Article: The Antisocial Personality

Another key aspect of the Scientology ethics system is the recognition of the antisocial personality. Reflective in man’s earliest ethical codes is an innate sense that there are those among us – about 2 1/2 percent of the population – who possess characteristics and mental attitudes that cause them to violently oppose any betterment activity or group. Within this category, one finds the Adolf Hitlers and the Genghis Khans, the unrepentant murderers and the drug lords. Although most blatantly antisocial types may be easy to spot, if only from the bodies they leave in their wake, others are less obviously seen. Enterprises may seem to crumble for no apparent reason, marriages may mysteriously disintegrate and a thousand more ills may affect those associated with the antisocial personality. In fact, all told, 20 percent of the entire population suffers, in one form or another, from a connection with the antisocial personality. For that reason Mr. Hubbard offers very specific guidelines for their detection.

To ensure that these guidelines never perpetuate a witch hunt or an unjust condemnation, he also provides a precise description of the social personality – the category that embraces the great majority of mankind. Moreover, Mr. Hubbard continually stresses that, regardless of apparent traits, all men are basically good – even the most seemingly unrepentant.

The importance of detecting the antisocial personality becomes eminently clear when one considers his effect on the lives of those around him. It has been found that a person connected to an antisocial personality will suffer greatly decreased survival, impeding not only his progress in Dianetics and Scientology but in all aspects of his life. Then, too, as his conditions worsen, his ensuing troubles tend to spill over into the lives of others. Hence such a person is designated a “potential trouble source.” With the standard application of materials found in Mr. Hubbard’s Introduction to Scientology Ethics, however, the potential trouble sources can be swiftly helped. Factually, Scientologists use these materials every day to repair marriages, bring parents and children closer together and trade misery for health and happiness.

The Antisocial Personality (n.d.). whatisscientology.org. Retrieved 19 May 2010 from http://www.whatisscientology.org/html/Part04/Chp17/pg0288-a.html