BLACK PANTHER MECHANISM

There are five ways in which a human being reacts toward a source of danger. Let us suppose that a particularly black-tempered black panther is sitting on the stairs and that a man named gus is sitting in the living room. Gus wants to go to bed. But there is the black panther. The problem is to get upstairs. There are five things that gus can do about this panther: (l) he can go attack the black panther; (2) he can run out of the house and flee the black panther; (3) he can use the back stairs and avoid the black panther; (4) he can neglect the black panther; and (5) he can succumb to the black panther. These are the five mechanisms attack, flee, avoid, neglect or succumb. All actions can be seen to fall within these courses.

one of the five ways in which a human being reacts toward a source of danger. The term derives its name from an example given in the book Dianetics: The Modern Science of Mental Health. A particularly blacktempered black panther is sitting on the stairs and a man named Gus is sitting in the living room. Gus wants to go to bed. But there is the black panther. The problem is to get upstairs. There are five things that Gus can do about this panther: (1) he can go attack the black panther; (2) he can run out of the house and flee the black panther; (3) he can use the back stairs and avoid the black panther; (4) he can neglect the black panther; and (5) he can succumb to the black panther. These are the five mechanisms: attack, flee, avoid, neglect or succumb. All actions can be seen to fall within these courses. —Basic Dictionary of Dianetics and Scientology (Health and Certainty) Final approval 4/11/89

1. in Dn considerable slang has been developed by patients and Dianeticists and they call the "Black Panther Mechanism" a neglect of the problem. One supposes this stems from the ridiculousness of biting black panthers. (DMSMH, p. 147)2. there are five ways in which a human being reacts toward a source of danger. Let us suppose that a particularly black-tempered black panther is sitting on the stairs and that a man named Gus is sitting in the living room. Gus wants to go to bed. But there is the black panther. The problem is to get upstairs. There are five things that Gus can do:(1) he can go attack the black panther;(2) he can run out of the house and flee the black panther;(3) he can use the back stairs and avoid the black panther;(4) he can neglect the black panther; and(5) he can succumb to the black panther. These are the five mechanisms. All actions can be seen to fall within these courses. And all actions are visible in life. (DMSMH, pp. 147-148) Black Panther (Def. 2) attack flee avoid neglect succumb