Saturday, March 19, 2016

The Steve Jobs Movie


I just saw one of the worst films ever by well known professionals.   It never moved me for a second and yet here was a man who helped change the entire world but you would never know it by the film.  Too many intellectuals in the mix in the film called Steve Jobs.  But here is a much worse crime; someone using name, books and therapy to promote himself as a Primal Therapist.  So what is the crime?    Pretending to help Jobs when there was no chance of that happening.  That is the danger of the charlatans.   It is a precise science that takes years to learn.  Some professional cannot just pick up a book and know how to do it.  Who suffers?  The patient; in Job’s case it was fatal.

I have no idea what was wrong with Jobs nor if I could have helped him, but we have treated seriously ill patients.  And some with success.  With a charlatan it cannot be said because they fool around, hoping that something might happen.   This is no different from the myriad of addiction clinics springing up who offer good diet, exercise given by professionals,  talk sessions in group  or otherwise, and with no scientific results whatsoever.  Worse, no control at all by government nor scientists.

Where do these people get the idea that they can fool around in psychotherapy without  proper scientific backgrounds?  No measureable results?  They want to be loose and free and do whatever they think might help.

This is not a game, but unfortunately there are no laws or laws to follow since therapy in history has been pretty much of a game, where anyone can play. So they add dance therapy and  massages to help patients feel better while ignoring the cause.  Do those “healers” really believe they are treating a serious affliction?  Or are they selling hope?   They are selling a concept, an idea to fill the heads of the sufferers and patients are encouraged to recount at how much better they feel.  They do not work or study while at their healers compound, so of course one can feel a bit better.  No responsibility.  No taking care of kids, no work just play and go through the motions of getting well.

We have treated enough deep addictions to know what is behind most addictions.  There is no place here for booga booga therapy.  It is a crashing malady that requires understanding, empathy and knowing about the deeply embedded roots and imprints roiling the brain.   If there is no deep brain experienced there is no cure. There is no soft way in or out of it.  Pain in and pain must go out.  But only in a systematic, evolutionary way.    No shortcuts.    If the cause is pain and duh! They take pain-killers,  the way out must involve pain; not any pain but exactly the pain that was laid down  years before.  The pain that endured because it remained lodged in the deep brain.  Oh yes, let us  not forget where deep pain lies and how and where it must be approached.    If we stay on the neocortical level how can we ever treat deep-brain processes?   And that is where the imprinted pain remains.  We can dance around it but it is the source, hidden and well sequestered but a force to be dealt with.   Who ever anointed the healers that they could treat addiction?  The same people who told them they could treat migraine and high blood pressure?  We can see addiction so we think we can treat it.   Wrong!  

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10 comments:

  1. UnknownMarch 19, 2016 at 8:46 PM

    Hello Art and everyone.

    Art, imagine that you want to buy a carpet and you have to choose between 10 sellers. BUT...you have no idea what a carpet is, how to use it and of what material it should be made.
    You have only heard from your friends that it is a good idea just to possess one.

    Reverse the example and now you are the "seller" (you provide primal therapy) and some people need unrgently therapy. Why would they choose you amongst dozens of others?
    Well, myself, I know why, but they don't. For them, you are just one from the bulk. And since they are in pain, they need something fast and obviously not painful ["fast and not pain" is not the exact description for primal therapy, although its results are real and long-lasting].

    To put it differently, your words and your "why's" above target their intellectual condition and cannot help you stand out from that ocean of therapy-offering. They need an enormous slap (which usually comes directly from life itself) to realize that thinking and meditating is temporary. But again, for such slaps there are drugs and act-outs!

    Thus, you need a different approach to touch the potential patients. I don't know which one, but if something comes up, I will let you know. Until then, keep up your work which is an excellent one, if you ask me!

    ReplyDelete
  2. raindogMarch 19, 2016 at 11:39 PM

    "They want to be loose and free and do whatever they think might help."

    but Art, isn't that how Primal Therapy started? Surely there must be some balance between science and experimentation?

    Erron

    ReplyDelete
  3. beachcoast7March 20, 2016 at 6:40 AM

    Steve Jobs, wow...I never knew this. Maybe people will read what Art has to say here and face facts; just might save someone, and save time. Thanks Art for writing this.

    ReplyDelete
  4. KatarzynaMarch 20, 2016 at 11:00 AM

    This shit is so strong. It kills me every day bit by bit. If PT would have been available throught insurance. If......

    ReplyDelete
  5. PaulMarch 21, 2016 at 4:17 PM

    Hi Art,

    The mere idea that we might not have so much free will to 'do stuff' that will cure us through our 'own efforts' is deeply frightening for most people.

    Paul G.

    ReplyDelete
  6. FrankMarch 22, 2016 at 9:02 AM

    To go through a therapy for whatever you choose is just a thought away from the madness if it is not not primal therapy and there is nothing... absolut nothing and no one that deals with similar therapies who can guarantee you a safety more than what their medication makes it guilty... guilty for what ever they can name security through medication. There is no safety and there will never be any... to it... there is no substance for what ever they do that has any security!

    And if we start talking about meditation... then you are really in trouble they do not even use any blocking medication in case something should go wrong! Then you are sent to a psychiatric clinic given blockers for being something wrong with you and not for what the meditation opened up to!

    They do not know... but now through this post it shall be by their good memory that it is extremely harmful for what the consequences might be for their victims... victims is what they are and it will never change... it for what science presents.

    It is a criminal activity going on and no one seems to care not even those who know that it does. Through these words... will no one never ever be able to get away with what therapies and medications they expose unknowing people to.

    There rests a "curse" in people's ruthlessness in effort to escape their own suffering! We weep for what they suffer... but beyond our sorrow... they're guilty of something no tears we cry will ever help against... for what they have done! How long shall we put up with this without even taking a chance to achieve a change? We live in the reality of what madness is our curse!

    Frank

    ReplyDelete
  7. PaulMarch 22, 2016 at 11:43 AM

    Art,

    -"Some professional cannot just pick up a book and know how to do it"-.

    So mostly they roundly ignore you and pretend the entire field doesn't exist, or it's just 'over there', y'know, 'out of sight'. . . . .

    - Booklearned -.

    Paul G.

    ReplyDelete
  8. AnonymousMarch 22, 2016 at 3:32 PM

    While this article concentrates on the fact that Jobs consulted a mock Primal therapist, I just want to add the observation , perhaps not relevant to this specific discusssion, that I do not understand the respect that this guy was extended. Here was a guy who started like I did (and Bernie Sanders did) in the hippie counterculture, but who sold out to the System creating ever more clever gadgets for the masses to fool around with.And worse, he had these gadgets manufactured in sweatshops around the world, just like any other exploitive capitalist.Not to mention he was arrogant and egotistical.

    What this world needs is better people, not better gadgets. We have enough of these cellphones and what not. Why do people pay attention to Jobs but not Janov, who seems to have some very meaningful things to offer to a troubled world?

    Marco

    ReplyDelete
  9. Arthur JanovMarch 24, 2016 at 7:47 AM

    I was one of the addicts that you cured with primal therapy, real primal therapy, at the primal institute. I thank my lucky stars…. that I went through primal therapy so long ago…every thing you say is true…. drug treatment is a racket…. it makes the corporate health care system billions… and doesn’t offer real hope for anyone,,, My own father was a drug addict, and i watched him die from cirrhosis.. The same thing would have happened to me if it wasn’t for you… thank you.. All the best

    ReplyDelete
  10. Arthur JanovMarch 24, 2016 at 7:48 AM

    Another email comment:
    Wow Art: What a great revelation (exposure) of bad film work. I am tempted to see it for the sake of seeing just how bad film making can be. From what I know of the work of Steve Jobs and his companion Steve Wazinak who I always felt he got a little left out in the cold.

    For sure what those two as kids did in a garage, it changed the world. Way more so than I ever thought Bill Gates did.

    Take care Art and hope your health is holding out. I'm 8 year behind you and hope to make it at least to 90. Thanks for the most part, for what you yourself gave to the world.

    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