™, we may never get a rational answer to - but it certainly did.

The very fact of this SP hunt is being played out so prominently, when no reliable test can be administered to their detection and identification, has created a huge amount of paranoia, suspicion and hostility among Scientologists themselves, among Scientologists and their environment (family, friends etc.) as well as between Orgs and society. The rude treatment of the press and government agencies by CoS is legendary and mainly based on 'SP data'.

There seems to be the same hunger for drama in CoS as we see in the news media and in entertainment, where anti-socials always seem to be in the spotlight. Only CoS does not depend upon the media. They have their own version, the SP hunt, that provides all the thrills of news and entertainment.

 

Sincerely,               
Holy Cow!              

 

Planned Articles:

The SP case
A look and what the tech tells about 
being an SP and if it can be handled casewise

The SP Justice label
Is it a witch hunt or does it have some validity?

The SP Hunt
The validity the SP tech has in PTS handling is obvious - 
and sometimes miraculous.
Maybe that is the inspiration for the witch hunt you sometimes
see take place. But as any powerful tool or medicine you have 
to use it with skill and not overdose. Any tool and medicine
can save or kill. SP hunting seems a dramatization
that has taken place through history under many
different names. 

A Look at the Dark Side
There is some 'tech' to being a 'good' SP - something the Mafia and oppressive regimes seem to know a lot about. 
To be able to confront evil and not get wiped out,
you need to know the Dark Side. 

         

Go to the related article "The Commodore's Law"

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Article from IVy - the WW print magazine
  - get your free copy (click)

© 2002 by Holy Cows. All rights reserved. 

 

When you look at the percentages, it is clear, that they are talking about the same group of anti-social people.

Hubbard's work is used to spot ill intended trouble makers

It's also used with preclears, connected to SP's, to identify them and handle or disconnect from them 

 

 

 

 

 

 you for sure are dealing with them in law enforcement, in the courts and in the jails.

 

You have to be pretty determined to keep going as a Scientologist - and that's something the anti-social personality is known not to be in either of the columns.

PTS' would have a genuine interest in recovering from SPs  and could have enough determination to go through with the program.

The 'Merchant of Chaos' has been a dramatized - the very thing the orgs tried to fight and get rid of. 

When confronted SP's would blow immediately as they hate discovery.

 

A lot of 'crying wolf' has all by itself done far more harm, than any true suppressive could ever dream of or hope to accomplish.

 labeling unwanted elements and personal enemies SP's has an uncanny likeness of labeling political opponents and dissidents 'insane'

How the development of good tech in the area could lead to such an SP scare, is one of the riddles in Scn, we may never get a rational answer to...

 

That no reliable test can be administered to their detection...has created a huge amount of paranoia, suspicion and hostility

 

 The CoS does not depend upon the media. They have their own version, the SP hunt, that provides all the thrills of news and entertainment.