Engram (Dianetics)

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This article is about the concept of the engram in Dianetics and Scientology. For other uses, see Engram.

In Dianetics and Scientology, an engram is defined as a faithful recording of a moment of pain and unconsciousness. It is stored in the stimulus-response mechanism of (the reactive mind). It is not a memory.

The term engram was coined by Richard Semon and had previously been used prior to the inception of Dianetics; Semon defined it as a "stimulus impression" which could be reactivated by the recurrence of "the energetic conditions which ruled at the generation of the engram."[1] It continues to be used in other contexts unrelated to Hubbard's theories. According to Joseph Winter, M.D., Hubbard had taken the term "engram" from the 1936 edition of Dorland's Medical Dictionary for use to describe his own unique concepts (Winter, 1951). In Hubbard's earliest public writings on Dianetics, (an article published in the Astounding Science Fiction pulp magazine) [1] he referred to engrams by the term "Norns". [2] Bianetic is a recording of a time of physical pain and unconsciousness. It must by definition have impact or injury as part of its content."[2] Engrams contain all perceptions present in a moment when pain is experienced but are not easily available to an individual's awareness because they are stored in the unconscious (the Reactive Mind). A goal of Dianetics is to assist a person in confronting such incidents bringing them into full awareness.

Contents

[edit] Origins of the concept

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Hubbard conceived of the engram as a form of "memory trace", an idea which had long existed in medicine. He initially proposed using the terms norn, impediment or comanome but eventually settled on "engram", based on the definition in Dorland's Medical Dictionary (1936): "a lasting mark or trace .... In psychology it is the lasting trace left in the psyche by anything that has been experienced psychically; a latent memory picture." (Winter, 1951)

In the 50th anniversary edition of Dianetics the Modern Science of Mental Health, on p. 77, it reads: "The word engram, in Dianetics is used in its severely accurate sense as a 'definite and permanent trace left by a stimulus on the protoplasm of a tissue.' It is considered as a unit group of stimuli impinged solely on the cellular being. -LRH"

Later, L. Ron Hubbard would apologize for having used the Biology definition of engram in his book Dianetics the Modern Science of Mental Health. He called it one of the greatest mistakes of his life. So in Dianetics, an "engram" is not "a trace left on a cell by a stimulus" which is really the Biology definition but "a mental image picture of a moment of pain and unconsciousness".[citation needed]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Corydon, Bent; L. Ron Hubbard, Jr. (1987). L. Ron Hubbard: Messiah or Madman?. Secaucus, New Jersey: Lyle Stuart. ISBN 0-8184-0444-2.  Convenience link at http://www.clambake.org/archive/books/mom/Messiah_or_Madman.txt .
  2. ^ Dianetics and Scientology Technical Dictionary pg. 141 pub. Bridge Publications, USA ISBN 0-88404-037-2

[edit] References

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