Thursday, March 20, 2014

L'Wren Scott Is Dead


Ms Scott, designer and girlfriend of Mick Jagger hanged herself yesterday in her apartment in New York.

The question is, “Why?”  Could anyone have seen it coming?  Mick, maybe?  I doubt it.  Here is why.

She had just about everything in life; although she was in debt, she lived well and lived high with Jagger.  Yet she took the trouble to go through the machinations of hanging. Why not the simpler “out”, pills?  I will explain: the way in is often the way out.  The same imprint that produced deep hopelessness—depression—is also what led to her to choose hanging.  This bespeaks of the enduring life of the imprint. This all has to be surmise but I am not limiting my discussion to Ms Scott but to all of us.

The reason no one could see it coming is that it was coming from deep inside, thrusting its head through the defensive layers into conscious/awareness, where she felt so hopeless and “down” despite her current surroundings.  As I have written a mainte reprise, many times over, we respond primarily and firstly to inner imprints and much later to external life and outside circumstance.  The body and brain are busy reacting to what happened decades earlier during womb-life and birth. Those are the events we continually react to because of their remoteness, something that occurred when we were vulnerable and easily and heavily impacted.  A mother taking drugs or drinking, heavily depressed herself.  These lay down engraved memories and last a lifetime and show themselves when we are alone, in a weakened state or otherwise too open to events.  And why doesn’t she run away or go to parties and distract herself?  She cannot; the imprint confines her.  She lives within that primordial memory and cannot imagine or think about other solutions.  There were no alternatives originally, thus there are none while living in the imprint.  And the imprint forces her to remain on the same route all over again. Her hopelessness (depression) is all consuming and completely channeling.   She cannot stray outside its bounds. The stabs of depression she suffers from is the stab of the mounting memory that periodically surges upwardly toward awareness. Being alone for a short time can set it off.

When there are later circumstances of neglect and lack of love the deep imprints become compounded and cemented in, defended and long lasting.  Those later traumas (lack of love) increase the repression and force unconscious acting out…..cutting oneself (to try to get at the source, hopefully, yet unconsciously).  But suicide is still a long way off.  It is amazing how so often people cut themselves, unwittingly digging out the source without even knowing what they are doing.

The fact of the deep imprint also can lead to hanging for if she were strangling on the cord she is most likely repeat the act.  It was the closest she came to death and the trauma and its consequences remain.   That is why I state, the way in is also the way out.  And years ago when I took notes and studied the problem I found this was almost a universal law;  we attempt to die in the way our birth was threatened.  Those who were over-drugged try pills, those who were mangled at birth try jumping in front of a train, those who were strangled on the cord will try hanging.    Those memories, that of trauma during gestation, last a lifetime and lead to same attempt years later to die in the way it might have happened at the beginning.   In other words, as the memory of the early trauma rises so does the early result mount, as well.  Thus early strangle leads to later strangle. The logic of the system.   It is confirmation of the imprint and its effect on the system.  It drives behavior ineluctably. So the imprint includes the probable outcome…..death.   It channels behavior despite exhortation and encouragement; the sense of approaching death.  What is often articulated for those who have no idea about the imprint is, “I don’t want to live anymore.” And even that is not fully articulated; it is usually a vague thought or sense.  It is often not, “I am in so much pain I don’t want to go on.”  It is just a vague sense of hopelessness and helplessness that leads to an attempt.   It all remains vague and aleatory; A constant rumination inside of a black cloud descending.

That is why cognitive therapy cannot touch it.    Cognitive tries to re-channel behavior but the imprint will have none of it.   It is far stronger than any re-direction or insight.  That sense of approaching death is what remains marked within us and controls our behavior later on.  Nothing special had to happen at the time; just nothing to do and no pal around can do it; all by oneself with no current distractions.  This is the exact replica of her feelings in the womb and becomes the trigger for suicide;  utter loneliness, no one to help or rescue her.   She could not articulate this in the womb but now she can; and she is interpreting her feelings during life in the womb.  They are utterly compelling.  They lead to the outcome that was in the offing originally.  Let me repeat:  her current life mirrors the original milieu of her current feelings.  They draw her back to the primal imprint, and force her to repeat the situation again; the feelings reactivate the imprint and lead to where they would have originally—death.  

L’wren’s suicide could not be seen coming except by her. She must have had an inkling, a deep down unease and hopeless feeling that would have warned her but she had no idea about imprints or deep-lying trauma/memory.  That is the reason our theory is so important; not so they can come to therapy (although preferable) but so that they can be aware of what is going on inside and  understand what is happening.  This may avoid needless deaths.  How tragic and unnecessary all this.  And now you understand our mission: not money nor fame, but the lives of us humans.  We have a basic right to a full-length life.

21 comments:

  1. Art... an easy way to explain something so revolutionary!

    "The way in is the way out"... there inbetween a terrible suffering... invisible as well as visible for each one of us... we just dont know!

    The cognitive scheme can be compared with a hell machine that slowly but surely grind whatever feeling is all about!

    They fear symtoms to be something terrible without perceiving the child's desperate struggle for life!

    Your Frank.

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  2. "The way in is the way out". Yes. It's like we instinctively know that we must get to the source of a feeling if we are to resolve it. And so that is exactly what some of us try to do... but we just don't know what to do... but we find ourselves doing the things that make the feeling come closer... torturing ourselves... trying to feel... it... trying to understand it.. whatever it is.

    Some people don't even try to go there... instead they just instantly blame someone or something... they just invent a new source instead of slipping inwards toward the real source.

    I am definitely an inwards person and at times it can be hell but my feelings of total hopelessness don't usually last more than a few minutes... they just hit me out of the blue and for a moment I am completely disfunctional with a feeling that nothing matters. Then I go into mental overdrive until I eventually convince myself that it is 'just' a lie... just a feeling from the past. Not an easy task! It's very hard to convince myself when the feeling is so overwhelming and so convincing. Nothing feels more true and real than a feeling that comes from the brain stem. I think my understanding of primal theory has helped at least to keep my obsessions within livable boundaries (thank you Art) but I am lucky to have never had the desire to kill myself... perhaps I never came THAT close to death even after nine prenatal months of heavy smoking (probably the main cause of my mother's miscarriages).

    It seems like suicidal people want to follow the feeling through to it's end... like they are trying to continue on from the endless loop -- the point where the movie was paused. But they can't really do that because they are not feeling the feeling... they are just suffering from the unconscious signals that merge in and out of awareness. But they are drawn to a type of ending... the type of ending that was paused in the womb. The imprint is so strong... no other type of 'relief' seems possible.

    In therapy we can bring that overwhelming pause-point into consciousness, and we don't resolve it by acting it out. We resolve it by FEELING it until we get to a real ending; the feeling must be felt so that our hormones and understanding can normalise. The feeling is waiting to be resolved -- it is not waiting to kill us.... the movie doesn't end that way. In fact the movie has no ending.

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    1. Hi Richard,

      -"Some people don't even try to go there... instead they just instantly blame someone or something... they just invent a new source instead of slipping inwards toward the real source"-.

      All the intellectuals I know (the Dr. Spocks you refer to) are expert at this to the degree of a fine art. So finely honed they don't even need to point the finger or blame. They have used a personalised cognitive re-evaluation of the circumstances (brilliant adaption) to justify their absence from decision making and responsibility. . . . Some of them preach "the here and now" too, but they've been 'working it all out in advance' for sure. They are never short of a plan, it's just you who havn't planned.for their plan, (ha ha). . . . . Which is why if you buy into their criteria and try to 'collaborate' with them you end up locked out and all adrift having enabled their 'next stage of adaption' (at your expense). They may even accuse you of manipulating them (better still get your friends to do this for them) because their gain wasn't quite what they expected and so, they feel let down. Some of them may come into your life with money and promises.

      Certain countries have foreign policy like this. The poor 'developing' country left holding the baby and the consequences of financial / social destitution that follows such 'generous intervention'.

      All the poor infidels who try so hard to acquire this intellectual 'skill' through cognitive training nearly always end up behaving like a sort of Harry Potter moving photo caricature of themselves. . . All they do is re-enforce their own particular personality characteristics. But it's these 'true intellectuals' who have you in their photo album. They play the game of no personality at all. . . It's very seductive. . . looks like superior functioning. You will be dancing to their tune. I have several 'mates' (ex-mates) who have acquired this skill. They all seem brainwashed to me. They tell me I have a problem with blame and should learn to forgive and forget. They really don't know that through re-living I put the past behind me. Through forgiving me they can therefore forget me altogether. Do I want friends like that ?

      Prior to my breakdown (or breakthrough as planespotters previous English therapist described it) I was hell bent on becoming the facsimile of my Dad. Such is the extent of denial I experienced. I had to compete to be like him and so to justify his lack of love I had to keep chasing his dreams. . . To put him right. . . inside my psyche.

      Now I put him outside my psyche and re-live the terror and lack for who he really should have been for me.

      If this kind of thing doesn't get put into a Primal context then 'winners' become increasingly dissatisfied with the 'losers' who are always to blame. The intellectuals are playing the 'winners / losers' game big time.

      It's ok to feel your own loss but it's not ok to be at a loss in some one else's denied past. Particularly if they 'paid for it'.

      Many 'benefactors' of such wealth are driven to suicide in the face of such absolute denial.

      Paul G.




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  3. After my therapy, I have met and talked with many people. Only few tend to perceive the truth "under" what Mr. Janov says. Most of them try a logical approach, which usually fails.

    I really wonder (when I first read the Primal Scream) why I felt as if I already knew this and I had it written in front of me.

    I never doubted that each human has his own way for his own truth. But Art's art is not therapy; as I wrote is "art", is living, like breathing, it just happens if you let it; we were just supposed to live like that.

    -Yannis-

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    1. Yannis: This is so true I will run it again. I discovered natural law like breathing. Once in touch with your nature it becomes simple. art

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    2. Hi,

      when my dying friend put a copy of The Primal Scream in my hands 30 years ago, I read it and also knew instantly. Unfortunately in my naivety (then) I assumed such profound 'logic' (Primal) was incorporated into other therapies (people told me that too). . . Oh so naive I was then. Not now.

      Paul G.

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  4. I don't think L'Wren (or s/one who suicides this way) was necessarily close to strangulation by cord at birth, but (have always) loved and agreed w/this theory of yours, Art. I too would love to study it (altho seems morbid!). I think the allure could simply be to (unconciously) replicate anoxia, altho I would choose any easy way out; I hate pain (the neck breaks in hanging); and yes, I was born under anaesthetic, my Mother also smoked whilst pregnant w/me.

    This doesn't matter to Jagger and L'Wren's loved ones who are in mourning. But as you say, if this awareness can be increased (altho even better, people received PT), full lives may be had, which everyone has a right to.

    It's very sad. I feel a duty to do something about it.

    Jacquie

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  5. Who knows, I sure don't. So many thoughts about suicide. There is a saying that goes: "it is harder to live life than it is to die." Some people really believe this, the mystery of death; maybe L'wren thought it would be intriguing.....something for her man, Mick , to think about. So her imprint might have just been compounded by the company that she kept,.....true, she seemingly , seemed to have everything going for her. In the end, maybe she was trying.......but in the wrong way, suicide isn't an answer. Life is hard, one has to be careful at times....who they get involved with. I do like Mick Jagger very much, his music is great; but for some reason, I just feel she had a problem there also. Life is hard and sad at times, she could have done something other than what she might have perceived as "the ultimate". There must be feeling ; feeling that needs to be worked on almost habitually in order to survive. She needed guidance....I really don't think she ever received it. Then again, who knows. I agree with what Richard has to say and also what Art has written here.

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  6. I would guess that someone suicidal had been aware of this pain for a long time but managed to avoid the feeling most of the time. When outside circumstances and weakened defences trigger the feeling big time the feeling is "I've had enough of this I need it to end" The bit missing (without having access) is that it did end-she survived! The lower parts of the brain don't have a sense of time so it's happening now. So tragic that the person is trying to get rid of the pain/suffering but not knowing that it's possible to experience that hell rather than re-enact it - and put it where it belongs: in the past. Again the neocortex tries to find a 'solution'!



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  7. Hi Art,

    -" That is the reason our theory is so important; not so they can come to therapy (although preferable) but so that they can be aware of what is going on inside and understand what is happening"-.

    Seems like this is the first time I have heard you say (or write) that Primal Theory can work in a cognitive way to 'cap' people's worst imprinted traumas. . .

    I mean, that is what you have written here. So, given the shortfall in supply of Primal therapy how does one manage one's imprinted trauma once familiarised with the theory ?

    This presents all sorts of complications beyond merely the charlatans robbing bits of the theory to enhance their own repertoire. . . In this sense those 'victims' (ex mock patients) would have been better off not knowing anything at all perhaps. . .

    So, as author of books sold all over the world, having enlightened us with the terrifying truth (that it's not all 'out there') how do we carry on with our imprinted trauma ?

    I for one don't really need answers nor is this blog the place for any prescriptions; but really. . .

    Paul G.

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  8. Art, I have often wondered about hanging as suicide with relation to strangling on the cord. I tend to think that serial killers like the Boston Strangler were probably being strangled by the cord at birth as well......what do you think ?

    Len Gibbs.

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    1. Len: dunno. Above my pay grade. art

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    2. I have just looked up the Boston Strangular. All but two of his victims were sexually assaulted and then strangled with a silk stocking. Is this a man who was sexually abused as a baby and also strangled by a physcotic Mother. It is fascinating stuff.

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  9. how the terror becomes anxiety, imprint becomes a suicidal plan , powerlessness transformed into depression? neocortex seems to be involved. from around age 6?
    maybe in primal therapy the neocortex just gets the chance to have some rest... so all these symptoms gradually disappear.

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  10. Sometimes, I think people commit suicide "just for spite"....to hurt people, because they have been so badly hurt (emotionally or possibly even physically) by those near and dear to them. But being so far in debt....and what Art has said, the imprints might make one think they don't have "a right to live". Maybe she felt also along with the imprint....shame; the imprint alone, would do it for some but along with a lot of things compounding their living situations; well, at times, it looks as though a person doesn't even have a chance against themselves. But I do agree with Art, and I do agree with Richard. The imprint just is the basic start that has a lot of precedence many times in living; so it seems.

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  11. Art,
    I wonder why a psychiatrist of mine (You know there are many are weak...) not all hard as a rock...
    left this plane after an homosexual orgy...
    Or why a lady of 26 preferred to die with an electric hair dryer in the bath tub...or why a young lady
    jumped from a balcony ..or why a deliquent I knew 8he had scoffed of my -admittedl!! pitiable
    physique in the gym.. preferred sleeping pills than to hanging around for 10 years in jail
    and why ....
    but I do know why I nerver tried :I am too COWARD, and then to proud ("they" would talk about me... Yours emanuel

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    1. Those poor people in the 9/11 attack... the fire was too hot for them - forced them to jump from the building. They were not brave -- they were desperate and they couldn't see any other way. When the pain and fear became overwhelming, they lost their instinct for self-preservation, and I suspect they also could not feel reality (death approaching) even when they were falling. I guess... as they fell, they did not feel that they were going to die -- but they knew intellectually. One woman tried to stop her dress from rising as she fell -- I doubt she could feel reality at that moment. I have read stories of free-climbers (rock climbers without ropes) who feel nothing while they are falling a fatal distance. They have to walk past many dead bodies of previous climbers before they begin the ascent. From the moment they accidentally slip and begin to fall, all they will think to themselves is: "oh no... I'm really falling...this is it.... I can't believe this is happening." They don't scream or anything -- and if they miraculously survive the impact (with terrible injuries) they go on to describe the experience in magazines etc. I suspect that suicidal people are in a similar mind-set when they are pulling the trigger or swallowing pills... they are totally overwhelmed and they can't really feel what they are doing. If they could feel some reality they would be 'cowardly' and would not be able to go through with it.
      My friend tried to kill himself by sleeping in a bath tub with a heater submerged in the water. He had set the timer on the heater so that it would switch on after he fell asleep. He woke up just before the timer was about to switch on. He freaked out and threw the heater out of the water and saved his own life... I think he felt some reality at that moment. He was in so much pain his eyes always looked distant and bloodshot but he never took drugs.. he was like a little child.

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    2. Hi,

      -"I doubt she could feel reality at that moment"-.

      Well that sums it up doesn't it?

      I mean, I am a trained construction operative / designer / engineer and I already know what to do at heights. . .

      The problem with people today is that they have bought into a giant symbolic act out; making money in high rises is one giant act out. Not knowing the risks of "working at height" is in my opinion what the attackers were really aiming at. . .

      As the observers on the street were filmed to say as the first impact happened: "We thought it was a film stunt"-. . .

      Paul G.



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    3. Hi,
      another thought:

      -"reckless and dauntlessly I pave the way for others to follow, I fear not, I am a rock, I climb the rock and so am invincible". . .

      What a fucking act out this is.

      I gave up "pioneering activities" long ago for an inner journey. I found a good guide at last. Several actually. . . mostly all on this blog.

      Thanks.

      Paul G.

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  12. Here to remind myself!

    "her current life mirrors the original milieu of her current feelings". Our interpretation of the intensity is what first must get their proper order... which must be seen as crucial... as aimlessly forming other sentences of cause and we are lost in cognitive sentences! “I don’t want to live anymore.” Does not target sentences of reason as MOM “I am in so much pain I don’t want to go on.”

    Frank

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  13. All very sad. From a personal perspective I had suicidal thoughts over the years but never very strong. Interestingly I had three different ways i would have done it. The strongest and most powerful was hanging (strangled by cord at birth) and then a shotgun (sexual abuse) and finally jumping in front of a train. This last one I had not understood until you talked about be mangled at birth Art. Being ripped out on one's Mother bottom first with metal forceps was pretty mangling and the train is metal too. Interestingly the hanging one was always the strongest which perhaps suggests the cord was the biggest threat to my life then. I also think it tended to mask the others a great deal.

    I don't think people are really very concious of their actions when they do such a thing. The pain must be so great it must all become a blur.

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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