tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post1496241098801063125..comments2024-02-11T18:16:53.445-08:00Comments on Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: The Simple Truth is Revolutionary: Where Do Nightmares Come From?Arthur Janovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16709863014923629409noreply@blogger.comBlogger46125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-29468376849407953082015-08-09T11:16:50.169-07:002015-08-09T11:16:50.169-07:00Jean, you write so well. artJean, you write so well. artArthur Janovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009571728800026496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-63172561713293343572015-08-09T06:48:46.819-07:002015-08-09T06:48:46.819-07:00Anonymous
Before we get into Primal therapy a lot ...Anonymous<br />Before we get into Primal therapy a lot of us feel hopeless, alienated from people, unable to take care of oneself and afraid of our anger, rage, and completely fearful of almost everything. Sometimes our life needs to get worse and fall apart and that gives us the impetus to obtain the help that we need. <br /><br />Before I came to therapy I was having a nervous breakdown, extremely paranoid and I didn't know how I could uproot myself and move to another country. My life had completely fallen apart. But I knew that Primal therapy was the only thing that was going to help me. <br /><br />Keep reaching out for help. Take little difficult steps but try, try to get yourself to the therapy.<br /><br />Jean H<br /><br />Jean Hnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-46420810523942582712015-08-02T11:34:16.662-07:002015-08-02T11:34:16.662-07:00Anonymous: Often yes if we had in-house facilities...Anonymous: Often yes if we had in-house facilities and could offer treatment early. It all depends on the situation and you understand that I can't make prescriptions online.<br />artArthur Janovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009571728800026496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-59226842935125501072015-08-02T02:14:35.712-07:002015-08-02T02:14:35.712-07:00Hi Anonymous,
nightmares, rage, obsessions...sever...Hi Anonymous,<br />nightmares, rage, obsessions...severe gates leaking all come from first line. it disturbs our relationships and our thinking processes, concentration from early on...<br />and it can get worse! <br />given your situation i would advice you to at least not lose hope. to start again from the way you eat. i don't know about you and your situation.. but for me, i discovered that for my leaky system i have to provide mostly plant based unprocessed food at least 50 percent raw, juicy and lately i experiment with low allergenic/sensitive food that i try to eat slowly. you should always be hydrated and exercise moderately. if sometimes you don't feel like eating you should skip a meal or two. as you hopefully go over 50 percent you could really feel the difference! it seems that we have a big friend in our gut. give them a chance. lymphatic system circulation is dependent on our moving. so don't be static. and remember, this is not a race. it is about you and your pace. you should feel the difference in just a few weeks. i hope so. summer is a good season to start. vukonoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-81867457093368098212015-08-01T17:39:44.228-07:002015-08-01T17:39:44.228-07:00If a person is becoming psychotic from a first lin...If a person is becoming psychotic from a first line trauma that is breaking through their leaky gates, are you able to treat them? Or is that too late. Psychosis to the point of not functioning?<br />That is what I was also asking you, Dr. Janov.<br />Thank You.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-89929902684810300842015-07-29T03:53:38.386-07:002015-07-29T03:53:38.386-07:00You sound like you need daily help for the time be...You sound like you need daily help for the time being, and yes, you are right we don't have an inpatient facility. Sorry we are not a charity as much as I am against paid medicine. I can't say much because I know nothing about you. Financially, every patient needs to find a way to help their own therapy by paying part of it. artArthur Janovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009571728800026496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-39343445127385993522015-07-28T13:54:58.274-07:002015-07-28T13:54:58.274-07:00Dr. Janov,
I will try to be clear. Would the Prima...Dr. Janov,<br />I will try to be clear. Would the Primal Center be willing and able to treat a patient who can barely take care of themselves, and, as well, is scared of all their anger and rage?<br />I am writing about myself.<br />I have gotten worse in my life, but always felt alienated from people. I felt that I was not good enough, and isolated myself from people more and more as I grew up.<br />This turned into rage and anger and hatred for other people, because I never felt like I could belong.<br />I am scared of this anger and rage because of being afraid it makes me a psychopath.<br />I know you have said you have had no success with psychopaths in therapy, but I am crying out so much for help. You said psychopaths don't seek help. So I think then I am reachable.<br />My ability to function is almost gone. That's why I wrote about how you don't have an inpatient facility, because I don't know if I can pull myself together anymore.<br />So,....leaky gates......almost unable to take care of self.......anger and rage......do you think it is possible to get help at the Primal Center? Any other therapy would not address the root causes of these symptoms.<br />Thank You. And Thank You, Frank, as well.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-38091260194885975122015-07-27T15:10:40.720-07:002015-07-27T15:10:40.720-07:00Anonymous: What was the question? artAnonymous: What was the question? artArthur Janovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009571728800026496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-19044989814005904232015-07-26T01:13:03.082-07:002015-07-26T01:13:03.082-07:00Hello Anonymous!
Without the right to speak for t...Hello Anonymous!<br /><br />Without the right to speak for the Center... just a thought about what you write!<br /><br />Imagine if we could just connect everything what you talk about... for where it belongs along with the child in us... Primal therapy is a brilliant opportunity!<br /><br />What is it to "take care of themselves"? With the "awareness" you present someone to have so I presume that there are opportunities through some medication that suppresses... but for those with difficulties to communicate about their suffering so chances would be very slim.<br /><br />We need a revolution in the psychological field... so that the financial allocation was fair... then there would be great opportunities... even for those with difficulties to be communicable about their suffering.<br /><br />Your FrankFrankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02242354226308728116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-84961325370450469462015-07-25T22:54:24.893-07:002015-07-25T22:54:24.893-07:00Frustrating... no answer yet from Dr. Janov.Frustrating... no answer yet from Dr. Janov.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-6014427819375700812015-07-23T23:02:26.653-07:002015-07-23T23:02:26.653-07:00Would the Primal Center ever accept a patient who ...Would the Primal Center ever accept a patient who is close to psychosis...someone who is triggered by virtually everything to the point where they can't really take care of themselves, or won't, because the overriding feeling being acted out is to be taken care of?<br />There can be such fear overlaid on a weak personality that the person is always a step away from suicide, and alienates everyone with the insatiable need to be taken care of.<br />Even with medications thee is no motivation to move forward in life.<br />Even believing what you have written for decades doesn't help, since the need and the desperation grow as life becomes harder and harder by lost opportunities, and by not taking care of responsibilities. <br />You don't have an inpatient facility.<br />What are your thoughts on this, Dr. Janov?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-15378822010694433862015-07-23T03:09:30.006-07:002015-07-23T03:09:30.006-07:00I went to my own clinic as a patient and did the t...I went to my own clinic as a patient and did the therapy with the staff. artArthur Janovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009571728800026496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-53776357958774591642015-07-21T13:38:26.081-07:002015-07-21T13:38:26.081-07:00Lars: That was a real primal therapist? it does n...Lars: That was a real primal therapist? it does not sound like it. artArthur Janovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009571728800026496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-28810552136602329942015-07-21T11:54:33.842-07:002015-07-21T11:54:33.842-07:00Yet Truth has never been so close to general discl...Yet Truth has never been so close to general disclosure. Let's be positive, no realistic: There has never been so many people on earth pointing the arrow of mental disturbance towards life's traumatic experience. Even birth traumas are finally being considered as factual origin to each and every human being's adjustment problems. Very slowly, yes, but consistently we're heading towards a new perspective on this experience called Life on Earth. And delusional delegation of responsibility on some gods (and goddesses) is more than ever being critically revisited. It's clear we have to take on the task of unloading whatever traditional memories inherited from womb to womb in order to see Life without protection, without defense overdose. These are sad times, I agree, but not because of shadows ahead but because the final effort we as a species will have to endure to break the chains we have been carrying for much too long, longer than anyone can think of. We're not an evolutionary mistake. We're perfect as we are, loving and lovable and bearing a potentiallity few have even grasped.Despertareshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02896761553793062978noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-69020198481592714492015-07-21T09:47:46.769-07:002015-07-21T09:47:46.769-07:00Art and Gary,
Unchained fury is obvioulsy a demoli...Art and Gary,<br />Unchained fury is obvioulsy a demolishing expression of repressed energy. I experienced that as a patient. The four walls of my therapist's room were covered with soundproof coating material with padding qualities so we could not hurt ourselves in the process. However she was somehow "trapped in" that cage she had built for our sake. I recall I once brought a framed painting of mine, so she could witness my improvements and a profound anger rose up, so I kicked the painting so unluckily that I wounded her with the edge of the glass on one of her feet (we used to go barefooted). She started bleeding, but I swear I won't forget her reaction: nothing. She asserted calmly just keeping her Mona Lisa smile. Then I understood what a Real therapist's job is about. She helped me recognize the light side of life. We all need a witness to help us release the gates of our deepest fearful memories. That's all we need. Once the loead is discharged, we don't need to make Life up. It becomes the adventure it was supposed to be from the beggining.Despertareshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02896761553793062978noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-17568364858092694952015-07-21T02:54:31.789-07:002015-07-21T02:54:31.789-07:00From thought to action is a highway in the cogniti...From thought to action is a highway in the cognitive state for what life then is all about! When the cognitive activity slows diminishes or ceases so are we suddenly in an issue that demands its toll. We get an involuntary flow of emotions without knowing what they are. We end up in a degrading condition where no help is available... if we are not enrolled at The Primal Center. But it is very late as a pensioner!<br /><br />All this is not so difficult to discover if we look into what eldercare is all about. All cognitive activity ceases and we are forced by our unawareness in to memories as were not always of satisfactory... if ever? It with consequences... an electrochemical process starts around our memories which we were unaware of... throughout our lives. Terrible feelings... unaware of and can do nothing about ... just following into hell mazes... to the child within us without any social relationship of love. What a hell!<br /><br />FrankFrankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02242354226308728116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-57587518009335831632015-07-18T15:53:34.251-07:002015-07-18T15:53:34.251-07:00There is nothing that is idiotic! Everything is ju...There is nothing that is idiotic! Everything is just a consequence for eyes that can see! <br /><br />We can be in touch with what our minds lurks us to see... for what we experience... but it is just a consequence. What I mean... we can hate someone for something he/she has not done but well provokes... it for what we can experience around our tormented feelings. This requires a safe environment to unleash... otherwise it's "war"... war that we see around the world! <br /><br />We should have known better now by the knowledge of primal therapy! But until then... we are watching! I saw on TV how a four year old girl was shaking terribly... she had stopped talking... her eyes that could not focus told of a trauma nobody can imagine... no one are willing to imagine... it as we live the human terrible disease!<br /><br />FrankFrankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02242354226308728116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-15585772742872319342015-07-18T04:42:47.624-07:002015-07-18T04:42:47.624-07:00Hi Gary & Art,
These are very important issues...Hi Gary & Art,<br />These are very important issues and that's probably why Art has posted this thread. If I may offer a 'correlation' with learning a craft. In UK we have been systematically de skilled since about 1948. This is not specifically about politics but it is about LEARNING and the politics of learning:<br /><br />As a consequence of the desire to learn a skill where there is a vacuum of training and trainers (as in UK progressively since the war) we people become "Have A Go Joes", don't we? Now that's a derogatory remark but I have trained many people in various woodwork mediums and to a considerable extent I have had to 'self train' for the lack of trainers and training. So I am familiar with 'stabbing in the dark' and worse: 'offering advise' from my own ignorance. . . I am positively expert in this field of politics (!).<br /><br />Where there is human need some-one will eventually fill that gap. Some one will 'have a go'. Usually it is some one who is already skilled in one area and they see the possibility of 'transferring' what they already comprehend into this newly recognised need. But with it comes all the risks of wrong assumptions. Nevertheless, if the person in question has encountered something of the 'scientific technique' (which like quality control never assumes anything is correct), well then it is possible to develop a sharing / learning paradigm. Given that Art had much 'training' and conviction to try to help people; that he had probably read MOST if not all of what others had written, it kind of follows that once ONE patient started Primalling then his desire to 'help' would also have been mediated by his desire NOT to harm. This is like a form of 'Triangulation', which in itself is a good example of the scientific method; it is a dialectic which will (if rigorously pursued) arrive at EXACTLY the truth; (in this case, the truth of the patients condition experientially FOR the patient).<br /><br />The mistake people make is in assuming they too can have a go without taking on board everything that has ALREADY been learned. . . People love to "Re-Invent The Wheel". People regularly want the end game without the hard work that leads to it; both "would be" crafts persons and actual patients.<br />Recently I got into one of those silly conversations with a (failed?) artist who angrily wanted me to believe in the distinct difference between ART & CRAFT. His view was that the former is superior to the latter. I disagreed (of course).<br />It seems to me that Primal Therapists are trained as crafts-people of the psyche and IN the relationship with their patients, real ART is born. It is a collaboration.<br /><br />Paul G.<br />Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02006514330039884557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-34219295433846620562015-07-17T13:50:28.485-07:002015-07-17T13:50:28.485-07:00Gary, those are many questions. The danger was alw...Gary, those are many questions. The danger was always there and I hope my biographer will write about them. It was sometimes rather “hairy.” I did better therapy as I and science progressed to make the therapy more scientific which is why I call it, The First Science of Psychotherapy. The rage I saw in therapy came from down deep in patients as did terror and hopelessness. If I could do it, why not others, you ask? Well I have never seen anyone who tried it do it correctly to help patients. I wish it were not so but it is. artArthur Janovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009571728800026496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-71013513175197687562015-07-17T03:44:06.483-07:002015-07-17T03:44:06.483-07:00Art: Your childhood sounds worse than most, and it...Art: Your childhood sounds worse than most, and it raises interesting q´s for me. You´ve always stressed that a Primal therapist must be real and not have any "significant pain remaining" ( the Primal Scream), yet you clearly practiced successfully for years with very significant pain. I´ve always wondered how. If you could do it, why not others?<br />Were you overloaded and if so, how did you reduce it?<br />In The New Primal Scream, you talk of "the unchained furies". You mentiion how your office walls were all full of holes and every stick of your antique furniture smashed in the first few weeks of practicing primal therapy. And how a (mock) primal therapist was murdered by a patient in a primal fury. One of your patients wrote how a patient in a primal rage could take out one, two, or more people. My God. At what point did you realise you were in danger? And how did you protect yourself?<br />Fascinated....GaryAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-34202080139927159432015-07-17T03:28:32.367-07:002015-07-17T03:28:32.367-07:00Dearest Anon: Goodness brother, your history could...Dearest Anon: Goodness brother, your history could be divided in two and apportioned between myself and my elder sister.<br />In 1992, age 31, I read Prisoners of Pain, followed by most of Arts other works up to that point, and realised that everything I thought was "self-development" - affirmations, Bach flower remedies etc - was nothing more than trying to hold back the sea. My defences collapsed and thank God they did cos I realise now how I was building up a dangerous pressure. I could no longer fool myself and became much more real. Apart from losing old "friends", I made others on the local "primal scene", and, recognising the destructive and/or timewasting nature of my old defences, accepted some suffering as the better option. <br />This entailed allowing myself to see what my parents were doing to me, and as a result, to cut a long story short, I didn´t see them for 20 years. Last year they came to see me for the first time in 20 years. My understanding has changed, as has my treatment of people, but not theirs. Seeing them again was WEIRD. <br />Like you I feel alienated - is that word OK with you? - from most people - hell, most everyone. I need this group like the air I breathe. <br />Often I just avoid any contact -even eye contact - with anyone. It´s like some powerful internal sensor is there alongside my pain. It is real, whilst my pain distorts. Intuition? Instinct? Dunno, but it´s real. To give an example, the Portuguese (I live in Portugal) are big on formal manners, but I FEEL it as a defensive shield, devoid of real feeling, and my real self baulks at faking so I put myself on hold for a while. Then get the hell out. <br />Sometimes I just need to be held, but by someone who UNDERSTANDS. But who does? No one I know has done primal, so won´t understand, and no one I know is even primally aware - so won´t understand.<br />Or to cry, and for someone to UNDERSTAND, and let me be. <br />Or to express joy, or love, to let myself go and be silly. But watch parents around children who need to be free, to be themselves, and you understand why those children will grow up locked up in a psychoemotional straightjacket, and remain bound by it when you need to be free and need them to dance with you.<br />Two years ago, i ate smething toxic and convulsed and retched for 4 hours at a local expats house. He spent the whole time screaming and me "mind over matter!" and not doing anything to help me whilst I lay on solid concrete in the infernal Portuguese sun praying I would´t die. I asked for water. He brought me a bowl of water and when I tried to take a sip, screamed at me not to because a fox may have drunk from it earlier. He didn´t even give me a cushion for my head.When I CRAWLED on my hands and knees to him and asked him to drive me home, he SCREAMED at me that he coudn´t because...(Pathetic excuses).<br />So Iater I related all this to my neighbours, who listened as if mine were just "One side of the story", and then told me I was being "childish" and "petulant".<br />Neurosis is inadequate to describe neurosis, if you get my drift. It´s crazy. Bonkers. The further you go in your primal process, the more crazy the world must seem. The woman in my local café who day after day stares at you blankly when you talk, then rants animatedly about the same thing, going round and round in circles. And no one thinks it odd. It´s just her. They´re as blind as she is crazy. And why are people so blind? Neurosis makes us blind as well as crazy. And we fill in the blind spaces with bullshit, redesigning reality according to the refracting prism of our own childhood pain.<br />Sanity.....ahhh, we could do with some of that. So, brother, when one day we meet, we´ll feel something for each other and connect in a real human way. Our hearts will touch each others. Until then, email will have to do. With love, Gary XXAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-55210514196802426492015-07-16T12:25:51.713-07:002015-07-16T12:25:51.713-07:00Alcoholics and drug addicts "know" that ...Alcoholics and drug addicts "know" that they are suffering ... the rest of us do not know that! They have a float between the limbic system and neocortex but not about what... and we do not know nothing. We have a constructed consciousness that keeps us away from awareness and all the help we can get to it.<br /><br />FrankFrankhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02242354226308728116noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-50828569849584041282015-07-16T08:21:28.887-07:002015-07-16T08:21:28.887-07:00Marco: I do get the picture and it is very very w...Marco: I do get the picture and it is very very well written. artArthur Janovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009571728800026496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-9406492940081760542015-07-15T16:50:31.863-07:002015-07-15T16:50:31.863-07:00Dr Janov:
It's always extra interesting to re...Dr Janov:<br /><br />It's always extra interesting to read your blogs when you tell us about your own experiences in life and with emotional rehabilitation. May I ask who helped you out, if anyone? If no one, I suppose you just helped yourself somehow. Did your own self-help then serve as the basis for your creation of the various techniques of Primal Therapy (in addition to the impulsive intuition with your first Primal patient as related at the beginning of "The Primal Scream" )? <br /><br />Although I never suffered much from nightmares as a child,and did not have trouble concentrating, I was quite afraid of the dark before falling asleep for part of my childhood. This started the night John Kennedy was assassinated . I was nearly 9 years old, and I remember my mother telling me about the event, and then feeling very sad as I watched the TV coverage (I still wonder how I even knew about Kennedy at that age and why it should have affected me). I then went to bed and felt a great fear overcome me. After that, it took 5 years for that nighttime fear to fade away . I had to sleep with a light on every night, and often had to go sleep with my parents. What was behind that I still do not know, although Primal theory certainly seems to provide some indications.I suppose true liberating insights into that might come from dipping into those fears , if I ever do...<br /><br />My parents were also from a peasant background ; in my case, my grandparents were Italian immigrants to Canada, two generations off the Papal Estates...My mother was an utter fascist, a total arrogant authoritarian who drove me crazy and who turned me into a bitter angry rebellious person, with a pinched tormented bewildered face, and hunched back from repressed rage , not to mention myopic...I had my first girlfriend at 42 years of age, an epileptic welfare recipient addicted to tranquilisers (I am nevertheless very very very grateful for this wonderful experience of love despite our neuroses)...You get the picture...Thanks, mom!!<br /><br />MarcoAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-47123692990103687282015-07-15T03:49:18.306-07:002015-07-15T03:49:18.306-07:00Art,
can You imagine that it is comforting... to...Art, <br />can You imagine that it is comforting... to me after a nightmare concerning the dying of my mother and father that "they" are still dead (35 and 11 years for that matter)<br /><br />The "event" the worst that I could "then" imagine lies bhind me!!!..<br /><br />You are so right concerning psychiatry:my questions concerning the origins of my frostbites..etc<br /> (the aftermath of my sympathetomy the (first!!! giggling!!! psychiatre of my life!!..resp <br />my becoming furious and nervous (in his eyes..) he proposed what !!? ; those <br />medicine( in latin medicament.(curing through the MIND) <br /><br />Oh Lord how far are those people from the mind.<br />Yours emanuel<br />emanuelhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01380331335118885426noreply@blogger.com