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.

As a scheme, Scientology worked because it did what all successful religious grifts do: it offered an alienated social group a community and a solution to its defining problems, articulated in the vernacular of its tastes.

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.