Thursday, June 16, 2011

So You Think the Government Will Solve Addiction?

I would like to tell you a soothing bedtime story but all I have is bad stories. Today in the news is the story of neuroscientists Nora Volkow. She is in charge of studying and treating drug addiction, head of the national institute on drug abuse. God help us because she won’t. She has decided that addiction has all to do with less or more dopamine. She is studying dopamine pathways, etc. She says, “addiction is all about dopamine.” And headaches are all about aspirins. Or, “headaches are all about serotonin.” You fill in the chemical blanks.

You know why they think that? Because they are scientists, in the strict sense of the word. They see chemicals, cells, hormones but never never the human being. Why is dopamine depleted? What happens to us to make that happen? They don’t seem to believe in the unconscious or very early imprints; they don’t believe in early reality so they look at cells and chemicals. Reminds me of the big painting of the nude and the little lady in the Victorian dress is looking only at the flowers in the background. Now I know why she never answered my letters, or why the previous director told me that I had to go through a friend of his. It is not just politics; it is unconsciousness on the part of the scientists who studied in order to avoid their pain and their feelings, and now cannot see how on earth our early life could lead to addiction. It makes me heartsick to think that addicts everywhere are waiting for help and what they will get is more or less of dopamine. (NY Times, June 14, 2011, Science Times). And people who might help are ignored.

This is not sour apples, not pouting; but what it is, is heartsick, knowing that addicts will never get the help they need. And they will suffer and go to jail while scientists study less and less and learn less and less. I guess the whole human being is too complex to grasp and understand, especially by those who have no access to feelings and who do not see how feelings are paramount in the problem. It is not a disease. It is survival. Trying to be normal by taking the drugs to normalize the system that was detoured by early pain. By taking powerful painkillers to counter powerful pain set down even during gestation.

I have treated so many addicts from glue-sniffers to eating disorders to heroin takers. They are trying to beat the pain. Why can’t the scientists see that pain? They could if they could see their own; but alas, they cannot. A caveat: you need in-house therapy for heavy-duty addicts, but they can be treated if they are watched for months until the pain subsides; that is not done overnight. Do you think anyone puts powerful drugs into their system if they didn’t need it; out of caprice?

Years ago I had back surgery, painful affair. And the State decided not to allow us in the hospital to have powerful painkillers because they were so worried about addiction. Can you imagine? Doctors who cannot feel their pain deciding that others have to. So the repressed win and they take a detour in studying addiction that will NEVER lead to cure. And they get all the money for their studies because it can be quantified; so much dopamine, so much this or that. Where are the feelings? Where are the humans? Where is there attention to their early lives? Where is the acknowledgement of history? Volkow may know about pain but can she feel it?

30 comments:

  1. Hi,

    "So the repressed win". . . . but not the affections of those who feel or who want to feel.

    Paul G.

    ReplyDelete
  2. As we are told - science is based on what can be measured. True scientists understand that the reality of things often goes well beyond what can be measured, and they incorporate this fact into their thinking. They know the limits of what they can and cannot see, and what they can and cannot know.

    It is not easy to specifically identify nor measure an Imprint. Doesn't mean it's not there - right? Feel it and you WILL know it's there.

    I think some scientists make a religion out of what can be measured to a point where they create a kind of escapist (always from their pain) world out of their mathematics and concrete absolutes. To me those ones are not so much scientists but technicians. And they should have the social authority of just technicians.

    ------------------------------------------

    Quote: "It is not a disease. It is survival. Trying to be normal by taking the drugs to normalize the system that was detoured by early pain".

    Exactly - and a revelation for people. Even my grandfather, who drank, once said: "Alcohol makes you feel for a time they way you should feel all the time".

    ReplyDelete
  3. Art; It's a simple statement:- "you can only get addicted to pain-killers"

    As you state: until scientist have some understanding of their own inner pain, of course they are not going to go the feeling route. BUT, then there is an alternative. Let those in pain chose the pain-killer that suits them best. My suspicion is; that most in acute pain will chose heroine (the medical professions isolation of the active ingredients of opium). What I don't know is:- are there any alternatives to ingesting heroine other than intravenously? If so, then allow it to become readily available, if the politicians, in league with the scientist will allow this simple and relatively cheap drug, to be used by those in pain (a personal decision not an MD's decisions). Next, how effective as a pain-killer is opium compared to heroine? and if relatively equal then allow smoking that to be an alternative.

    Sure the Primal route is the most effective, IF we could get enough therapists who truly understood the feeling route. I don't see that happening.

    We need another Galileo in the mental health profession. We already have the Copernicus (Arthur Janov).

    Some thoughts;-
    Science is the pastime of neurotics.
    Neurosis is the problem ... and it has been defined
    'Thinking' is our first and greatest act-out.
    Real health occurs naturally when we are able to be fully-feeling-full.
    No-one addiction is any better than another ... they all kill us in the end.
    Stephen Hawking stated recently that religion is a fairy tale ... so is science.
    Words; language, is merely an agreement amongst us humans ... so is mathematics. Both are imprecise.
    The geniuses of the world are simply those that can 'contemplate' outside box.
    We somehow hope that that we can live "happily ever after". yet we know that is a myth.
    The word "Why" is all the languages that I know of; yet 'why' never get resolved.

    Jack

    ReplyDelete
  4. Art - It seems to me the problem is - your work invalidates most modern medical practice. How can a doctor take that on board?

    I currently have an application in with your Center. Quote from my doctor when I ask for the medical release you need to accept me - "Who are these people?". Needless to say, she wouldn't look at your Primal Healing book I had taken in with the scientific references in. I'm in the position of neurotic attitudes in my doctors possibly preventing me doing the therapy.

    But it does seem a bit strange to me that you choose to present your work in the way you do, graphic cover, type of publisher and so on - it puts it under the Self Help section of bookstores. I know it's honest presentation, but conventional medical practice just sees "Therapy/California" and lumps it with all the crackpots. Then again, I suppose if it had been under the medical section, I might not have come across it.

    I think you should get a Nobel prize for your work, which I know you have tried to present conventionally. So I guess you must be pretty frustrated. It's good to hear you sounding off in these blogs, which I enjoy a lot.

    I think I'm just trying to say there are people out here who do understand both your work and the reasons for conventional medical science's failure to take it on board.

    The Primal Journal once published a brilliant article on Paradigms in the psychology context, that I think is very relevant to these matters.

    ReplyDelete
  5. Much of what you say has some truth to it. But I would suggest that scientists ignoring PT is more a result of deliberately ignoring it due to political reasons. Most academics, from which much of science often derives, is ruled by politics and those appointed as “gatekeepers,” unknown to the rest of us as having been so appointed. The gatekeepers use denial as well as funding the wrong directions so that few ever hear about it, much less study it.

    You suggest unintended innocence. I suggest deliberate intended malice. Our world has been carefully guided for at least 400 years in a specific direction. What I wonder is why this is not discerned more by some of those in the PT field. Why it is so unobvious and not clear, and very elusive? Things in general, do not happen by accident or random occurrence.

    You seem to infer that the scientific process is legitimate and upfront. That is the official explanation but its not true. If you make a process unfairly and unreasonably hard to quantify or prove, then you are not seeking the truth. You are seeking to prevent and obscure truth. Rig the game and you control the game and the direction it goes in.

    I offer you to take a journey with me into the study of the methods of science and how they have been corrupted in many ways. I leave you with this consideration.

    Politics, academics, science, technology, enforcement, military, medical and psychological health, the media, and religion and the like are all one seamless connected unified network that functions as one. They have had this sort of control at least from the middle ages on.

    Now it is your turn. Do you want to hide even as the so called doctors of psychology have done, by your accounting? Or would you like to explore the possibility of what I offer? Email or accept here. But if you turn away, then I will know you might also be connected with this large networked body and choose not to see what really is. I just want to see how far this blindness and darkness goes.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Hi Apollo, a bit late (rather) but, yes, I'm accepting. Not even sure this will get through especially given how late it is but giving it a shot anyway.

      Regards,

      Tudor (thedoorsings@gmail.com)

      Delete
  6. Tony: Yes and the guy who wrote that piece on paradigms is a former patient and current friend of mine. He has been a columnist for a major newspaper. AJ Our website tells everyone who we are. And the fact that I am Academic Hall of Fame should count for something. Also on the Research Committee of a university.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Art,
    What more can be said... what you said is just amazing… it's all explained in your text. Perhaps a variable of explanation may be an option… but you have done that also.
    You have to do more Art! Everything you write is so right but it needs something more... more of science in the way to prove primal therapy’s eligibility.
    You have to do something more! What is it that prevents a legal process? Help me Art!
    Frank.

    ReplyDelete
  8. This Nora Volkow is an example, I beleive, of what Reich called a "mechanist". Reich classified the neuroses of people for practical purposes , and one of the broad dualities he often noticed is what he called the mechanistic neurosis versus the mystical neurosis, with respect to our general perceptions of the universe. The mechanist is the average contemporary scientist, relatively out of touch with feelings, pursuing scientific truth in a narrow way, especially pernicious when investigating LIVING life.The mystic, on the other hand, closer to her feelings, but needing to project supernatural forces onto the universe, would be your average religious person. The undistorted natural perception of things by an emotionally healthy person is what Reich called "functional thinking" . A Reichian therapist, Dr Charles Konia,further explains these distinctions , in a short blog article that applies these distintions to the area of human sexuality:

    The Mechanistic And Mystical Views On Human Sexuality by Charles Konia

    Differences in the world views of armored (neurotic) people’s mechanistic and mystical thinking are apparent in every area of human life including human sexuality. When applied to living functions, mechanistic and mystical thinking are distortions and serve as a defense against seeing things as they really are. These views generally correspond to the thinking of the political Left (!? - Marco's addition) addition (mechanistic thinking) and the Right (mystical thinking).

    When applied to human sexuality, mechanistic thinking seems to be able to investigate every aspect of human sexuality in minute detail from different varieties of pre-genital sexual activity to the hormones, neurotransmitters and brain centers that are involved in sex. After all of the studies, little if anything new has been learned about the sexual functions of emotional life. Mystical thinking, on the other hand, focuses on terms such as “love”, “energy” and so on that have no physical basis.

    Both views contain serious distortions. They ignore the existence of the physical biological energy that is capable of providing the basis for understanding every aspect of the human sexual function. Knowledge of this energy, which was discovered by Wilhelm Reich around 1940, continues to remain off limits to those who think mechanistically or mystically through their armored character structures. Through bio-electric experimentation, Reich found that the charge at the skin surface increased during states of pleasure and decreased during states of anxiety. He concluded that there is a real physical energy involved in these differing emotional states. The emotions of pleasure and anxiety correspond to different directions of energy movement; from the center of the organism to the periphery in pleasure, from the periphery to the center in anxiety. From clinical investigation he concluded that the sexual orgasm in the relatively unarmored organism functions like a safety valve to regulate its energy economy and by so doing prevents the build-up of energy that can lead to every form of human pathology, medical, social and psychological. However, in most armored people the regulatory function of the orgasm is disturbed and this is why they cannot recognize it’s functional importance in maintaining emotional and physical health. The current mechanistic-mystical views on human sexuality are the inevitable result of armored thinking.

    May 15, 2011
    Categories: Politics, Social Sciences, Medical Sciences, Child Rearing, Biological Sciences . . Author: Charles Konia, M.D. . Comments: Leave a Comment


    Marco

    ReplyDelete
  9. Dr. Janov,

    Governments are not interested in healing the source. They like to control.
    Years off experience allows me to make this statement.

    Here is another example:
    “The Lasting Effects of Child Neglect”
    925 children were abused in Hinds
    "It's painful regardless of age," says Chris Cothern, a Licensed Professional Counselor and the Child and Adolescent Program Manager at Psycamore, LLC in Flowood.

    “No matter how young or old the child is, help is available”. "For a child, we do play therapy, expressive therapy," says Cothern. We allow them to be able to learn new coping skills in childlike fashion. For adolescents, it's more interactive.
    They're able to talk about and express their feelings."
    Cothern says the scars associated with child abuse and neglect will never go away, but with proper help, the child will grow up better equipped to handle them.
    http://www2.wjtv.com/news/2011/jun/16/lasting-effects-child-neglect-ar-1986382/

    Sieglinde

    ReplyDelete
  10. Art,

    To be in pain is also pain even if we don’t registry that we suffer. What I mean is even when our awareness is not in contact with our consciousness we still suffer. What we think we do does not matter… its pain not being in touch with our consciousness. If I think I feel good wail my body suffer I am Mr. nobody… can we be in worse pain? I guess not. Put those people in solitary confinement and I “guess” we will see what they don’t know about them self’s… in solitary confinement with a guide from the Primal Center.
    I can’t think of something worse. What we don’t know about our self’s is not the matter… the matter is a matter of how we can be helped or not… the fact of not feeling the pain is a horrible situation… that is the fact that love becomes something we NEVER will know about.
    We are talking about schizophrenias they are better off than the one who don’t know about their own suffering. The problems they bring with them are that they sacrifice others for their suffering… we cannot repress that fact.
    You who can feel that others are in pain… that they suffer even when they shows a proud face… you may be the key one… the solution when Primal Therapy become the one and only for therapeutic opportunity.
    I guess we will have a lot to see what Primal Therapy can achieve under circumstances the defense do not perform its function.
    Let us have a legal process?

    Frank

    ReplyDelete
  11. Have you any idea what a lawsuit costs, tens of thousands of dollars just to start. Lawyers always want a major retainer. AJ

    ReplyDelete
  12. An email comment: "Thank you for saying you're heartsick. I've been heartsick for a lifetime. I've stopped reading these studies because I know they're wrong, dead wrong. Their lies interfere with my progress. They frighten me. I'm neither addicted nor dead because of doing "primal self-therapy" for 25 years with the help of Alice Miller's, J. K. Stettbacher's, and Jean Jenson's books. Now your blogs keep me in touch with what I know to be the truth.

    Again, thank you."

    ReplyDelete
  13. Another email comment: "Dear Dr. Janov, SO RIGHT! Have you ever heard of the south American herb IBOGAINE? It helps people go back into childhood pain in a very real and primal way, and to get that the reason they take the drugs is from their childhood pain. The drug also has some amazing chemical properties that keep the person from going through withdrawal, and afterwards they are not addicted to drugs! after one, long drug trip. Legal in Clinics in Canada, and many countries of the world, but not here of course.
    Naturally, primal therapy would help after that. But, for intractable addicts, it can be the lifesaving factor. Oh, and if you want to see someone going around giving a message I think you would love, check out Dr. Gabor Mate on You Tube. Awesome.
    THANK YOU for your brilliant work. Sorry that you didn’t get the attention from the mainstream you deserved. But I know you have helped many."

    ReplyDelete
  14. And another email comment:
    "Dr. Janov,

    This is so right on!

    I was watching a documentary recently about teen girls being jailed because they had made some "bad" choices, you'd say "had been driven to act out early need". They were being treated by so called professionals in addictions counseling and I was disheartened to see how they were being treated and lectured at.

    The councilors were just not tuning into what they were feeling and really weren't too concerned with it. They were more concerned that their prisoner was not getting it, and that they were not able to get through to her.
    Their concern was that they "get their heads on straight" study, behave and get out of there to live in the world like a good robot. Also they could not connect with any other prisoner because as soon as that happened they would isolate them. These girls were getting more of the same of what they got from their unfeeling parents and were expected to change. Well, we know that's not going to happen!"

    ReplyDelete
  15. Apollo: I have followed Art's work quite closely for about 15 years. I have a very strong impression as to where he's at.

    NO CONSPIRACY HERE!!!!!

    Take care,
    Andrew

    ReplyDelete
  16. Frank: Pleases ask someone to help with your English. AJ

    ReplyDelete
  17. About Wilhelm Reich. This is a man and his theories that all need to get acquainted with. His main idea is that there is a certain energy underlying life. How effective was it? Well, he had this accumulator whereby he could make it rain anywhere within 72 hours. He did so in one place and some FBI goons showed up as soon as it rained and took him away and locked him up. Why? Because it worked? Exactly!

    Behind these theories are the real physics. Those in high power do not want you to know about that physics. They prefer to give you a substitute fake physics. So they silenced Reich, burst onto his property and destroyed his orgone box accumulator and other things as well. Destroying labs is a routine practice. Was done to Nikola Tesla, Philo Farnsworth, and so many others.

    It is said that truth is stranger than fiction. I agree. There is much more that could be said about the electrical body. The Body Electric is a book I would recommend strongly. It was put out in the 70s, like so many good book and research that has not advanced since for reasons and not an accident. It is a good example of how good research does not get any funding, despite how incredible this stuff is.

    If all you listen to is approved sources of info, you will get the same result you have always gotten, folks. If you were to conduct a trial as a lawyer, would you only allow one side to present evidence or conduct questions? Unthinkable. So don’t do so with your own investigations. In fact, much more will be learned by seeking out the contrary evidence, the suppressed evidence, which threatens the forces above. But this is where the real answers lie. Those above know this quite well. They just don’t want you to know it.

    Stick your head in the sand if you ilke, but I only suggest that burying your head in the sand at this time could prove to be fatal. This is not like any other time in history. Technology has changed everything. Before, ignorance was not only not bliss, it was darkness and gloom. But now its not just darkness, it is danger and life threatening.

    We have a battle within ourselves with our unmet needs and pain. But there might be a battle of even far greater significance than that struggle from within. And if that external battle is not faced and dealt with, there may not be any internal battle or life left afterward.

    There is much you have not heard about the radiation from Japan. We have all likely absorbed in our lungs at least 5 deadly particles. 1 is dangerous. And so much more I could say. But Primal Pain may be the least of your worries. Hence, I do not believe it wisdom or beneficial to ignore the function of the intellect and ignoring the outside world and what makes it function.

    We who know PT, know much but maybe not enough. PT should alert us to a world not running right at all. That should not be ignored and deserve further investigation. Ignore it only at your own peril. Where there is smoke, there is fire. Don’t ever doubt it.

    ReplyDelete
  18. It makes me wanna cry. I know every individual's human experience belongs to each and everyone of us. That there must be some sort of enigmatic yet coherent truth behind everyone's path along incarnations. And yet it makes me sad seeing so many souls in trouble.

    ReplyDelete
  19. Apollo,

    To put an end to externial warfare requires an end to internial warfare.

    Frank

    ReplyDelete
  20. Apollo: If you are to discuss someone , you must get your facts straight. With regards to your comments about Wilhelm Reich, they are inaccurate.You write that Reich had an "accumulator where he could make it rain anywhere within 72 hours". This is completely inaccurate. The orgone accumulator which Reich developed was used with human beings only ,to charge them up energetically, and for other medical purposes. Anyone interested in what an accumulator is can read some of Reich`s books for detailed scientific descriptions of the theories behind it, and the medical uses to which it was put (see, for example "The Cancer Biopathy"). As far as Reich`s work with weather modification, he developed an instrument called a cloudbusted to change weather patterns locally only. Even that may seem farfetched , but anyone can check out Reich`s (and his colleagues`) detailed scientific description of his work with weather modification, and then decide for themselves. Finally, the FBI never arrested him as he was doing his weather experiemnts; he was jailed for violating some type of court order after a trial where he was accused of unlawfully selling these accumulators , which the US government deemed to be scientifically unsound, thus quackery.This latter conclusion is, of course, contested by people continuing Reich`s work.

    Just as people into Primal at least wish the courtesy of critics accurately understanding Dr Janov`s theories before judgement is made, so do people into Reich appeal for the courtesy of accurate descriptions of Reich`s work, and openness to scientific objectivity regarding them.

    Marco

    ReplyDelete
  21. Frank, it might seem that way, but . . . YOu can solve all internal warfare but it will not stop someone from harming you after, to the point of trauma, such as a rape, or other grave in justice. and if just by chance, that injustice is a broad prevalent system wide one, all the more so. So ending internal problems will not end all your problems. Not all our problems are internal.

    I doubt that total expectation and preparation for defending from or absorbing attacks can prevent all harm. There are still plenty of things that can harm us even with foreknowledge of their coming. the inner self never sleeps and it can always be "touched." We must be ever ready to receive pain and then process it, perhaps in small chunks till its all gone. Sound good?

    ReplyDelete
  22. Hi,

    Before I began to connect with my quite seriously ingrained abandonment and separation issues (now at last feeling and expressing the pain) I was very interested in the idea of conspiracy by the higher powers. . . I was very convinced that God (or good) could intervene with corrective actions. I even believed that with my particular skills I could also have an effect in the outer world that would change things for the better.

    It is obvious that there is a huge potential for us individuals to evolve into (God like) autonomous individuals with quite remarkable powers; (not least of all the ability to co-operate with each other on constructive ventures).

    Nevertheless, with all my defences in place and all my weird beliefs about what's right and wrong and so much of my personal energy invested in so many DISCONNECTS, I am really only a weak automaton under the influence of external stimulae. This is an impartial view of myself gradually acquired over 40 years.

    As I look back at my life and as I study more and more of history I see that what looks like a conspiracy is really just the predictable convolutions of many people like me.

    A bloody chaotic mess and a few manipulative people on top. Ok that's glib but I feel it's true.

    To credit the "authorities" with the power (and distorted intent) of deliberately steering the course of human history over 400 yrs is to see the authorities in a projection of our own parents when we were children. . . ALL POWERFUL, ALL GOD LIKE & (therefore) UTTERLY ABLE TO CONTROL. UTTERLY, with all the mystique of 'loving parents'.

    Arts' implication that the intellect is a sort of 'defensive' outgrowth from the limbic is reflected in the "History of Crime" (Bertrand Russell); as the intellect grapples with existence and f***s it up! Look at the behaviour of toddlers in play groups when un supervised for more than 5 minutes.

    There is no conspiracy. Even 9/11 and the collapse of those buildings was deliberate; OH Yes, they were "pulled" all-right, and yes there were power/money shenanigans going on in the background but there always are, there always were! 9/11 was not a conspiracy but a criminal 'act out' of greed and paranoid projection.

    You Guys may have heard of Bill Mollison and his "Permaculture" movement. He has basically re-iterated the tenets of Evolution which is the theory of natural selection.

    It's very important to grasp this idea because the basic Darwinian theory of "Natural Selection" has become bastardised to be understood as "SURVIVAL of the FITTEST" and "COMPETITION". We look at lions hunting gazelle and we think we are seeing evolution. Wrong.

    This is a quite wrong interpretation. In natural selection there are ever changing environments and resources that support various types of life until those environments change and then the life forms adapt or die out or move on.

    What we see in History (Chiefly of Crime or otherwise) is the very same thing and although it looks like the powerful have been manipulating the weak and this is the main thrust of the worlds problems, one cannot credit the "Powers that Be" with the intelligence or power to actually "Overwrite" evolution. This is rather like applying the logic of CBT to the so called historical facts of politics and war.

    There is plenty of evidence to show that 60,000yrs ago the human population of the planet dropped to almost extinction levels and you can be sure that when such cataclismic events occur the so called Power Posessors will be just as likely to be wiped out as any of us.

    People with disabilities may not agree but Nature does offer us a level playing field. It is the uniquely human that keeps on disrupting and re-modelling it in the naive belief that manipulating will get us our needs satisfied.

    Learning what nature needs and trying to live according to her laws is what will make life (and death) easier for us.

    Paul G.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Art, Tony Riley:

    If the article about psychological paradigms is Augustin Gurza's *Culture and Neurosis*, you can add me to the list of Mr. Gurza's fans. I read that as a teenager and it introduced me to an entire world of psychology and anthropology, as well as Thomas Kuhn's work (Kuhn is the originator of the idea of "paradigms").

    Since Gurza is a professional journalist, I'll have to check out some of his later work. The article in the old *Journal* holds up well over 35 years later. In fact, the *Journal* ran several excellent pieces during its short run. Our good fortune is that the Primal world has given us more than just Arthur Janov alone.

    ReplyDelete
  24. An email comment:
    "Hi, AJ, thanks for writing this, I wanted to respond, because I can say that I was an addict, and that I was cured by primal therapy. I came from a family of Addicts, my father was a Meth/Alcohol addict, and used to buy Amphetamines in Mexico. He took his family along with him on drug deals, it made it easier to smuggle the drugs back across the border in the family car when we were along. I remember him drinking, half a gallon of Vodka a day, starting in the mornings, along with amphetamines. By night time, I wouldn't know where to look. By twelve I started smoking pot, by the time I as 14, I was smoking a joint on the way to high school, taking LSD, STP, Mescaline, Smoking Heroin, Opium, inhalents, and lots of drugs I didn't even know what they were. I also married and addict, and all my friends were addicts. As as an addict almost every waking moment of my life revolved around getting high, each detail of my existence. Every normal event of life I did high, or in the process of getting high. Yet, since primal therapy, I have been sober over 30 years, thanks to you. I know that those in the so called "recovery community", are skeptical that someone, could be sober, without going to meetings, without doing step work, without having a sponsor. Yet I have never been to a single 12 step meeting. But haven't been "white knuckling it". Not at all. I came to Primal Therapy because I couldn't make my neurosis work. Thats just an impossible task, making it work. I feel very lucky to have found Primal Therapy, because, otherwise, I would be dead now of Alcoholism, or a drug OD, or be locked up somewhere on a permanent drip of phenothiazines. "

    ReplyDelete
  25. Hi Paul!

    What you say may be right. then again, maybe you are lacking a mountain of information. How do you know, whether what you know, is a little or a lot? How would you determine it? If you are missing a lot of info, then you may not be in a position to make an accurate assessment. Just something to ponder.

    It is such examples that beg me to ask, how effective is PT, if it can not give us good discernment and vision about the real and true world we live in? Also worth pondering. we tend to find only what we are looking for and if there is something we do not want to find or see, we likely never will. this too, bears pondering.

    If there is to be an answer for individuals, It must lie in a considerable amount of evidence that does not leave a whole lot of loose ends undone as science is often great for doing.

    You do not believe in conspiracy and that is fine. but belief and perception are dangerous ground to be on, are they not? You might want to search for a better foundation such as hard facts and not feelings. Feelings can mislead those all primaled out just as they can those neurotic. Let the buyer beware.

    Feelings do have limits and the intellect does have it place and purpose.

    ReplyDelete
  26. The former patient drug addict has a good point. Many who come to PT have no other alternative. They are at wits end. They were never very functional to begin with and PT was a blessing.

    But if we heal and then do nothing with our lives, it seems a bit meaningless. Having lost much pain and gained much consciousness, I would think they would want to take it for a spin and give it a try on something, using the old noggin for a change and seeing what else they can find, after PT. just saying.

    ReplyDelete
  27. Hi Apollo,

    Of course you're right: the intellect is very important and I love the way I have finally found a way to my feelings, with the help of my intellect. I hide in my intellect too but until my feelings rise I am the last person to know because the hiding place is so perfectly a home for hiding me.

    I'm really good at it. look at all the fine words I can use to facsimile my feelings. . .

    Try so hard to get out. . .

    Paul G.

    ReplyDelete
  28. A facebook comment: "I would have thought a true scientist one that looked at causes of causes (cause of lack of dopamine), (as well as effects of effects); the whole picture. Those that narrow their vision are not real scientists at all to me. Science is a pursuit of truth, 'original' truth; likewise art."

    ReplyDelete

Review of "Beyond Belief"

This thought-provoking and important book shows how people are drawn toward dangerous beliefs.
“Belief can manifest itself in world-changing ways—and did, in some of history’s ugliest moments, from the rise of Adolf Hitler to the Jonestown mass suicide in 1979. Arthur Janov, a renowned psychologist who penned The Primal Scream, fearlessly tackles the subject of why and how strong believers willingly embrace even the most deranged leaders.
Beyond Belief begins with a lucid explanation of belief systems that, writes Janov, “are maps, something to help us navigate through life more effectively.” While belief systems are not presented as inherently bad, the author concentrates not just on why people adopt belief systems, but why “alienated individuals” in particular seek out “belief systems on the fringes.” The result is a book that is both illuminating and sobering. It explores, for example, how a strongly-held belief can lead radical Islamist jihadists to murder others in suicide acts. Janov writes, “I believe if people had more love in this life, they would not be so anxious to end it in favor of some imaginary existence.”
One of the most compelling aspects of Beyond Belief is the author’s liberal use of case studies, most of which are related in the first person by individuals whose lives were dramatically affected by their involvement in cults. These stories offer an exceptional perspective on the manner in which belief systems can take hold and shape one’s experiences. Joan’s tale, for instance, both engaging and disturbing, describes what it was like to join the Hare Krishnas. Even though she left the sect, observing that participants “are stunted in spiritual awareness,” Joan considers returning someday because “there’s a certain protection there.”
Janov’s great insight into cultish leaders is particularly interesting; he believes such people have had childhoods in which they were “rejected and unloved,” because “only unloved people want to become the wise man or woman (although it is usually male) imparting words of wisdom to others.” This is just one reason why Beyond Belief is such a thought-provoking, important book.”
Barry Silverstein, Freelance Writer

Quotes for "Life Before Birth"

“Life Before Birth is a thrilling journey of discovery, a real joy to read. Janov writes like no one else on the human mind—engaging, brilliant, passionate, and honest.
He is the best writer today on what makes us human—he shows us how the mind works, how it goes wrong, and how to put it right . . . He presents a brand-new approach to dealing with depression, emotional pain, anxiety, and addiction.”
Paul Thompson, PhD, Professor of Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine

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