Hello,
Dr. France Janov has been working on a legacy project for several years: THE ART AND SCIENCE OF PRIMAL THERAPY. It has many videos of our training and sessions showing how we work. This is a transcript of a one training session about attention deficit disorder (ADD) that I thought we should show you because it has so many insights. AJ
ORIGINS OF ADD AND LEAKY GATES
BY DR. Arthur JANOV
Transcribed by Frank Robinette
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INTRODUCTION: This is a discussion about the effects of ADD, what causes it, what drives it, the cause and effect of leaky gates, feelings of failure, panic, procrastination, and how a person copes with it. Also discussed are the effects of Primal Therapy on those who present with ADD. The conversation begins with Dr. Arthur Janov (Dr. AJ) introducing David who reads a segment from Dr. AJ’s blog, Janov’s Reflections (Published on December 15, 2010):
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I would let this go, except that last night there was a one hour special on PBS about ADD, with four major specialists in the subject. The diagnoses they came up with is what I think is the problem with the whole field of psychotherapy, psychology and psychiatry.
Not once in the hour did I hear what the origins of ADD might be and why it occurs. Most of the time, it was spelling out how to cope with it. So we also might add how to deal with phobias, obsessions, migraines, high blood pressure and on and on. It is tantamount to saying that the illnesses stay but how we deal with them changes. It is all about our attitude. So you still have the allergies and you avoid this and that to cope with your allergy. Or you have a chaotic mind, try to avoid clutter.
The first point they made is that diagnosis is essential. And they list ten things that make you an ADDer. You need to be impulsive, not able to focus and concentrate, unable to pay attention, hyperactive, unable to sit still (I am adding here), low self esteem, learning disorders, can’t listen, needs to talk constantly, cannot wait, no long-term goals, lose temper easily, act without thinking, very impatient, a bad memory, an underachiever, etc. I added here some from a list of the Brown Scale for ADD. It pretty well covers it. But you have to be suffering from this for six months or more, they claim.
What the experts concluded was that a diagnosis was critical. Once you are aware, they claim, you are half-way there, because you know what to do; which includes: making future plans, making your environment work for you, find a calm partner and a job that suits you, making an effort not to lose patience, and above all, they claim that the therapy for this is success. Once you have a success you can build on it. And you will have a higher self-esteem and won’t be an underachiever.
So let me see: you tell the doctor that you are impulsive, impatient, cannot wait, cannot concentrate nor sit still, and she says to you that you have ADD. Ok there is the diagnosis, now what? She has told you what you just told her in more simple terms. Have we made progress? Is that what a diagnosis is? Saying things in esoteric language? The doctors have then many suggestions: don’t do too many chores at once, stay in a calm environment, jog to work off tension but do not over-talk. Don’t work amid chaos. I say to the doctor that I cannot stand crowded restaurants and he tells me to avoid them. And he adds “do not take so many risks in your life”, yet he adds it is the risk takers who invent and innovate and tend to be more creative. Now I am confused.
Not once did I hear in one hour the word, why? Where does it come from and what I can I do about it. What is the generating source of all that? So now you will read my opinion about it. It is an educated opinion since I have treated many cases. What happens is that cognitive/behavioral approaches have taken hold so that the psychiatric diagnostic manual indicates all these behaviors, and it is assumed that to treat it all, we need to change behaviors, hence, behavioral therapy.
Let’s go back to womb-life; there is a good deal of evidence that a mother’s hyperactivity, the drugs she takes, such as cocaine can leave an imprint or a residue that affects the offspring for a lifetime. If the mother is “hyper” the child may also be. Just that can set up a child who is revved up from the start. An Israeli study found that the children of holocaust survivors, very anxious people gave birth to anxious children. At first they thought it was because the parents told horrible stories to the children but then they discovered that the anxiety came down through the genetic chain; that is, it was descended from the mother’s physiology—epigenetics. (Laura Spinney, 2,Dec. 2010. Internet) Then there is the trauma of birth and infancy where the child may be left for days without warm cuddling. And then harsh parents who fill the child with feelings of rejection and abandonment. All this sets up imprints down low in the neuraxis. This is then transmitted to higher centers (as they develop and evolve) where the child is filled with input from inside that frazzles his brain; that feeds constant and varied input to the neo-cortex, no different from listening to ten people at once all talking at you. Except...,except that this information is constant from inside not outside. It competes with stimuli from outside but it all gets to be too much. It is paying attention to too much input which is normal, not an aberration. The disease, if it exists at all, is stimulating information that floods the cortex with electrical input just the same as being flooded with shock therapy.
Of course, he is hyperactive, he is being prodded all of the time from below so that any new input is overwhelming and he starts to crumble. He cannot manage complex instructions; you go to the right two blocks and then one block to the left and then go straight to the roundabout and then………we have already lost him because the internal input is crowding out the information. And of course, he cannot sit still because there is information that needs connection and resolution, the integration. That cannot happen so long as he has no access to his early imprinted memories. The information is constantly climbing upwards and forwards for that connection so that the system can function better.
And then he cannot get down to things, quickly start a paper, a project or an article because there is so much going on in his brain for him to focus on just one thing. So others get impatient because he did not turn in his paper on time. He was so busy, doing this or that, as his moods dictate because he is being twisted and turned here and there internally with little cerebral control.
Art: I know you have been insisting for a long time that the mental health care profession is OBSESSED with diagnosis; and for that matter so is normal health care. It's as if by magic just diagnosing it is a solution. "What utter crap"; if I might be allowed to express my limited French. Primal Theory stated the cause and Primal Therapy addresses that cause. When will the universities, the health care professions catch on? NEVER alas; because they operate from thinking and refuse to understand NEUROSIS.
ReplyDeleteThe only hope for mankind is that sooner rather than later (later will be way too late) someone of per-eminence see's the CAUSE of all disease.
I despair.
Jack
Art,
ReplyDeleteWhat more can be said for a legal review to take place. What you wrote means that there are so many poor souls who suffer without reflecting because of their situation and not least that there are a number of professors out there who are feed on quackery… quackery against innocent victims.
This also means that this is done with all these professors knowledge… what they do is quackery as primal therapy has been available for decades.
Frank
Dr. Janov,
ReplyDeleteThis is my point; this is what I have been asking for years.
“You tell the doctor that you are impulsive, impatient, cannot wait, cannot concentrate nor sit still, and she says to you that you have ADD. Ok, there is the diagnosis, now what?
Regardless what the diagnosis is, the answer the patient hears is the same.
You must avoid, you must control, you must be mindful, you must take antidepressants etc.
If you ask, WHY…?
silence,
or,
the psychiatrist on his high throne answers – “I don’t think you would understand if I explain your disorder to you”... Meaning, the patient is dumb.
I interpret such a reaction simply as – the doc doesn't know the answer either.
The patient asks, how can antidepressants help, the answer is – “antidepressants will help your malfunctioning neurons”.
The WHY is never answered.
I conclude: psychology is digging in drawers full of outdated information for answers, ergo: not helping – rather selling pills and getting paid for 55 minutes CT therapy.
So – what’s the point of going to a psychiatrist or therapist, if we must cope alone with our 'leaky gates', feelings of failure, panic, bad memory etc. anyway?
Sieglinde
An email comment: "The article I received today 'ADD AND LEAKY GATES' is so right, so spot on, it made my teeth want to chatter in horror. It was, and to quite a degree still is, a state I have to deal with on a daily basis. The mention of poor sense of direction, and the nightmare of trying to follow directions, was so me, it felt as if it cut right to the bone."
ReplyDeleteAnd my answer: You know why what I write makes sense? Because I take it out of the mouths of my patients. That is why it is real. I just listen and write. I do not concoct a theory based on some intellectual whim of mine; my personal neurosis, raised to the level of a principle. All any of us have to do is listen. It is much more difficult than you think. Just ask my interns. art janov
ReplyDeleteHi,
ReplyDeleteYes, listening without the 'hearing aid' of ones' own biased ears is certainly much more difficult than one could at first imagine.
For a start it is easy to listen if one is not empathising, one can 'hear the words' but only with glazed eyes so to speak.
Listening with empathy usually produces the strong desire to try to fix the speakers' problem. Just to sit and listen and feel the words of the speaker is so important and so difficult.
To know you are being heard by someone who cares about yours' and their own emotional reaction and response is very very helpful. Then one feels one really is in a therapeutic alliance and really being witnessed.
This is so difficult because hardly any of us were ever truly listened to as children and have no idea (to start with) what really goes on when there is that level of emotional communication.
It is as Frank said: "as it should have been"
Paul G.
i agree with you jack. the cause of all the world's problems is a lack of love. i hardly ever speak to my parents, but recently my mother phoned me just to chat. i asked for her definition of love. she said "love is something that takes time and effort. if you help people and listen to them when they need you.....that is love. if you put in the effort, they will return the love."
ReplyDeleteher answer was interesting to me. she always worked so hard doing the dishes and washing clothes and cooking meals - i never had to do any chores. one day she said to my dad "the kids never show any appreciation for all the work i do for them." my dad made a new rule; we all had to say "thanks for the dinner, mum."
my mother never hugged my dad, never hugged her kids, and never received any hugs in return. my dad never complained until he read about hugs in a book called Tough Love. he tried to make another rule; "mum and dad must hug their kids." when my mother refused my father became furious.
my mother has no idea what love is.....my father tried to learn but couldn't.
love is not an effort. love is a natural soup of chemicals in your brain and blood.
jack, maybe the world really is doomed. drug addicts use artificial chemicals to get closer to love. if they were in power the world might have a small chance of healing. but the powers that be are not interested in love. they are nerds - they are similar to my mother. they work hard to improve their systems and strategies.
I think we are all supposed to just *assume* that it's a chemical imbalance driving the ADD. Dont ask the question just talk *as though* that is the truth, and the assumption takes care of itself.
ReplyDeleteAlas it's that great question we need to confront: The relationship beween informational input to the brain and chemical responses to it. Until that relationship is at least confronted we are doomed to a drugged-up world.
Andrew AtkinI think we are all supposed to just *assume* that it's a chemical imbalance driving the ADD. Dont ask the question just talk *as though* that is the truth, and the assumption takes care of itself.
Alas it's that great question we need to confront: The relationship beween informational input to the brain and chemical responses to it. Until that relationship is at least confronted we are doomed to a drugged-up world.
Andrew Atkin
Come on Jack, primal evangelism, even the word 'primal' has done more harm to the acceptance of Art's work than anything else. Remember the video of Art riding bareback in the surf on a white horse?
ReplyDeleteNeurosis isn't the cause of ALL disease - just some, maybe most of it. One person of pre-eminance seeing it won't do it, it has to be a gradual realisation. And I can see that happening already.
Dr. Janov,
ReplyDeleteI know, and I feel what you are writing is making sense.
“And of course, he cannot sit still because there is information that needs connection and resolution, the integration. That cannot happen so long as he has no access to his early imprinted memories.”
That’s me, always on the move, while my brain-engine goes forward and backward at the same time.
It feels like I have to move away from something dangerous, something that pulling me forward, while I still try to solve a previous problem. Feeling I have to do it myself, not trusting it can be done by someone else.
It feels like at birth. My mother was after 76 hours labor too weak. I had to birth myself. Then, when I gave it my all, ready to be born, the forceps came and pulled me out.
I wanted to go back and do it myself. I didn’t want to be forced out. Then panic, the umbilical cord around my neck.
Today I cannot pay attention, memorize anything with other people present or noises (TV or Radio etc.) – I feel pushed, destructed and then comes panic.
When I’m alone, not pushed by time or someone/something, I grasp (intellectually and emotionally) the most complicated material in a short time. I see through the most difficult task, solve it instantly, because I feel how something is supposed to work.
I listen to people talk and know right in the beginning what they are going to say. I hear nuances; feel what they try avoid saying.
I found out that this was also the reason why I could never be religiously manipulated. I feel when something is manipulative. I know when someone tries to force me. This is also the reason why I don’t drink or do drugs. I hate when something controls me.
If I’m destracted, everything becomes a nuisance, I feel pulled, I feel overwhelmed – ripped out of MY rhythm – my brain is running all over without making sense. Adrenalin is pumping and I get angry if I cannot remove myself from the situation, grasping for air, reaching for my neck.
For instant in college (journalism): Being called to the front, I could not remember how the spell the word "Sincerely". Feeling pushed by 31 students watching me writing on the board, I tried so hard the spell everything right. I ended up writing the last word Sincerely 8 different ways, all wrong. I tried to get out of the class but felt paralyzed – I WAS STUCK – again.
Sieglinde
Another email comment:"Art, thanks for writing this. I agree, with what you have to say, completely. Still there is something else to consider. Some scientists believe that one of the contributing factors, in ADD, and ADHD, is the lack of essential fatty acids in the diet. I believe that the modern waves of ADD, and ADHD, began to emerge when there was a change in how livestock were raised in this country. Prior to the early 1900's, cattle, and most other live stock, were primarily grass fed. Grass fed animals produce an abundance of fatty acids in their milk, and meat. After the early 1900's livestock producers shifted their animals to a grain diet. They found it more profitable to fatten cattle, on corn, and grain in feed lots rather than letting them graze on grass. Animals fed on corn, and grain produce almost no fatty acids. The brain, espeically in children, needs fatty acids for normal development.
ReplyDeleteIn Brittain there has been some success in treating so called ADHD, and ADD diagnosed children with fish oil, and other fatty acids, instead of Meth derived compounds.
Elaine Morgan, the Woman who wrote the book the Aquatic Ape, was one of the first to write on this topic, i.e. the need for EFA's, in the diet. It's ironic now that so many people take fish oil, for so many aliments.
As follows is link to an article on the subject:
http://www.healingwithnutrition.com/newsclips/archive/omega3add.html
Another email comment: "You have described my frustrated life to a tea. What they call "treatment" is all about being mindful of symptoms and not feelings. This is dehumanizing and could make a more aware patient very angry. I can hear them now, "Gee, why is this patient so angry with me? He/She must be an angry person. Let's treat that anger. I know, let's tell her that she is being irrational and help her be aware that she is angry so she can learn the difference between "calm" and "being angry". She will prefer calm to anger and then with practice she will learn not to be angry with me. Patients aren't completely lost to how they are being treated.
ReplyDeleteTherapists often fear patients feelings, manipulate the patient, then fail to see the oppression the patient feels inside, and then proceed to try to "understand" them as one would a machine. These therapists are not being empathetic, nor understanding, nor kind, nor wise.
Treatment like you have just described is more like the therapist is trying to help by bringing out treats and a dog whistle. Some patients aren't so far gone that they don't notice this. They might just get angry and of course even then be told how to best make a smile on their face. Practice, practice, practice... There's a good girl!
I can't escape the picture of a witch doctor in my mind. He is cackling madly and slinging a poor chicken about, who is none to happy to be treated this way and is making a huge fuss. These guys also studied seven and more years for their "degree" or right to practice in their culture. I can't escape noticing the similarities. Yet, there is one difference. The witch doctor didn't tell the person they were a broken machine or "crazy". They also didn't charge an arm and a leg, except on rare high holy days of course.
What gets me most annoyed is that with even their own tests they can't prove reasonably that even a significant portion of their patients are better off from seeing them. Some tests showed the patients were better off being left alone...Yet, they criticize primal therapy which at the very least makes common human sense.
They are indeed the state priesthood, most useful when they are most quiet. Some of them also notice that a lack of real change or repentance is often lacking in their patients. Well, once again for the feeling challenged: You have to feel what happened to you before you can grieve any losses involved, you have to grieve and let go of the needs you lost before you can forgive life, others or yourself for any perceived contributions to those losses, and only then can you really begin to change from your heart, because then you will be feeling what effect you are having on others, and you just won't want to cause such effects anymore. That is love, that is real change, and you don't get that by treating people in inhumane or insane ways.
Yea, I am over energized inside. Yeah, but I am also right. Yeah, and my insights didn't "cure" me... Why those with the money to go to your clinic don't go Art, is beyond my understanding. I suppose they are scared of their own and other's "hearts". One scary situation I think... No wonder the world is over heating and war is the best moneymaker around..."
"It feels like I have to move away from something dangerous, something that pulling me forward, while I still try to solve a previous problem."
ReplyDeletesieglinde i know exactly what you mean. it is endless torment. i hope i will see you at the primal center
Dr. Janov,
ReplyDeleteSubject: Autism
Reading the latest on Autism, the Mayo Clink is very upset:
“MMR Vaccine and Autism: Vaccine Nihilism and Postmodern Science - Mayo Clinic Proceedings”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UVNWVxjiswI
Dr. Gregory Poland, Professor of Medicine and Director of the Mayo Vaccine recommended using research-money for finding the source for Autism instead of researching what was already scientifically proven over and over.
Dr. Janov, would you like to engage and present a hypothesis on Autism to Dr. Gregory Poland?
Sieglinde
Hi,
ReplyDeleteMost of those with the money do not understand the following:
-"Can't buy me lo-ove, everybody tells me so,
Can't buy me lo-ove, no-no-no, noooooo!
Say you don't need no diamond ring and I'll be satisfied.
Tell me that you want the kind of thing that money just can't buy.
I don't care too much for money, money can't buy me love.
JL & PMc.
PG.
Richard: I hope I see you both. art janov
ReplyDeleteDr. Janov, Richard,
ReplyDeleteI wish I could come today and stay until all my “imprint-leftovers” are solved.
Sieglinde
Hi Andrew,
ReplyDelete-"Dont ask the question just talk *as though* that is the truth, and the assumption takes care of itself"-.
Yes indeed, how perfectly what you say also describes the social aspect of repression. We all collude to the "common sense of repression" because we all need to feel we are agreeing to something relatively 'painless'.
How easy it is to have social relationships rooted in the avoidance of pain.
Paul G.
(PS: Living the dream).