Founder of 'Dianetics' said Insane by Wife

Mrs. Sara Northrup Hubbard, 25, charged in her divorce suit that Hubbard subjected her to "systematic torture" through denial of sleep, beatings, strangulations, and suggestions that she kill herself "as a divorce would hurt his reputation."

As a consequence, she and her medical advisers concluded Hubbard, 40, was "hopelessly insane," her petition stated.

"Competent medical advisers recommended that Hubbard be committed to a private sanitarium for psychiatric observation and treatment of a mental ailment known as paranoid schizophrenia," the petition said.

The complaint said that the Hubbard dianetics research foundation, which deals with the "modern science of mental health," did more than $1,000,000 business in 1950.