Monday, July 16, 2012

The Need for Connection


Connection has neurologic roots. The Swedish neuroscientist, David Ingvar, using a CAT scan of the brain, found that a perception of pain involved both sides of the prefrontal area working in tandem. When emotional pain is repressed, I would assume the right side is more involved. As I’ve pointed out elsewhere, the right amygdala tends to swell when there is feeling (Primal Healing, 2006). Thus, disconnected pain is more active on the right side than the left.

It is as though there is a secret underground in the brain where messages are passed back and forth, but on the side that should be aware there is no recognition of them. So the right side “tells” the left side, sotto voce, “Look, I can’t take any more criticism. It means I am not loved.” And the left side says, “OK. I’ll defend you against having to feel so bad. Just don’t tell me too much. Anyway, I’ll twist the criticism by the other person, and make them wrong.” And the left side jumps in immediately and automatically as soon as there is a hint of criticism. “Don’t worry, my right-wing friend, I’ll keep those feelings of feeling unloved and criticized under control even though you haven’t told me what they are.” So the left side acts out the feeling; the act-out is unconscious because the right side feeling is not connected. The left is not yet consciously-aware.

We see this clearly in split-brain surgery (the surgical split of the left and right brains) where the surgeon will feed input into the right brain, but because of the lack of inter-hemispheric connection, the left is forced to rationalize a feeling it doesn’t even recognize. The doctor will feed something funny to the right side while the left laughs and concocts a strange explanation for his laughter: “That white coat you are wearing is very funny.” The fact that the left frontal area doesn’t recognize the feeling doesn’t stop it from manufacturing all sorts of rationales. In brief, the right side input is forcing it to create rationales, as it does in both meditation and neurosis where the disconnection is enhanced. Studies show that in practiced meditators there is a thickening of the nerve tissue in the prefrontal cortex (Lazar, et al., 2005). What this means to me is that meditation is essentially enlisting the thinking/intellectual area to help in repression. The subjective feeling may be relaxation but in actuality it is the result of effective repression. In other words, meditation is a defensive operation to keep feelings down. That is why taking a patient’s word is not always the best way to measure progress in psychotherapy.

When someone says, “You are wrong about this,” or, “You made a mistake there,” the left brain quickly says, “Yes, but the reason I did that was....” The feeling is, “If I’m wrong I won’t be loved by my parents. I must defend.” It is defending against the feelings on the right. “If I’m wrong I will feel useless, like a nothing, not deserving of anything. Not worth being loved.” That feeling of being unloved, I must underline, is already there! The trigger in the present lights it up and swirls the feelings again. One rationalizes because one cannot stand one more bit of criticism and the terrible feeling that it sets off. The left accommodates and does the defending without even knowing why.

Neurosis, in many respects, is a split-brain state. The essence of neurosis seems to be to concoct rationales for one’s behavior, which is driven by unrecognized forces. That is why one cannot penetrate elaborate rationales and explanations for other’s behavior. “Why should I give up drink when it always makes me feel warm and cozy?” said an acquaintance. He had no recognition of the constant tension he suffered. So long as feelings are hidden and repressed, the defenses must remain intact. When the insight/cognitive therapist attacks this defense, trying to dissuade the person from her ideas, it is a vain cause; he has neglected the split-brain effect, which tends to be literal.

Rush Limbaugh, the radio commentator, admits to taking strong painkillers over many years. His ideational brain and rather strange philosophies are anchored to feelings he’s not aware of. There’s no more use in talking him out of those feelings than it would be to try and change his whole history. It isn’t just that he has “unreal ideas,” it’s that his disconnected system forces him to both quell his pain on the physical level with drugs and to dampen his pain with a philosophy that may be at odds with his feelings.

In any effective therapy, it is the connection between the deep right limbic to orbitofrontal areas that will resolve so many of our problems, from anxiety, which is pain leaking through a faulty gating system, to depression, which is pain butting up against rigid, unyielding gates. Why? Because many of our later problems derive from experiences in the lower right areas that never make it to higher level connections. Rather, they continually do their damage on lower levels; chronic high blood pressure is one of many examples. Feelings of hopelessness in depression markedly raise a person’s likelihood of suffering a stroke. Bruce Jonas and Michael Mussolino report that depression is equivalent to suffering from high blood pressure, in terms of risk of stroke (Jonas & Mussolino, 2000). I have found that depression is often accompanied by deviations in blood pressure. They form an ensemble.

Preverbal pains are sequestered like an unwanted guest that we keep in the garage where we store undesirable items we’d rather not look at. What does get through is a vague sense of discomfort and malaise—the suffering part. The undesirable is knocking at the gates (almost literally) saying, “Can’t I come in from the cold and join you?” The system, however, keeps the gates high, implying, “Sorry, but I can’t tolerate all you’ve got to say. Let’s wait for a better day.”

That better day is when we are older, when the critical period is long gone, and we are able to tolerate the previously unacceptable. As adults we have a stable environment, are no longer dependent on neurotic parents, perhaps have love in the present, elements that allow us now to face our childhood. Meanwhile, the brain has done its best to block the feeling, providing detours from the right-limbic information highway heading upwards and leftwards. The blockage is not complete, however, because the feeling drives act-outs. “No one wants me,” becomes trying to get everyone to want her—being helpful, kind, unobtrusive, etc. The feeling becomes transmuted into physical behavior. The energy, which needs connection, has gone to our stomach and created colitis, to our cardiac and vascular system with palpitations or migraines, and to our muscles, making us tense. It may make us act meek and diffident as if no one wants us around. It causes an inability for males to become erect. What we try to do in our therapy is to allow feelings to go straight up the feeling highway to the right orbitofrontal cortex and then to make a left turn to reach their destination.

Connection is always the brain’s prime destination. If we only turn left and never go right, we will never make the connection. I believe the system is always trying for connection, but it gets blocked by gating. Because of the constant push to connect, feelings tend to intrude and disrupt our thinking—hence, the inability to concentrate or focus. Once connected, those diversions will no longer be necessary to drain the energy. The energy always spreads to the weakest link. “Weakest” means a vulnerable area or organ either due to heredity or to damage done earlier in life; a blow to the head in infancy may end up as epilepsy. A history of allergies in the family may result in asthma later on.


Lazar, S.W., Kerr, C.E., Wasserman, R.H., Gray, J.R., Greve, D.N., Treadway, M., McGarvey, M., Quinn, B.T., Dusek, J.A., Benson, H., Rauch, S.L., Moore, C.I. and Fischl, B. (2005) Meditation experience is associated with increased cortical thickness. Neuroreport. 16(17):1893–1897

Jonas, B. S. and Mussolino, M. E. (2000) Symptoms of depression as a prospective risk factor for stroke. Psychosomatic Medicine, 62(4):463-471


21 comments:

  1. Hi,
    Recently, during the week, to get myself rested after lunch at work I have taken to meditating for 20 minutes before my afternoon shift. Some people take a siesta.

    This has allowed me to get work done during the afternoon through an apparent increase in energy. Nevertheless, I am acutely aware that I am buying time and energy at a price. That price is temporary deeper repression.

    After the weekend, later, (now) I have no choice but to let my pains surface. At best therefore, meditation is a 'trade off'.

    I can buy a bit of extra time and energy for a while but the price is a day or two of intense surfacing pain later.

    Paul G.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Art,

    David Ingvar is dependent on money from the pharmaceutical industry and thus cannot have its own idea of how the newly manufactured medication shall work or not.
    He hides behind the facade of being "successful". He does't look in the right direction...towards the feeling part of the process.

    Frank

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  3. Hi Art

    I gather that on the whole us blokes have fewer connections between left and right hemisphere's of the Brain which obviously causes us to be less able to access our feelings. I am sure that science would say this is genetic but could it be specific trauma more visited upon Boys than Girls. I tend to see far more little Boys in the UK having to wear Dummies (Pacifiers in the US ((an interesting name)) than little girls. It is generally accepted fact that Boys tend to be treated tougher than girls and more harshly. We then have many women wishing their husbands could open up more. Could the combination of womb trauma, this harsh treatment and the wearing of Dummies (so learning one's expression of feeling is not wanted), pressure from Father's etc etc the reason for the lack of growth of those left right Brain connections. After all I gather that these connections develop in the first three years of life so such pacification of feelings could have a seriously detrimental effect on the development of a Boy's ability to feel.

    ReplyDelete
  4. The natural course of things is for feelings to run through the brain in a connected manner. That's irrefutable because we experience this process every day - every minute. Repression of course works to resists this process, as extreme conditions require. So you must be right with the idea that the system is always "looking for connection" because, clearly, connection is ultimately just the normal operational mode of the brain.

    Repression is a secondary force that gives way when it can afford to, for when the environment allows for it. Isn't it strange how still so many people can't see the inherent sensibility of it all? Primal therapy is nothing more than allowing your brain to be NORMAL. Connection IS normal.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. andrew, every scientist, therapist and crystal ball gazer will agree with your point. they will smile until they read this part:
      overwhelming pain is recorded unconsciously so that it can be felt at a later time...

      Delete
    2. Hi,

      thanks for this you two,

      So bloody simple.

      Paul G.

      Delete
  5. The right side of the brain says "I cannot take more criticism" and the anxiety was a fact of something that once was. Ones when I was a victim of lovelessness which I then could not do anything about… exept run from myself (the needy little boy) as a consequence. I was never the one I was destined to be.

    I grew up as little Frank with the attempt to be loved... attempt to be loved for what now calmed my perverse acts... perverted with moral burden not to go across borders to “help” myself for what was not meant for me.

    But the perverse similarity around me was so dominant that even I found ways of satisfaction… satisfaction to soothe my inner needs from a loss of loving childhood. The sick land was born and I become “normal” around other perverted.

    Now we know why the law of moral was born… It became a law because there was and is no primal therapy to help us. What the laws is up to because of said view we can just emagin.

    Frank

    ReplyDelete
  6. This blog article is SO GOOD!
    Professionals in the area of psychology and psychiatry should be forced to read it and any one such person who don't know Gazzaniga's superbly relevant descriptions of "the interpreter mechanism" should be given the choice of reading and memorizing Gazzaniga's book The Social Brain or else have it shoved down their throat (without the aid of milk and sugar). ;}

    ReplyDelete
  7. Great article Art, thanks.
    The interactions whit other people is always the more difficult for me.
    The hate and rage I often feel inside towards them, at least now after some Primaltherapy, does not come out completely as act outs. It has very much to do with my birth time, my mother trying to kill me by closing down, with me getting suffocated and unable to get out of her. At the present I suffer very much the smell of the exhaustions gas from cars and vehicles. It cuts my breathe and brings up inside the feeling of dying; resentment towards that car (she is trying to kill me), and trigger a enormous rage inside me, getting me at a time when life and death where involved.
    The connection inside and being a whole is I feel a natural (biological) goal, of us as humans, and to follow the feelings the only way to it.
    Gianni

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  8. I regret the name confusion... I did not mean David Ingvar... I meant Martin Ingvar his son I presume.

    Frank

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  9. A great post, Art. Sometimes, when it seems that everyone is acting out the madness to their fullest degree, when almost everyone is addicted to 'ideas as opiates', a simple stating of the truth brings a small oasis of calm.

    Joe

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  10. Hallo, Art!
    There is a place in the U.K. called the primal therapy psychotherapy centre where they state some of their therapists are 'primal therapists'. They sound good BUT they also practise a technique called EDR or eye desentisation, i.e, tapping on the eyelids i think to help people suffering from distress or post traumatic stress. What do you think of this, please? I have never heard of it before. Apparently 'NICE' recommends it as an effective therapy. Sounds rather gimmicky and stupid to me but I'm open minded. I could be wrong. I hope for your opinion. They charge on a sliding scale dependent on peoples individual circumstances which is good.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Anonymous: Never heard of it or them. There is no end to nonsense. We are the result of history. To ignore that history and do gimmicks in the present is plain stupid. art

      Delete
    2. Hi Anonymous,

      I went to see "The London School of Primal Therapists" in North London back in 1993. I was in a crisis and really needed help.

      The 'therapist' I saw said (after I had told her that I had read the Primal Scream) that all therapy was now 'aligned to' primal and the 3 week intensive was "no longer necessary".

      Like a good puppy I believed every word of what she said and subsequently stumbled through 2 years of 'psychosynthesis' and a further 5 years of body work therapy.

      Then I discovered Alice Millers' books (by accident almost) and a reference to Art Janov. The rest is in the blog files.

      It is almost beyond belief how so called 'well meaning' people can hijack an idea and incorporate it into their own 'compendium' of misunderstanding; then market that as viable treatment.

      It's all based on cognitive belief and the fact that every patient has to believe it after so much money and water has flowed 'under the bridge'.

      Blah !

      Paul G.

      Delete
    3. Hallo Paul, you have replied so often to my blogs. For this I am very grateful! I often think of you and wonder by the way how you are getting along. Like you it is hard for me to save the therapy funds. I applied some time back. I have finally mastered Skype but none of my 'friends' will let me use their computers to have my primal interview on. I haven't my own lap top as I have little money. The library won't let me use theirs and PC World wont let me hire one from their shop for only an hour or two. Obstacles!! I am sure you understand this. But to get to the original point I want to make is thank you for your warning about this organisation in North London. I read that they had a couple of primal therapists from the French primal institute years but I don't know. A friend of mine, another so called, went in for eye tapping with a woman who worked alone. I had my doubts when she told me about it. Funnily since then she has dumped me. I wake sometimes at 2a.m. after such vivid dreams about deceased family members tears start pouring from my face. (Despite sleeping pills!)I have to cry quiet so my horrible neighbour upstairs doesnt hear me in her flat! The thing is I could primal if I had a place where safe to make a noise which I had once 20 years ago. Some of these were taped and a man rushed to the door thinking he heard a baby crying. It was me! We all have to hold it in Paul. You with your dear 'Ted.' Me, with my book of 'family poems' I have written during my life which are quite powerful pages of writing, I have been told. This is such a repressive world. It is truly sickening! (At least in the U.K.) Yes, you are right. All these phony therapists pop up all over the place. Aargh. All the best to you, friend, and to me, and to ALL others like us who need and seek and know the reality of the feeling world.

      Delete
    4. Anonymous: We may be able to help for those in financial trouble. art

      Delete
    5. Hi Anonymous,

      Actually I can't hold it in. I have found my car the only reliable safe place. Ironically the concentration of driving allows me a sort of emotional freedom and bang! up come my feelings. . . I used to cry whilst driving but the feelings are so crushing I now aim for certain lay-bys, park and let rip.

      Recently I have been working in a team so the tension builds even worse due to the lack of privacy.

      Then there's the triple pillows and finally when the neighbours are out.

      I've realised I need the clinic because of 1st line intrusion and I've worked out for myself that's one way to get stuck in ab-reaction. Without an experienced therapist I reckon I'll be stuck on "rinse" like a broken washing machine, until some-one clicks the select button a notch further on.

      Wouldn't surprise me if the clinic prescribed me something for 1st line intrusion temporarily to sort out the 2nd from the 1st.

      I can sometimes tell the difference but when it's all triggered by a bad day and the spectre of my lost 3rd line love life. . . well. . . f*****g abreactional mess.

      I won't try to be your cheerleader but on the other hand remember the world is a strange place and sometimes what seems unattainable and impossible to us tiny insignificant (seemingly) individual specks of human life can often come about from unexpected directions.

      Paul G.

      Delete
    6. Thanks, Paul!
      At least you have the car. I don't drive. I think you are very brave to take a risk and hope it will always be safe for you where you choose to park.I know a couple of other people who do this. I should think it's very hard in London which is over populated to find a quiet primal place. In the big USA no problem. I used to be, after taking lsd in 1972, in a constant state of feeling overload. Couldn't keep it down either but now, except when I have intense family orientated dreams at night, a part of me just 'goes dead', sort of robotized...almost. It's a way to survive the madness of living in a very unnatural, unfeeling, power - driven, manipulative society that never leaves you alone or will let you be a FREE individual.

      Delete
    7. Hi Paul and Anonymous

      I think went for an interview at the same north London Primal Centre and had two sessions. I had worked out that the therapist I was seeing prior to that visit had started to dump Freud's Death Instinct whenever I started to talk about stuff he could'nt handle and so went to see them. I was told that I ought to give my therapist another six months. Luckily I had read Alice Miller who was adamant that one should dump a shrink if they act all high and mighty. The Death Eater therapist had a huge wall of books and I wonder what he was hiding from behind those books? I think people hijack a good therapy because they can then adapt it to suit themselves and their own hang ups. My GP was exactly the same. A huge reputation for being caring but only in the way she wanted to care and help which is not care or help at all. Supposedly Alice Miller used to go there in the 1970's but it has obviously changed a lot since then.

      The whole issue of making lots of noise when one is upset is a difficult one. I have had a few odd looks from the neighbours in the past though have moved now.

      What about a large ply box lined with egg boxes. I gather they tend to bounce sound back in!

      Delete
    8. Hi planespotter,

      -"A huge reputation for being caring but only in the way she wanted to care and help which is not care or help at all".

      I remember one of the cognensi friends of my ex (formerly friends of mine) explain to her youngest daughter (then 9yrs old) that when she asked some-one to help, she should accept whatever form of help they offer in response to the request, and not, specifically "not to demand" any personal requirements in it; not to 'specify' any 'particular personal need'. I remember being shocked at the time and finding myself in an impossible situation in which the child looked directly at me with one of those expressions which I can only say totally reflected what I already knew about repression. This was before I discovered, or should I say "Re-Discovered" Arts' brilliant work.

      - "IF THE NAIL STANDS OUT THEN HAMMER IT FLAT"-.

      Paul G.

      (PS, A while back you raised an Alice Miller issue about whether or not men and or women were more or less violent and abusive. . . well, there you go, we stumbled on it again). . .

      Delete
    9. Anonymous: BEWARE! I have written a lot on my blog on EMDR. they are not primal therapists. art

      Delete

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