Sunday, July 31, 2011

My Dear Poor Talented Amy Winehouse


She wrote a song about rehab and she was right: No No No.
If nothing else tells us about the failure of rehab this ought to be it. But we need to know why it is a failure. It is so obvious that I am reluctant to even discuss it; but I will to save other poor Amys the pain of it all.
The most obvious reason is that there is no science behind rehab. It involves a potpourri of a variety unproven ideas and methods that it is supposed to heal or cure: put them all together and they “all spell Dixie.”

Why is she so great? For the same reason that pre-psychotics in acting are so great. All feelings are right up on top. We can feel it and sense it and it moves us. That is their art. When I think of the great singers and actors in my life they are nearly always the most disturbed. They can project feeling because their gating system is weak or shot. And so what do they do? Take drugs that keeps on shattering their gating system. Until we get totally dysfunctional, sometimes violent poor Amy. All she was trying to do was kill the pain. Isn’t that logical? No one fills their body with drugs unless there is a need; most often unless there is great pain.

Ah but now, where does the pain come from, a pain so horrific that it creates unmanageable addiction later on. And now I become a little pedantic. It comes from birth and our life before birth. I know that is the title of my new book but it is true. The pain imprinted during that very early period is so damaging we cannot imagine it.
Especially since we can see it. It is in no way palpable. And worse, it is nearly always life-endangering. When a pregnant mother takes painkillers she is hurting her baby. When she even takes two drinks the damage is installed. And the parents are in a quandary; why are the kids so unhappy? If the mother fights with her husband all along her pregnancy she doesn’t have to wonder why her child is an addict or homosexual. Science now seems to say that fighting parents, an unhappy carrying mother can produce both, addiction and/or homosexuality. She is changing not only her own hormones but that of her offspring.

Now here is the rub. With that kind of background installed in the baby even the slightest adversity, the slightest lack of touch and warmth adds to the pain and makes the child an addict before he ever finds the drugs that make him feel normal again. When he finds that drug he is hooked. That agitated brain stem and limbic system which holds the pain is now calmed, and what a relief.

Let me tell you a story. I write music with David Foster and he had a regular singer that he used for his concerts, called Warren. A lovely guy who can act as if hypnotized and sing like Sinatra, or any other singer we choose. He was pre-psychotic. His father shot himself in front of him. No one survives that kind of pain. Nor did he. But he was hospitalized in a mental hospital for a while, Foster had a concert before the queen of England and he needed Warren. So we devised a strategy. We went to the hospital brought in a piano and decided that Warren would give a concert before the reigning psychiatrist. He did and he was released. But he was so drugged with tranquilizers during the concert that he was terrible. His feelings were suppressed by the medication. Ordinarily it is a transfer of feelings from his limbic system to ours, and we are moved. Not this time. But fortunately the queen never saw it or heard it.
Warren never survived all of this and we lost him, a dear and endearing soul who through no fault of his own died because of his pain.
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7 comments:

  1. YannJuly 31, 2011 at 5:50 AM

    Dr Janov,

    Is there some kind of play on words/joke in your spelling of Whinehouse (instead of Winehouse)? I agree, she was talented and awfully sexy and violent sometimes ("you know that I'm no good" "I told you I was trouble...").
    Troubles with the father like so many others (Tina Turner) and then husbands, boyfriends...
    Can't help thinking we are surrounding by so many people when we first meet someone even if there is only two people in the same place...

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  2. Richard AtkinJuly 31, 2011 at 9:27 PM

    Art I think you should write to the queen.

    ReplyDelete
  3. apolloJuly 31, 2011 at 9:39 PM

    What is most sad about this is that you could see it coming and yet do nothing about it. I saw it coming with my brother, too. Nothing could be done there, either. Perhaps worse, is that society feels so little compassion for human suffering, in part, due to ignorance of pain, specifically, pain caused by not appreciating how sensitive a developing baby is, even in the womb, and not caring for the baby accordingly. Instead, many look so judgmentally upon those addicted, imagining that it is solely the fault of an addict or homosexual for the way they are.

    A lot of harm and blame ought to be laid upon those who claim to be authorities in science and psychology and yet ignore PT. I say they do this quite deliberately. The crime? Deliberately suppressing and denying the truth and falsely representing themselves and their professional as being legitimate, honesty, upright, objective, and absolutely diligent. In my opinion, they and their profession are frauds to keep the people in the dark.

    If we just treated those in pain differently, it might change many outcomes. Just by not blaming the addict as if it were some moral choice they made arbitrarily.
    I will offer as evidence to my claim, a piece to follow that shows what has happened in another field of science where the very same pattern has manifested itself; namely, suppression and denial.

    ReplyDelete
  4. apolloJuly 31, 2011 at 9:40 PM

    Part 1 of 3

    I thought this very very relevant to why PT seems to be ignored. I’ll discuss it in part 3 of 3. The first part here sort of sets up the background for the conclusion in part 2 of 3.
    The following quote spanning 3 pages comes from:

    Dark Mission – The Secret History of NASA
    by Richard C. Hoagland & Mike Bara (new edition revised & expanded

    Page 132 Dark Mission

    If Einstein and Cartan are the "god fathers" of current torsion theory, the late Russian astronomer—Dr Nikolai A. Kozyrev—is definitely the "building architect" of this new science.
    Kozyrev, a Soviet astrophysicist, became world-famous in 1958 for his controversial spectroscopic detection of the first apparent gas emissions from the Moon (thus indicating it was, at some level, still active geologically).
    In parallel to his major astronomical career, Kozyrev also quietly conducted 33 years of empirical laboratory investigations of "rotation on rotation" behind the Iron Curtain.49 This work was completely independent of DePalma's eerily similar, equally painstaking efforts in the West.
    Revealing the astronomical entry point for his "new physics," Kozyrev wrote in 1963:
    "... It is of interest that even such a concrete question—namely, why do the Sun and the stars shine, i.e., why are they out of thermal equilibrium with the ambient space—cannot be answered within the known physical laws ...."

    In the end, all these scientists —DePalma , Kozyrev and Hoagland, separated by half a world and two completely different ideologies—independently confirmed the same inexplicable phenomena surrounding "rotation," and the simultaneous appearance of anomalous energy into all rotating objects as a result ... an energy somehow, in Kozyrev's prophetic words, coming from beyond "the known physical laws."
    The difference is Kozyrev's 33 years of countless laboratory demonstrations

    Chapter Two: Hyperdimensional Physics page 133

    Of this physics (and consistently anomalous results) eventually inspired a new aeration of Russian mathematical physicists—like Shipov, decades later—to parch out the theoretical foundations of these multiple "torsion phenomena."
    It is safe to say that, without the major work of Nikolai Kozyrev, the currently exploding field of "torsion physics"—based on decades of his repeatable experiments—simply would not have occurred.
    And, without Hoagland's serendipitous discovery of Kozyrev's work in 2005, "hyperdimensional physics" would still be lacking the sweeping experimental and mathematical foundation of "torsion physics" it has now suddenly discovered is its direct heritage.

    Continued in next post

    ReplyDelete
  5. apolloJuly 31, 2011 at 9:54 PM

    Party 3 of 3

    A new theory of physics opening amazing opportunities already backed by some supporting data and easily finished off with data in existence but withheld. Jump for joy? Not hardly. Dead silence. No refutation, no explanation for what appear to be a valid hypothesis that explains far more than previous theories. Does not sound like science to me! What are they afraid of?

    Well, to be honest, a lot. Military technology is often way ahead of public tech. and they like to keep it that way. If these new laws were revealed, we’d all be flying around in UFO vehicles and experience flight and travel at a fraction of the cost and speed many times the speed of light. There would be malls on the moon and Mars instead of those very real secret bases and UFOs that they deny but which have been photographed by more than one source.

    And we would truly have an unlimited source of power that does not pollute. The horrors. So they keep it all secret. Now if they do this in physics and they do it in medicine and cancer, and they do it in archaeology, then why is it not possible and likely that they do it in psychology as well? They do the very same thing in psychology for reasons I should not even have to explain.

    But if someone were to know the truth and not tell the truth, that is deceptive and duplicitous. The gatekeepers share a tragic liability for their deceit. Don’t be like them yourselves. Start calling an ace an ace and a spade a spade. It is deliberate! FACT! Science is a fraud says I, and the whole world, too.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Coast7GuardAugust 1, 2011 at 12:01 PM

    Wow, what a sad story about Warren. People who have talent, become famous, find themselves subjected to all kinds of outlets, and it is unfortunate that they chose the kind of outlet that will destroy them in the end. They have so much talent and ruin it by doing drugs. It's interesting what you have to say about Amy Winehouse and other professionals on top. Thanks for the information and also for sharing your knowledge. It's important to know.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Arthur JanovAugust 2, 2011 at 8:15 AM

    An email comment:
    "How well you describe this. Yes, I know. My bp isn't responding any more to medicines, like a tall tower with weak scaffolding and joints I begin to fail. All my life I struggled to be free but this warped society never gave me what I needed. It couldn't. So I tumbled from promise to dysfunction, and I didn't need drugs because I had religion. Which is more poisonous is anyone's guess. Yet, I am little at home in this world from my pain, and the primal enlightenment comes with a price. I watch as my life devolves and crumbles as I age, and sadly not from age, but from weaknesses within, relentless pain that takes my aging frame and destroys me the quicker.

    There is little hope for me, I live in fantasy, I call it a med, but it makes me more dead, and being alive is painful. I am my own cheer, I need no wine, nor do I need beer, my heroine is my religion. While I fight for causes, my my pain takes no pauses, and necessities take a back seat. It's ok I tell myself I am "elite".

    I am worse than you can say, I am pre alive, I don't live because my needs are pain, and with reality my symbolic meds can't jive.

    How sad for those with the money to find help at your clinic, who cannot get the nerve to go, if only they could see their one chance at life slipping away, perhaps they would wake up. So much easier for them I suppose to mistake relief in life for living it.

    Every life you save Art, is worth all the efforts you have given, so you are awash in riches, the kind that cannot fade, that are a song sung with life, a song that like ripples of influence are etched into the fabric of what the world becomes.

    I am poor and struggling but even the crumbs of understanding light that you offer give me reason for hope and a joy, that though tinged with sadness, lifts me with its music.

    Thanks Art"

    ReplyDelete

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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