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
Hi, what do you mean when you say that "when we are just formed so are the cancer cells, we evolve together etc etc"?
ReplyDeleteI am aware that one of the main functions of white cells are to seek and destroy cancer cells but I was under the impression that cancer cells were entirely 'aberrant' or 'accidental' (though inevitable).
The idea that they are part of evolution seems either profound or generic, ie true but only by coincidence. You are implying it's not coincidence that cancerous cells exist as part of evolution.
Perhaps I am corralling what you say into "good & bad" when it's not really like that at all.
I wish I had the time and energy and patience to research all this myself but I have come to rely (as a layman) on your interpretations and I surely would like you to elucidate on that particular remark. Perhaps others on the blog will.
Paul G.
(PS: I have heard similar things said about viruses).
Paul: You have to tell me what you are referring to as I have tons of material I deal with all of the time. What I think I mean but not sure is that trauma works adversely against the tumor suppression forces. Also when we go way back it may be that cancer cells are free floating entities in the universe, but I am not sure. Or maybe that NK natural killer cells that combat cancer are enhanced in Primal Therapy. art
DeleteOk I get it, thanks.
DeleteIt's just your writing style doesn't quite mesh with my excessively logical fixation.
What you say is interesting because some people have said that viruses are possibly "protein molecules left over from very much earlier evolutionary branches" (maybe, when they 'infect us' they are just chronically trying to "get back into an evolutionary reproductive line"). I have also heard people suggest that complex organisms may have evolved through a "collaboration of differing single cell entities". Rather than merely a long (time) chain of single cell mutations, somehow different life forms at the cellular level 'got together' and started 'complex life' (so the theory goes).
There are various existing life forms that survive through a 'symbiotic relationship', corals, jelly fish etc etc. This is evidence that supports the "collaborative diverse cells" theory.
What you say, to an extent, seems to reflect these theories. I'm not sure how this aligns with stem cell theory but there even hangs a question of how sexualised life started because that requires a collaboration doesn't it? I mean in really ancient times there were only single cell life forms that reproduced themselves by cell splitting alone and then fairly suddenly sexual reproductive life emerged. . .
Paul G.
Paul: astute observation. Art
DeleteHi,
DeleteIn all honesty I got these ideas from James Lovelock (Gaia Theory) and JG Bennett (a student of G I Gurdjief). Bennett coined a phrase: "Biospheric Symbiosis" to describe how the Biosphere was gradually evolving over a very long time to become a 'conscious entity' in it's own right. Lovelock was almost a contemporary; his book set out to remind us that the planet is 'alive' and has been pretty well since it cooled down. . .
I know these ideas come from a bit of a whacky source but it seems some people were on the right track, it just took longer than their own lifetimes for the hunches they developed to be 'proven'.
You and your contemporary researchers, to an extent are their provers.
Paul G.
So those tumor suppression forces are what we have inherited genetically through ages since the advent of Homo Sapiens? Trauma is then based on human condition, free (?) will they call it. When did it all start up? Do chimps suffer from cancer? As the going gets tough (and it happens very soon) we involuntarily deploy our well learned weaponry to bolster our walls, therefore generating suffering around us (although ultimate recipient of that aggression is the sender himself). Trauma is the intruder, the counterforce that mitigates those otherwise inborn forces. My impression is that the origin to rigid thoughts and belief systems is deeply anchored in our unconscious part of the mind, so they can keep working against our otherwise inborn sanity ie. fighting 'other' beliefs and points of view. talk about Pain as an ingredient of Life itself. We have a built in pain killer system (endorphins) headed towards mitigating pain to a certain point until the pain goes home. If it doesn't then PT is required.
DeleteLars: Quite astute. Art
DeletePerhaps an related and interesting asside!
ReplyDeletehttp://www.guardian.co.uk/science/2013/jul/14/naked-mole-rat-cancer-research
To come to life I have to experience how I died!
ReplyDeleteWe'll just die... all of us... die without being alive. All trained for the task of psychiatry and psychology will not let us in to live. Academics learn to listen to what the political decisions is all about... far from what the care needs! None of the academics sets their places available when they more encouraged taking economic considerations than to ensure patient well.
Sure it sounds weird when I say "we should all just die without having come to life" but that is what happens when anxiety makes itself known... anxiety is a reminder of emotional death... feelings when we were little and could not possibly defend us against the emotional death. It was just to follow in to death because of feelings that then were worse than the knowledge of death... feelings as anxiety now reminds us of... anxiety that tells us that there was and is life!
Who wants to admit that faith in God represses anxiety when we must experience death to feel what anxiety really is about? Anxiety which tells us that there is life... life linked to anxiety why we seek god... anxiety that tells us so much about life and further to a flourishing life!? The child in us wants us to admit the anxiety... the part of us who is not alive… but do all what it can to make us pay attention!
Frank.
For single-celled individuals (such as amoebas) meiosis is 'it' but as soon as evolution had established the existence of a multicellular generation (descended from a single amoebic individual) the potential for mitotic mutiny also became biochemically realized. A mutiny by a crew on ships has typically been more likely if their captains presided over persistently paltry working conditions for their sailors. Similarly, a genome is more likely to lose control over mitotic cell-division if some of the 'cellular crew members' of an individual multi-cellular organism are persistently over-stressed or incessantly irritated (by any of many possible kinds of sources).
ReplyDeleteOne can also see cancers as relict last ditch lineage-lengthening response available to ancestral amoebic individuals ended up in an 'irritating cloud (possibly caused by volcanic activity in the primordial sea/environment) type situation'.
I will write more on this soon. Art
DeleteThe electrochemical process... a consequence of an unloving mom puts the epigenetic process in a destructive order... which we "pick" up through "resonance"… an echo that is being "heard" when we no longer have the energy to resist... something possible that we through academic training can gain insight about if formed for it! But how should graduates be able to train in something when something is what they do to not understand what resonance in a therapeutic sense means.
ReplyDeleteUnderlying pain... now explained the symptoms have plunged body epigenetic in a destructive process... an process which our system at time of lack of defense cannot resist and a "resonance" opens the way for the development of cancer in order for what the epigenetic process is already loaded.
Cancer cells are not what the nature designed for the purpose of developing cancer... it is a consequence... an consequence as due to the "natural" process is negatively affected and the ability for cancer cells to evolve has seen its light... thus there is potential for it.
How this is possible depends on WHAT is possible for what is stored and the "resonance" that occurs when there is no defense against physiologically programmed destructive processes... processes as not can be held back and we develop cancer.
When water is split into its component parts... something that is now possible so we get hydrogen and oxygen... a highly explosive gas! Before we knew it... it was a mystery. In this case a metaphor for what happens when we affect the natural processes of social relationships and physiological circumstances… as it now is possible to scientifically prove for what the primal process is all about.
The physiological circumstances affect the physiological processes as the composition affects the physiological processes... something neo cortex in the academic circles interpreters and do not read the scientific process of!
Frank.
Frank this is so important please write more on it and clarify as much as you can. art
DeleteA comment by Philip that got accidently erased:
ReplyDeletePhilip wrote:" It has long been hypothesized by scientists that cancer reactivates embryonic developmental programs, e.g. by allowing cells to become motile and invasive, www.technologyreview.com/news/409004/how-a-tumor-is-like-an-embryo This is consistent with the concept that resonance may abnormally trigger several events associated with the embryonic time of the early trauma, including such developmental programs associated with cancer.
And my answer: Phlip thanks so much for the information. It all helps. art
DeleteOff topic: Art, have you had any patients obsessed with the internet - like chatting, stalking, hacking, etc. It is claimed that some people are addicted to the internet 21 hours a day. An article on what traumas these people have would be helpful as an answer to a modern problem.
ReplyDeleteGordon: The form the obsession takes makes little difference. It all begins with first line trauma which provides the unceasing drive for the obsession. Find me an obsession and you have found a first line driven individual who almost never knows it. art
DeleteHi,
DeleteI think you also said recurring dreams can be a symptom of 1st line trauma.
At what point does 'organised behaviour' become obsessive act out ?
I mean when you look at the droves of us all packing ourselves into cars, queing up in traffic jams, zoning out with the radio / cd player, filing into the office etc etc. . .
-and look how anxious we all get if that 'procession' doesn't go as we want. Look how ANGRY we get if some one 'crosses our path'. People who are known to be 'meek and mild' become raging tyrants behind the wheel of their car. . . All of us desperately trying to 'get out'.
I often wondered if the car is just another 'incubator'. . . and the destination is the security of 'reward for group activity' (quasi family at work). Then the return home is the toddle back to mummys arms. . . Via the pub if she hates you (dinner's in the dog) and via the flower shop if you love her.
Where does a normal family life begin and an obsessive compulsive act out stop?
Paul G.
Art!
ReplyDeletePlease do NOT think that my remarks concerning the acceptance of Your
work by the adresees... (shrinks,psychotherapists,etc. were meant in any form derorgatary to You ( if at all to those)
And I am sure !!! not only (poor souls(us?i.e. blog recipients) are welcoming Your works.
Nevertheless it would be quite interesting how many "converts"
will leave their pratic!!ß Yours emanuel
Reading that smoking harms a fetus pisses me off but for different reasons. My mother gave me syphilis ! and when it was discovered at birth my father raged at her and me to no end.He was very violent with us for what mother did.He shamed me every day.Then at 15 I was tricked by him he loved me and I dissociated into now being all "good". After nearly 50 years of nothing but breakdowns , panic and constant suffering I recently got cancer.After operation(colon) and chemo I am being told I am OK...Ya, except I am emotionally sick. My major symptom is insomnia.
ReplyDeleteAbout ten years ago I did short time therapy at Primal Center in Venice ,CA.It worked really well to open me up.After one very productive session over the phone after I returned home, I abruptly quit. I don't know why I quit but for sure I was very terrified. There was a major transference between therapist and I going on , and my knowledge of this therapy was near 0 then. I just didn't have intellectual component to surrender , I think.
When I was diagnosed with cancer I had this huge bout of sadness that stopped me in my tracks as I was on my way to some tests. But it was short lived. But I got...the message...
Can't wonder now if I'd continued therapy would I'd gotten cancer. Will never know. Now I am all "freezed" up and waiting for who knows what.
Anonymous, I am really sorry. Are you sure you are not coming back? It sounds to me like it is what you need, plus support from a therapist there. It seems too much to go on alone. I hope your illness is under control. Art
Delete