i must first triumph above this before i can hope to rehabilitate myself at all. ... i cannot, myself, afford such treatment.would you please help me? the following year, hubbard and his wife moved to savannah, georgia, where he was associated with a charity psychiatric clinic. hubbard as wouldbe psychologist after his arrival in savannah, hubbard began to describe himself as mental health practitioner, ultimately authoring dianetics. savannah, georgia psychiatric clinic beginning in june 1948, the nationally-syndicated wire service united press ran a story on an american legion-sponsored psychiatric ward in savannah, georgia, which sought to keep mentally-ill war veterans out of jail. that summer, hubbard was arrested by the san luis obispo sheriff on a charge of petty theft for passing a fraudulent check. in late 1948, hubbard and his second wife sara moved from california to savannah, georgia, where he would later claim to have "worked" as a "volunteer" in the psychiatric clinic, where he claimed he "processed an awful lot of negroes". hubbard later wrote of having observed a "dr. center" in savannah: i well recall a conversation i had with a dr. center in savannah, georgia, in 1949. it well expresses the arrogance and complete contempt for law and order of the psychiatrist. a man had just called to inquire after his wife who was "under treatment" in center’s hospital. center asked him, "do you have the money...? that’s right, thirty thousand... well you better get it or i’ll have to send your dear wife to the state institution and you know what will happen then!" i was there doing work on charity patients the local psychiatrists wouldn’t touch. center had forgotten i was in the room. in a 1966 interview, hubbard recalled a man receiving a bill for psychoanalysis: "these people, you know, in psychoanalysis, they worked on somebody for a year just to find out if they could help him and then they charged him about 9000 quid for having not helped him". dianetics in january 1949, hubbard wrote that he was working on a "book of psychology" about "the cause and cure of nervous tension", which he was going to call the dark sword, excalibur or science of the mind. in april 1949, hubbard wrote from savannah to inform the gerontological society at baltimore city hospital that he was preparing a paper entitled certain discoveries and researches leading to the removal of early traumatic experiences including attempted abortion, birth shock and infant illnesses and accidents with an examination of their effects physiological and psychological and their potential influence on longevity on the adult individual with an account of the techniques evolved and employed. the society apparently declined involvement. he also wrote to the american medical association and the american psychiatric association. these letters, and their responses, have not been published, though hubbard later said that they had been negative. hubbard later wrote, "in 1948 i wrote a thesis on an elementary technique of application and submitted it to the medical and psychiatric professions for their use or consideration. the data was not utilized." in december 1949, hubbard composed a letter to publisher john campbell in which he provided an article entitled "a criticism of dianetics" to be published under the pen name irving r. kutzman, m.d. (ostensibly an opponent of dianetic auditing). in his letter to campbell, hubbard described synthesizing the opinions of multiple doctors: the philosophic derivation comments are direct quote from davies of apa. the comment on operators is direct quote from craig, md phd of savannah. the pre-frontal lobotomy angle (changed only to trans-orbital leukotomy) is a direct quote from delchamp, md phd. you heard nearly all these things repeated by kahn, md and he did not diverge in any particular from the standard attitude toward dianetics, general semantics (quote on this from davies of apa), cybernetics (boswell, md) etc. etc. this article would be found by an md psychiatrist to be a pretty valid statement of their case because they have so stated the case many times. the following year, hubbard authored dianetics: the modern science of mental health, a handbook for "the psychiatrist, psycho-analyst and intelligent layman". by september 1950, the american psychological association's governing body unanimously adopted a resolution advising its members against using hubbard's techniques with their patients and leading psychologists spoke out against dianetics. thereafter, hubbard was critical of psychiatry. winfred overholser was superintendent of st. elizabeths hospital after 1937. by 1950, he was president of the american psychiatric association. in a 1953 lecture, hubbard claimed: doctor upholstered is in charge of … he’s in charge of the rest home for feeble minded government officials here in washington, saint elizabeths. in 1972, hubbard recalled: he blew the whistle on dianetics when st. elizabeth psychiatrists were just beginning to use it and were for the first time getting results on patients at the national asylum. he forbade them to use it but they disagreed heavily and privately used it for many years under cover. this broke up introducing dianetics on regular channels – may 1950. thereafter a violent and gory attack was mounted. it was begun by oberholser, went over to george wash u. psychology dept at once and there a student of the first dianetics class (dolly jones) also a psychology student was hypnotized, beaten, told to go crazy, did so and we had to hospitalize her. he (oberholser) was a member of the club. in another lecture, hubbard claimed he gave a speech in which he hypnotized the staff of st. elizabeth's. in late 1950, hubbard criticized mainstream psychiatry but still wrote positively of sigmund freud as a fellow persecuted trailblazer, arguing that "to talk of the faults of freud, as do those who practice psychoanalysis today, is ungenerous. this great pioneer, against the violent objections of medical doctors and the psychiatrists of his day, ventured to put forth the theory that memory was connected with present time behavior" hubbard elaborated: "freud was so thoroughly shunned by neurologists of his day and medicine ever since, that only his great literary skill brought his work as far as it has come." as late as 1955, hubbard still identified himself with mental health professions, describing himself as "a writer, a scientist, and a psychologist". attempted institutionalization and aftermath hubbard's wife sara in 1951. in 1951, hubbard's wife sara sought advice from a psychiatrist who recommend hubbard be institutionalized. upon learning of the plan, hubbard initially kidnapped sara; after her release, hubbard fled to havana with their young daughter. hubbard then underwent a public divorce in which his wife publicly alleged that hubbard had been diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia. upon his return to the us, hubbard consulted with a psychiatrist to rebut public claims of his mental illness. sara consults psychiatrist in 1951, hubbard's wife sara went to a psychiatrist to obtain advice about his increasingly violent and irrational behaviour, and was told that he probably needed to be institutionalized and that she was in serious danger. she gave hubbard an ultimatum: get treatment or she would leave with the baby. he was furious and threatened to kill their daughter alexis rather than let northrup care for her. sara later recalled: "he didn't want her to be brought up by me because i was in league with the doctors. he thought i had thrown in with the psychiatrists, with the devils." in a letter to the attorney general dated may 1951, hubbard claims that on "feb. 25 she flew to san francisco and my general managers jack maloney in new jersey received a phone call from her and miles hollister and a psychiatrist named meyer zelig in san francisco that i had gone insane and that they needed money to incarcerate me quickly." two decades later, in 1972, hubbard would write to followers: the ny times literary section began an attack and a lot of violent track ran by which included dr. meyer-zelig, a psychiatrist in san francisco master-minding a kidnapping of me to fly me to st. louis and be put away. his (zelig’s) plans miscarried. miles hollister, formerly a psych student, got hold of sara northrup (really komknoidominoff) (or ov) and handed her over to zelig who put her in deep hypnosis, fixated her on the idea i was trying to kill her and spun her in, in which state she has remained since. this caused the final destruction of the hdrf as national press only played up her divorce. hubbard kidnaps wife, daughter on the night of february 24, 1951, hubbard allegedly took daughter alexis while sara was at a movie theater. a few hours later, he returned with two of his dianetics foundation staff and told sara, who was now back at her apartment: "we have alexis and you'll never see her alive unless you come with us." she was bundled into the back of a car and driven to san bernardino, california, where hubbard attempted to find a doctor to examine his wife and declare her insane. his search was unsuccessful and he released her at yuma airport across the state line in arizona. he promised that he would tell her where alexis was if she signed a piece of paper saying that she had gone with him voluntarily. she agreed but hubbard reneged on the deal and flew to chicago, where he found a psychologist who wrote a favorable report about his mental condition to refute northrup's accusations. rather than telling northrup where alexis was, he called her and said that "he had cut into little pieces and dropped the pieces in a river and that he had seen little arms and legs floating down the river and it was my fault, i'd done it because i'd left him." from march to may 1951, hubbard fled to havana with his infant daughter. according to his estranged son ronald dewolf, hubbard was under psychiatric care at this time. public allegation of hubbard having 'paranoid schizophrenia' after her release, sara filed for divorce, charging hubbard with causing her "extreme cruelty, great mental anguish and physical suffering". her allegations produced more lurid headlines: not only was hubbard accused of bigamy and kidnapping, but she had been subjected to "systematic torture, including loss of sleep, beatings, and strangulations and scientific experiments". because of his "crazy misconduct" she was in "hourly fear of both the life of herself and of her infant daughter, who she has not seen for two months". on april 23, 1951, it was publicly reported that sara had consulted doctors who "concluded that said hubbard was hopelessly insane, and crazy, and that there was no hope for said hubbard, or any reason for her to endure further; that competent medical advisers recommended that said hubbard be committed to a private sanatorium for psychiatric observation and treatment of a mental ailment known as paranoid schizophrenia." the san francisco chronicle coverage used the headline "ron hubbard insane, says his wife". hubbard's lover, barbara klowden, recorded in her journal: he talked about what he was going to do to psychiatrists. how he brought psychotic into present time in psychiatrists office and how that psychiatrist said to him "if you think you've cured this woman you're crazy. if you claim to cure people by doing that, if you're not careful, we'll lock you up." he laughed and laughed. then, tearing indignantly at chicken leg, he said "they all came to me and said i was a psychotic. hah. they called me a paranoid. can you imagine?" my blood ran cold as he was saying that and it was all i could do to keep from weeping. wouldn't it tear your heart out coming from the one you love when you knew all the time was a psychotic and a paranoid? psychiatry as evil in 1955, hubbard wrote that "nearly all the backlash in society against dianetics and scientology has a common source — the psychiatrist-psychologist-psychoanalyst clique". in a letter addressed to the fbi dated july 11, hubbard reports having been the victim of an "attack made by psychiatrists using evidently communist connected personnel". in 1956, hubbard wrote an article entitled "a critique of psychoanalysis" which embodies hubbard's harder stance. writes hubbard: "now and then it becomes necessary to eradicate from a new subject things which it has inherited from an old. and only because