ANSWERS TO COMMON QUESTIONS
What does “suppressive person” mean?
According to L. Ron Hubbard, a suppressive person is “a person who seeks to suppress, or squash, any betterment activity or group. A suppressive person suppresses other people in his vicinity. This is the person whose behaviour is calculated to be disastrous.” Well-known examples of such a personality are Napoleon and Hitler. Mr. Hubbard found that a suppressive person, also called antisocial personality, has definite antisocial attributes.
The basic reason the antisocial personality behaves as he or she does lies in a hidden terror of others. To such a person every other being is an enemy, an enemy to be coverly or overtly destroyed. The fixation is that survival itself depends on “keeping others down” or “keeping people ignorant.” If anyone were to promise to make others stronger or brighter, the antisocial personality would suffer the utmost agony.
Because of this, the suppressive person seeks to upset, continueously undermine, spread bad news about and denigrate betterment activities and groups. Thus the antisocial personality is against what Scientology is about — helping people become more able and improving conditions in society. For the good of the Church and the individuals in it, such a person is officially labeled a suppressive person so that others will know not to associate with him.
For more understanding of suppressive persons and how to handle them, the book Introduction to Scientology Ethics is recommended.
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