 The book was first published in hardcover by the Julian Press Julian Messner, in 1951, and published again in 1987, by Crown Publishing Group.The work was the first book published that was professionally critical of L. Ron Hubbard.Joseph Augustus Winter, an American medical doctor and "psychosomatacist", had previously served on the board of directors and as the medical director of L. Ron Hubbard's Dianetic Research Foundation.