Art Janov, one of the pioneers of fetal and early infant experiences and future mental health issues, offers a robust vision of how the earliest traumas of life can percolate through the brains, minds and lives of individuals. He focuses on both the shifting tides of brain emotional systems and the life-long consequences that can result, as well as the novel interventions, and clinical understanding, that need to be implemented in order to bring about the brain-mind changes that can restore affective equanimity. The transitions from feelings of persistent affective turmoil to psychological wholeness, requires both an understanding of the brain changes and a therapist that can work with the affective mind at primary-process levels. Life Before Birth, is a manifesto that provides a robust argument for increasing attention to the neuro-mental lives of fetuses and infants, and the widespread ramifications on mental health if we do not. Without an accurate developmental history of troubled minds, coordinated with a recognition of the primal emotional powers of the lowest ancestral regions of the human brain, therapists will be lost in their attempt to restore psychological balance.
Jaak Panksepp, Ph.D.
Bailey Endowed Chair of Animal Well Being Science
Washington State University
Dr. Janov’s essential insight—that our earliest experiences strongly influence later well being—is no longer in doubt. Thanks to advances in neuroscience, immunology, and epigenetics, we can now see some of the mechanisms of action at the heart of these developmental processes. His long-held belief that the brain, human development, and psychological well being need to studied in the context of evolution—from the brainstem up—now lies at the heart of the integration of neuroscience and psychotherapy.
Grounded in these two principles, Dr. Janov continues to explore the lifelong impact of prenatal, birth, and early experiences on our brains and minds. Simultaneously “old school” and revolutionary, he synthesizes traditional psychodynamic theories with cutting-edge science while consistently highlighting the limitations of a strict, “top-down” talking cure. Whether or not you agree with his philosophical assumptions, therapeutic practices, or theoretical conclusions, I promise you an interesting and thought-provoking journey.
Lou Cozolino, PsyD, Professor of Psychology, Pepperdine University
In Life Before Birth Dr. Arthur Janov illuminates the sources of much that happens during life after birth. Lucidly, the pioneer of primal therapy provides the scientific rationale for treatments that take us through our original, non-verbal memories—to essential depths of experience that the superficial cognitive-behavioral modalities currently in fashion cannot possibly touch, let alone transform.
Gabor Maté MD, author of In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction
An expansive analysis! This book attempts to explain the impact of critical developmental windows in the past, implores us to improve the lives of pregnant women in the present, and has implications for understanding our children, ourselves, and our collective future. I’m not sure whether primal therapy works or not, but it certainly deserves systematic testing in well-designed, assessor-blinded, randomized controlled clinical trials.
K.J.S. Anand, MBBS, D. Phil, FAACP, FCCM, FRCPCH, Professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, Anatomy & Neurobiology, Senior Scholar, Center for Excellence in Faith and Health, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare System
A baby's brain grows more while in the womb than at any time in a child's life. Life Before Birth: The Hidden Script That Rules Our Lives is a valuable guide to creating healthier babies and offers insight into healing our early primal wounds. Dr. Janov integrates the most recent scientific research about prenatal development with the psychobiological reality that these early experiences do cast a long shadow over our entire lifespan. With a wealth of experience and a history of successful psychotherapeutic treatment, Dr. Janov is well positioned to speak with clarity and precision on a topic that remains critically important.
Paula Thomson, PsyD, Associate Professor, California State University, Northridge & Professor Emeritus, York University
"I am enthralled.
Dr. Janov has crafted a compelling and prophetic opus that could rightly dictate PhD thesis topics for decades to come. Devoid of any "New Age" pseudoscience,
this work never strays from scientific orthodoxy and yet is perfectly accessible and
downright fascinating to any lay person interested in the mysteries of the human psyche."
Dr. Bernard Park, MD, MPH
His new book “Life Before Birth: The Hidden Script that Rules Our Lives” shows that primal therapy, the lower-brain therapeutic method popularized in the 1970’s international bestseller “Primal Scream” and his early work with John Lennon, may help alleviate depression and anxiety disorders, normalize blood pressure and serotonin levels, and improve the functioning of the immune system.
One of the book’s most intriguing theories is that fetal imprinting, an evolutionary strategy to prepare children to cope with life, establishes a permanent set-point in a child's physiology. Baby's born to mothers highly anxious during pregnancy, whether from war, natural disasters, failed marriages, or other stressful life conditions, may thus be prone to mental illness and brain dysfunction later in life. Early traumatic events such as low oxygen at birth, painkillers and antidepressants administered to the mother during pregnancy, poor maternal nutrition, and a lack of parental affection in the first years of life may compound the effect.
In making the case for a brand-new, unified field theory of psychotherapy, Dr. Janov weaves together the evolutionary theories of Jean Baptiste Larmarck, the fetal development studies of Vivette Glover and K.J.S. Anand, and fascinating new research by the psychiatrist Elissa Epel suggesting that telomeres—a region of repetitive DNA critical in predicting life expectancy—may be significantly altered during pregnancy.
After explaining how hormonal and neurologic processes in the womb provide a blueprint for later mental illness and disease, Dr. Janov charts a revolutionary new course for psychotherapy. He provides a sharp critique of cognitive behavioral therapy, psychoanalysis, and other popular “talk therapy” models for treating addiction and mental illness, which he argues do not reach the limbic system and brainstem, where the effects of early trauma are registered in the nervous system.
“Life Before Birth: The Hidden Script that Rules Our Lives” is scheduled to be published by NTI Upstream in October 2011, and has tremendous implications for the future of modern psychology, pediatrics, pregnancy, and women’s health.
Editor
do you think that the notion that repression is the number one killer today, can be applied also social-psychologically, so that the root of wars and murders etd. lies in repression too?
ReplyDeleteFor God's sake... do we not “understand” that primaltherapy need a legal process to be acknoledge? It’s just so obvious. It’s difficoult for me to see how we here on the blog think it is out of reach... the evidence is right in front of our eys.
ReplyDeleteWe must have a legal process… what ever the cost will be... they will still be paid by those who represent the resistance... the evidence could not be more clear. Primal therapy proves itself... science "wins" always in the end... there are countless evidence of it... just look at the example of Copernicus. Are we afraied?
Frank
How can we know what is truly physical pain and what is emotional pain?
ReplyDeleteI take Tylenol the early part of every day for physical pain, and then take Vicodin when the daily Tylenol limit is reached. I try to delay the Vicodin, as it puts a damper on my emotions, but I'm rarely successful in eliminating its use.
And I always wonder if it is physical or emotional pain that makes the Vicodin inevitable.
Hi,
ReplyDeleteAn acquaintance from the past told me he had been on anti-depressants for 7 years. He had been a serious whiskey alcoholic prior to that (bottle a day).
I was amazed when he said he had had a complete personality change when he stopped drinking. . . He really believed that the booze was the cause of his disease and the pills were the cure. Now I knew this guy years ago in our mad acid days and frankly his personality change was more likely the prescribed drugs. They can put some people back in flat land where all is rational and predictably controllable.
He like so many other people seems to have bought into the idea that one can overwrite an old personality with a new one. It would seem, to an extent to be possible to "re-invent" oneself if one wants to believe it enough. Nevertheless I have met quite a few people with this belief system in place, performing this "Psycho-synthetic, Cerebral Behavioural Trick" and to me they seem to be "Acting" most of the time.
During the periods these "personalities" actually become themselves they also seem to be the last to know it and soon they are off on their "Act" again.
If I'm honest, I used to be like this too but now I notice the real me and I'm willing to go through the painful re-living of past traumas to get to me.
Hypnotic states can be very convincing. Everything seems fine but some other people may find you a bit unbelievable! You can tell, I can tell by noticing a series of avoidances. . . seeing into the shadows.
Lets hope we can all see past our personalities and notice our true selves, pain, warts and all.
Paul G.
What Dr. Janov is saying is very true. A person taking prescription medication for a long time will have greater problems as time goes on and could die unless the medication is eliminated. I realized that in my mid-twenties that not every doctor is correct in what they prescribe. I will usually get the prescription, but not make it in my mind to be the #1 cure for mental anguish. I will try what the doctor prescribes and see how I react or feel when I'm taking it and after a month of taking that medication, I will just stop. Even if it is for a physical problem, lots of times I do the same thing. If it is a mental problem, and have been prescribed a low dose of medication, something to ease my mind for the pain I might be going through, I will take the medication for a month or a little more and then stop. When I stop, I remember how I felt when took the medication, and for "survival" at times, I will go along acting as though I am still taking the medication. This,to me, works. Whenever a doctor feels the need to prescribe me medication, it is usually a very low dose and lately, I noticed, the bottle will say "no refill". Of course a doctor tries to cure and help the patient by medication, as well as other ways. Therapy is better than any medication and one's life , I think, will be easier without long-term medication.
ReplyDeletedorm7guard
I have been watching videos on German New Medicine (GNM) and the theories of Dr. Hamer. He says that physical ailments are result of emotional injuries, termed “Conflicts.” Same, pretty much, as PT. But most fascinating is that he has found the same ailments affect the same area of the brain every time. So it is a brain injury, so to speak and brain controlled in the ailment’s behavior, progress, or regression.
ReplyDeleteHe has shown that specific types of emotional injuries cause the same effect every time and then the intensity of the emotional “conflict” determines the intensity of the disease/ailment. He has also shown a 1st, 2nd, and 3rd line control, calling each part of the brain pretty much the same as Arthur. The stem is the endotherm, the limibic the mesoderm, and the cortex the ectotherm. These brain regions control the organs they helped form in the embryonic stage.
Kidneys formed in 3 stages, each controlled by one of the 3 levels. The emotional injuries are governed in different parts of the brain so that the tubules of the kidneys, for instance, are formed by the 1st line endoderm and when the injury is to the emotion governed in this area, the tubules block and back up and water retention, etc. begins.
By this symptom, we can know, in general, what sort of emotional category the emotional injury was. 2 other parts of the kidney involve the 2nd and 3rd line areas. These also indicate a variant of the injuries that can be sustained.
So even without knowing what the person might have experienced, we could have a good idea of what sort of emotional pain waits to be brought to consciousness. Hamer notes that medicine is moving away from this direction. Little wonder about that. Wherever truth is, authorities run from it and keep it from us as well. Even PT patients seem to have that tendency. You can lead a horst to water, but you can not make him drink, so I am told.
GNM has to be slowly devoured. I am still progressing slowly. But I believe it makes much sense and is very much in harmony with much of PT, simply using different names for the things discuss by Arthur. I believe it is strongly in the interest of anyone who follows PT or anyone seeking true medical knowledge and effectiveness to give this a serious consideration.
Start with the 5 Biological Principles:
http://www.screencast.com/users/GNM/folders/GNM%20Videos%20%28English%29/media/4e5534eb-65f7-4f7d-aaf4-432e6b39fe4f
I’ll post a bit more for those who want to hear more. The rest can just ignore it, even as some might do with much of reality, preferring the “shelter” of internal “bliss.” Some refer to it as the head in the sand but we all have our preferences. Truth is not pleasant and courage not common. Just saying ;-)
Types of major conflicts of GNM:
ReplyDeleteLoss
Separation
Abandonment
Death-Fright
Existence
Starvation
Nest Worry
Territorial
Sexual
Attack
Feeling Stuck
Unexpected and unprepared crisis causes a conflict or trauma.
brain has programs for body to handle these crises.
There is an intimate link between the following:
Psyche/brain/organ network and routine.
The illness recedes when it receives an all clear signal from the brain that the emotional conflict has been resolved. We would say brought to consciousness.
Each type of emotional damage has a biological assessment and a program for it. It is entirely registered in the sub-conscious.
Every biological problem has 2 phases (2nd biological law)
Without pain, we would exist in a normal state. But when with pain, we go into a permanent day phase Hamer calls sympathicotonia. It keeps on at all times, rather than alternate daily.
Conflict-Active Phase = prolonged day phase, long term phase
If and when a conflict is resolved, then the healing phase begins.
This is the Night phase – vagatonia. Prolonged night phase for healing. Once done, you are normal again, if such were possible.
Healing symptoms:
Fatigue
Fever
Inflammation
Swelling, pain
Night Sweats
Discharge (in blood to export)
Now in PT, we uncover and release pain/emotions and discover related physical symptoms. But the physical symptoms could tell us the approximate emotional disturbance to begin with, in theory. Multiple disturbances are still not that much a problem since all organs and their parts are mapped and attached to specific parts of the brain. It is the same and consistent. Part of the Unified Theory Art speaks of, I suspect.
If medicine were truly authentic, then It would look at the various symptoms, list their counter parts in the brain and they would know what to expect for traumas. PT does not need to know this but if one convinces their own inner self that they want to get to the bottom of particular conflicts/traumas, then the inner self might be willing to allow feelings to rise, especially if there were help waiting to assist.
Medicine might end up more psychological than drug or operation oriented and much more effective, too. Which is why you will never see it. But for those who find the real world a scary place, just deny and ignore what I say. I am, after all, a crazy man and a bad influence on the young men, according to the “Areopagus.” So be it!
But GNM is well worth looking into and hearing what Arthur might have to say. I do not expect perfect harmonization but enough implications are made to warrant further analysis, from both a medical and psychological perspective.
yes I have to write on that but it is repression of people and their needs that is the direct analogue of the psychological process. In repressive societies repression is the number one killer, literally. Good question and thanks for writing. art
ReplyDeleteFrank: Have you any idea what a lawsuit costs? You need to be very rich to do that. AJ
ReplyDeleteAn email comment:
ReplyDelete"Wow Art, just wow!
If only they would put some money in studying the effects of your therapy, especially as they go through it, I think they might see some amazing things. I think the difference between abreaction and a primal would be very easy to see. I know that angry abreaction just makes me angrier and pimalling my anger makes me kinder and softer and more relaxed. All the cognitive people have studied has been abreaction and then they argue against primal therapy. I still struggle to get friendship with third liners, the intellectuals who seem so smart but can't seem to feel much. I hurts to give up on them and just accept them as they are, because then I feel the helplessness inside of me. I am quite sure that when we don't feel our hopelessness we won't become more real.
Can you go into why it's so very hard to try to help yourself to feel while one still has a lot of primal pain? Also, can you address the issue of being primally aware when inside one is very unreal. Does this deepen the neurosis or give more of an ability to fee? When and with whom is it either helpful or harmful?"
An my answer: We already have done several studies on abreaction vs a primal. I discussed this in several books. The vital signs rise and fall in sporadic fashion in abreaction, and rise linearly and fall below baseline in a primal. Look it up. art janov
ReplyDeletePrice: I discuss this in my new book. Pain uses the same track so that often even the brain and nervous systemic does not make any distinction. art janov
ReplyDeletePrice: As you see a physical painkiller dulls emotions. Therefore it works on both kinds of pain. AJ
ReplyDeleteAn email comment:
ReplyDelete"
When I think of fascist dictatorships I usually make an analogy to what goes on in humans.
[IT'S NOT ONLY FASCIST DICTATORSHIPS THAT ARE THEPROBLEM. IN FACT, IT'S NOT EVEN NECESSARILY ABOUT DEMOCRACY. ON THE ONE HAND,THERE ARE HORRIBLE GOVERNMENTS THAT ARE NOT FASCIST (IN ANY MEANINGFUL WAY) THATARE TERRIBLE TO THEIR PEOPLE, E.G. CONGO AND AFGHANISTAN. AND THERE HAVE BEENGOVERNMENTS THAT ARE AUTHORITARIAN BUT HAVE DONE A LOT TO IMPROVE PEOPLE'SLIVES, FROM SOME ANCIENT GREEK CITIES TO VIETNAM AND CUBA TODAY. SO, ALTHOUGHIT'S A BIT FUZZY, I THINK A CLEARER DISTINCTION WOULD BE BETWEEN GOVERNMENTSWHICH SERIOUSLY TRY TO MEET THE NEEDS OF ITS CITIZENS, AND THOSE WHO DON'T -MOST OF WHICH ARE, AS YOU SAY BELOW, CONSERVATIVE (LIKE HERE IN CANADA NOW!!]
And what the two always, always have in common is REpression and neglect of need. There cannot be a proper government when need is ignored because that is the function of government; to supply and fulfill needs that can only be done on a grand scale. What happens to the individual who is deprived is that he suffers all kinds of maladies and behavior disorders. What happens to societies is the same thing; society becomes sick. The way we see it is in greater prison and mental hospital entries, greater homelessness, poverty and general dysfunction. HOWEVER, WHILE CHINA IS LESSDEMOCRATIC THAN THE U.S. AND HAS 4 TIMES THE POPULATION, IT NEVERTHELESS HASFEWER PEOPLE IN JAIL, AND PERHAPS A LOWER RATE OF PSYCHOPATHS.ANOTHER HUGE FACTOR IS INEQUALITY, E.G. THE US IS MORE UNEQUAL THAN IRAN,NIGERIA, BANGLADESH, AND RUSSIA - HARDLY MODELS OF DEMOCRACY!
A society that is pledged to fulfill the needs of its members does not show all of the signs of dysfunction. It is a “sane” society. What happens in a fascist society is that the minute the truth (read, the feeling/need) leaks out it is squelched. Not be internal processes but by external thuggery. The leaders do not want any sign of need to show just as shrinks help to suppress pain/need with tranquilizers. Guns are the tranquillizers of the fascists. (AND OF MANYOTHER TYPES OF GOVERNMENTS IN WHICH THE RULING ELITES WILL USE FORCE TO MAINTAIN DOMINATION).
Dictators kill what is alive in society in the same way that we kill our feelings internally or with drugs externally. They are not amenable to argument because they tolerate no dissent. It is the addiction of power, and it is one of the most powerful needs of all; they will kill when power is challenged. With power goes the right to rob the populace and whatever is yours becomes theirs. In Tunisia when the leader wanted a pretty house he kicked out the occupants and took it. AND WHEN THE US WANTED TO CONTROL THE OIL IN IRAQ....
Marxists say that religion is the opiate of the masses. So is patriotism. It tranquilizes while promising fulfillment in the next life; that is its function, to quell distress and keep it under wraps. Whenever the church and state are close fascism enters. No dissent is tolerated. The closer they are the worse the dictatorship. They work together. Religion provides the rationale for lack of fulfillment and offers substitute fulfillment that is always only symbolic. The dictator then protects the church; witness what happened during WW2 when the Catholic church protected the Nazis and helped some of them escape. They never came down on the church. THESE GENERALIZATIONS NEED SOME QUALIFICATIONS, AS THEY DON'T ALWAYS CORRELATE,E.G. THE ROLE OF LIBERATION THEOLOGY IN THE STRUGGLES OF LATIN AMERICANS.
In times of war truth is the first casualty; and in personal terms the internecine battle going on inside of us helps suppress our truth. And the minute feelings come up repressive chemicals rush in the block them. And because needs/feelings are blocked they produce symptoms. In society and in personal life they can produce crime or violence.
"
Part 2 of the above email comment:
ReplyDelete"
So we see the fascist mindset at work; we don’t call them fascists; rather we call them “conservatives.” But at bottom what is it really? When needs come up against money, property or assets, needs always come in last.
That is how the fascist [WHY NOT BROADER CATAGORIES -UNFEELING, SELFISH OR GREEDY, SINCE THESE PROBLEMS OBVIOUSLY HAPPEN INNON-FASCIST STATES] mindset works. It is the same in shrinkdom. When needs show up in therapy they are usually ignored or drugged to death. So conservatives stop health care. Why?. 1. Because they first, deny needs, and 2. Because those who give them money are antithetical to fulfillment of need. It is the battle between needs and money/power. The suppression of need, the right to strike, for example, to show dissatisfaction is suppressed by dictators but also by the conservative mind-set which helps the capitalists from losing money. So when there is a battle between property rights and individual needs, property rights wins out. It is a biosocial law. Don’ t forget workers’ salaries are what determines the amount of profit. The lower the salary the greater the profit. And corporate power has co-opted conservatives [AND MANY SO-CALLED'LIBERALS'] to carry out their philosophy and theory. I am reminded of this when cutting down trees means to them, not destroying the environment but creating jobs. It is unshakeable logic, and what they don’t see is beauty because again, beauty and esthetics take a back seat to the system. Ronald Reagan is supposed to have said after visiting the redwood forest of California, “seen one redwood you’ve seem them all.”
So liberals are called bleeding hearts because they believe in feelings, something denigrated by the conservatives. So look around. The societies who care about their people are strong and sane; and in families, those who care about children produce sane ones. [EXAMPLES? NORWAY? OR...] In military life obedience is apotheosized; asis homes with many rules and the demand for complete and unquestioning obedience. Obedience usually means ignoring one’s own needs and fulfilling the needs of others. When parents have many unfulfilled needs of their own, obedience means the child has to help fulfill them. If the parent wants to beloved he can force it. If he wants to be smart he can deride any show of intelligence in the children. If he needs adoration he will try to get it from his child. In social terms it is the State. One must adore the State and not deride it. Therefore, in some Arab States there is the law of Blasphemy where you can be killed for criticizing the state and its denial of need. So you not only must ignore your own needs but help punish those who don’t deny them. Those are the dissidents and they can called communists or any other bad name by the powers that be. So basically the people who want fulfillment are the bad guys, usually called socialists or communists, while those who help deny are the good guys, the real patriots.
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Hope this helps!
"
As you see a physical painkiller dulls emotions. Therefore it works on both kinds of pain. AJ
ReplyDeleteThe writing on governments was fascinating. I just love that stuff. And it is related to repression, no doubt. I am going to suggest that if Fascism is defined as might makes right, the Fasces (right?), then all governments are Fascists. If one requires government and business to cooperate, then that still applies to nearly all governments since today, multinational corps control almost all governments anyway. But for me, these are all just labels that don’t really mean a thing.
ReplyDeleteI offer this! That by virtue of the existence of a government, it is an indication that there is repression and bullying. For if a groups of people lived with consideration for each other, then collective rule and law would likely not even be necessary. The Primal Center has no police force, per say. No voting or representatives. Yet they function, do they not?
Really, it is all about control, which always conflicts with independent thinking and inclinations. The fact we even have groups or organized bodies to enforce one thing or another is evidence of rule and of an agenda, even if it is not publically stated. This is following each piece of evidence to its conclusion. We are not free to search or think, or express as we please. Someone always wants to interfere.
Governments organize and form connections and tentacles so that they can control everything. They are often called collectives. They collect people to use and abuse for their own selfish gains. Show me a government, and I will show you a collective, with masters and slaves.
All governments and collectives, at their heart, are the same. Use whatever labels you like. Now some really do believe that some forms of government are different than others. I must speak my own mind honestly. I disagree in the strongest terms. The platform of any particular government really comes down to: “ do it my way or you will be damn sorry you did not.” It really is that simple and reductionistic. To split hairs about this platform or that one is silly and absurd. Many of those supposed conflicts of say, for example, conservatives vs liberal are phony shows like good cop/bad cop games. In reality, both sides are on the same side, 2 sides of the very same coin, my friend. Hey, you are the one who brought it up!
I find political liberals as fascist and brutal as conservative. Most liberals in previous times were blood thirsty communist blood spillers on a mass scale. For you to suggest that they are feeling, compassionate, or caring, indicates to me, extreme blindness and lost touch with reality. All power is the same.
But your following statement was outstanding and respected by me: “In military life obedience is apotheosized; as is homes with many rules and the demand for complete and unquestioning obedience. Obedience usually means ignoring one’s own needs and fulfilling the needs of others.”
All struggles are against authority of one sort or another. Its all the same. We want to be independent and free, to think, to feel, to speak our minds, and to learn unhindered or even unaided as in forced schooling which is actually mass deprivation of stimuli. I don’t have much use for labels, especially when they are generalized and inaccurate.