"There's where we sometimes seem to feel that cross, mean or vicious methods have a workability, and we make a mistake. We believe that the viciousness, the meanness and the threat of punishment is what is getting a result. That isn't what's getting a result. Demanding that somebody confront something gets a result.
"Punishment to restrain somebody from doing something never did otherwise than worsen that person. To restrain a person by threat of punishment from action will inevitably worsen that person. Oddly enough, it's true. Slow him down. Because it takes his awareness away. It reduces his ability to confront life.
"How about the other way around? How about punishment, threats and duress to make him confront something? Unfortunately works! And those of us who have had a great deal to do with the world of men and the world of duress know that it works, and we very often fall into the fallacy of believing then that punishment works."
— L. Ron Hubbard