Scientology and the suppression of emotions

[White Rabbit]

Folks,

This is a topic that I have been thinking about for a while, but I must confess that my thoughts are still not completely settled. I am sharing what I have so far in the hopes that the process of writing will make things more clear in my own mind, and perhaps trigger some enlightening responses from the community.

What is emotion to the dedicated and well-trained Scientologist?

Well, we have the Tone Scale. It describes a spectrum of human emotion, and assigns values to each. (For example, Apathy is 'Low', and Enthusiasm is 'High') Due to the concept of Lower Harmonics (Q.V.) presented by L. Ron Hubbard, an emotional state can appear at different levels of a person's condition, where a person's apparent cheerfulness COULD really be just a low toned version of cheerfulness, and thus not valid as compared to a high-toned cheerfulness. Thus any emotion can be evaluated or invalidated.

We have the "TR's" (Training Regimens) These drills teach the budding Scientologist several things, but particularly the elimination or suppression of emotion.

We have 'No Case On Post'. This bit of Scientology culture is a strong discouragement of showing any negative emotion when working in any Scientology activity. The only place where low-toned emotion is acceptable when Scientologists gather is in the Auditing (Counselling) Session, and then only by the person receiving the counseling. Exiting a counselling session in a low tone is very bad, and something to be avoided at all costs.

We have the devaluation of sympathy. L. Ron Hubbard said "We would rather see you dead than incapable". Scientologists are supposed to be effective, not sympathetic.

We have 'ARC' (Affinity, Reality, Communication). This concept defines the way we communicate with and understand other people in a mechanistic way, with a clear subtext of control of others through the mechanical process of communication as defined and used in Scientology.

These aspects of Scientology appealed to me strongly, due to early childhood abuse. (Yeah, I had PTSD before I ever got to the Church, so I can't blame L. Ron Hubbard and Scientology for that.)....

*snip*

What about you folks?

First of all, thank you for writing such a thoughtful, articulate post!

Secondly, I couldn't agree with you more.

I observed the same things during the many years I was involved with the CoS. In fact, I'm relatively new around here, and this was one of the first things I brought up in the forum, curious to know if anyone else had also noticed these things - and people enthusiastically chimed in to let me know I wasn't alone in my observations or conclusions! You're definitely not alone.

Re: Early childhood abuse and PTSD, you and I share that unfortunate life experience in common. My non-Scientologist parents were extremely abusive, and I have been wrestling with PTSD my entire life. Sadly and annoyingly, I didn't understand what PTSD was or start getting treated for it until my late 20's, as the CoS had scared me off from seeking help from the "evil" "psychs." If you search for "PTSD" in this forum, you'll find others who are also struggling with it.

 

[White Rabbit]

Excellent topic!

Yes, after indoctrination on the tone scale, Scientologists tend to avoid or suppress emotions considered low toned. There's a word for what they become [jaded]


Especially on the subjects of loss, death, grieving, and love.

Yes! I will NEVER forget a bizarre exchange I had with a Scientologist who was a (seemingly) very close friend at the time. She found out that my favorite uncle had passed away before I did (long story). She walked into the waiting area of our common (Scientologist) doctor's office, saw me, told me about my uncle's death in a flippant manner, and then walked off as if she had just told me that she would be having PB&J for lunch. I sat down, tried my best to collect myself, and ended up quietly sobbing, devastated to have lost my uncle.


She and a third person, also a Scientologist and an acquaintance of mine, witnessed this, and ignored me. !!!!!!!!!!!! When I brought this up in conversation at a later time, she saw nothing wrong with her behavior, and justified ignoring me and not offering any condolences because, according to her, I was being "down-tone" and would eventually get over it.


I trust by now that I don't have to articulate just how messed up that is to the people reading this!

...There's also a creepy element to this kind of thinking/behavior, as it mirrors sociopathy. Sociopaths lack empathy. At best, they imitate human emotions in order to blend in. Meanwhile, Scientologists PRIDE THEMSELVES in not experiencing or empathizing with human emotion. (Well, except cheerfulness, which no person living life on this absurd planet could possibly genuinely muster 100% of the time!!) Sociopaths also manipulate people..... and you can see where this line of thinking is going...

 

[White Rabbit]

On second thought, removed.

 

[White Rabbit]

Aha! Misemotion - I had forgotten that cute little concept. "You are upset about being &*^&ed in the *&^ by the Reg? You are just being misemotional! Stop Dramatizing."

Dramatizing, another term I had forgotten that was used to force people to shut down their honest emotions. (I'm feeling angry, this is good!)

Thanks!

I just had a light bulb moment!

There is a wog equivalent to the way that Scientologists use accusations of "dramatization" to silence/squash dissent against power. I've seen many essays, both in research journals and blog posts, that illustrate this same tactic at work when someone complains about being abused or bullied. The person is accused of "creating drama" and summarily discounted. Scientology takes it one step further by pushing the complaining person into a role of defending themselves to the abuser/bully. Ugh.

A NYTimes article: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/23/opinion/why-cyberbullying-rhetoric-misses-the-mark.html?_r=0

Also, this: http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/blog/you-say-bullying-i-say-drama

And stated rather succinctly by one of my favorite bloggers: "often “creating drama” is a phrase peopel use when they want someone who has been the victim of something to shut up."

I continue to find parallels between abusers/bullies and the tactics of the CoS. This just adds to the growing list.

Anyway, it's also a good thing to watch out for in every day life, as this is a common tactic of manipulators, abusers, bullies, etc.

 

[SweetnessandLight]

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Sir, you are very welcome - sharing stuff with you-all really helps me get a better grip on things. Ironically, it was only once I had walked away from Scientology that I was free to start psychological counselling that is FINALLY allowing me to discover and address the effects of what happened to me when I was little.

The new challenge is to NOT bring Scn perspectives to what I am finding as I proceed with the counseling. Sometimes I tell the counsellor what Scientology thought/concept comes up so I can let her know where the 'Kool-Aid' is making its presence known. One thing I have to be extra-cautious about is not to over-react when she evaluates for me. The irony in being so sensitive about evaluation is that so much of Scientology was evaluative.

This makes me think about what those of us with a long history in Scientology have to deal with when we want mental healing outside of the Scientology gulag - How do we participate in other therapies without messing them up with Scientology think?

Learn by doing. The more you do, the more you learn, about yourself and the folks around you..family, friends, spouse, co-workers, boss, etc. Many different forms of counseling are effective. You need to find a "good fit" with a therapist/counselor, and methodology.

Just keep doing, keep learning, and be persistent. Don't give up, even if you get discouraged.

Eventually, false thoughts will just drop away from you, as you see and accept true ones. Healing happens day by day, over time. It takes time to really see and adjust to the real world, when you have been in a Cult, and are recovering from the experience. Especially if you were "raised in".

Be patient with yourself and the process. Don't be so afraid that you might "do it wrong", that you self-sabotage or don't even try.

Be brave. Stay strong. Be willing to ask for help when you need it. Let other people support and encourage you while on your healing journey. Keep working on yourself, and on improving your quality of life. You're worth it!

 

[Petey C]

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Sir, you are very welcome - sharing stuff with you-all really helps me get a better grip on things. Ironically, it was only once I had walked away from Scientology that I was free to start psychological counselling that is FINALLY allowing me to discover and address the effects of what happened to me when I was little.

The new challenge is to NOT bring Scn perspectives to what I am finding as I proceed with the counseling. Sometimes I tell the counsellor what Scientology thought/concept comes up so I can let her know where the 'Kool-Aid' is making its presence known. One thing I have to be extra-cautious about is not to over-react when she evaluates for me. The irony in being so sensitive about evaluation is that so much of Scientology was evaluative.

This makes me think about what those of us with a long history in Scientology have to deal with when we want mental healing outside of the Scientology gulag - How do we participate in other therapies without messing them up with Scientology think?

Good point. I have no clear answer. But I can say that 15 years out of Scientology, I met the man I was to marry and when I heard he was a journalist I had a moment's twinge. It hit me then how deep-seated some of this Scn-think goes.

I guess it's like weeding. You inspect a plant to see whether it's a weed and if it is, you pull it up roots and all. Often you can't get all the roots out. The roots will generate another little plantlet. But you can always have another go later on. Just keep doing that until you're weed free. Make sure you fertilise with friendship, love, books, music, film, food and lots of time lazing on a beach.

 

[David C Gibbons]

I don't know about "misemotions". I know about good emotions (I love that person), bad emotions (I HATE that person) and anything inbetweeen, even including misdirected emotions (I didn't understand that person at that time, but he/she probably meant well), but what are misemotions?

MrNobody,

In the Scientology world, (kind of like bizarro world, but more sucky) Misemotion is inappropriate emotions coming from a person's 'reactive mind'. A theoretical example a Scientologist would give would be where someone is at a birthday party, and bursts into tears because a long time ago a terrible thing happened at a birthday party. Now the person reacts with an inappropriate emotion due to the past incident.

What happens in practice is that someone in Scientology gets upset because they are getting screwed over by Scientology or a Scientologist. Then that person gets told "You are being misemotional"

Good way to shut someone down, if they buy into Scientology.

 

[SweetnessandLight]

David, and all our Lurkers...

There is no such thing as "the reactive mind". Ron made that up. There is nothing wrong with most people's minds, at all. It's all right to feel all of your emotions, just not to ACT on all of them. Feel them, express them, talk about them, learn to manage them in a healthy fashion, (whatever works well for you and your immediate society).

Folks might burst into tears at a Birthday party for many reasons... they are moved with joy or touched by happy memories, they miss someone, they feel lonesome because they have no-one to celebrate their birthday with, or sad and nostalgic because sometimes children seem to grow up so fast, and time seems to fly...there could be a million reasons, all of them valid. Including feeling strong emotions with remembering a painful past event, and/or grieving a loss, even at a Birthday party! It's all okay.

There is nothing wrong with our minds as they are in their natural state...there is absolutely NOTHING wrong with feeling and appropriately expressing ALL of our emotions...Ron made it up to sell books, lectures and auditing.

We're all human, with our human emotional range, and that's okay!