Britannica
Sources used in this answer
How did Hubbard describe the analytical mind and the reactive mind?
Created from Britannica articles
using AI.
AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Scientology
L. Ron Hubbard's seminal – and controversial – work was Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, written in 1950.
In the teachings of Scientology, founder L. Ron Hubbard described the human mind as functioning through two distinct modes:
- The Analytical Mind: Under normal conditions, the mind operates analytically. In this state, it functions to make survival-oriented judgments, which Hubbard considered to be good and productive of pleasure.12
- The Reactive Mind: When the mind is not fully functioning, the reactive mind takes over. This part of the mind stores engrams—mental images of past experiences that contain strong negative emotional content along with unrelated elements of those experiences. Hubbard argued that later encounters with these unrelated elements can trigger negative emotional reactions from the stored engram, potentially leading an individual to engage in destructive, or "countersurvival," actions.12
To address these negative states, Hubbard developed auditing, a process intended to help individuals confront and eliminate engrams to restore full analytical functioning.12