Hubbard hadn’t even always been opposed to the psychiatric profession. Soon after Dianetics was published he had attempted to secure APA approval for it. In its early years, Scientology had relied on appearing associated with medical psychiatry to bolster its legitimacy.

In 1949, he reputedly told a writer’s convention that “If a man really wants to make $1 million, the best way would be to start his own religion.” Three years after the publication of Dianetics, Hubbard took his own advice and incorporated Scientology as a religious organization.

In Hubbard’s case, the trick was to latch onto popular fads and run with them. It all started with his 1951 book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health, which was an unabashed parasitization—some have argued, a parody—of the 1948 zeitgeist-bending international bestseller Cybernetics, published by MITs’ prodigy-in-chief Norbert Wiener.