Tuesday, May 10, 2016

My Life, My Music


I just got off a ship from the European theater and landed in the Brooklyn navy yard.  The first days I was there I was invited by a sailor name Phillie Gilbert to join a band he was organizing.  The night before, however, I could not walk and missed the band.  I was in the infirmary for a few days and then got out.  I heard about a man named Charlie Parker playing on 52nd st.  He was playing a new kind of music called be-bop.    I went to hear him and was so impressed that I decided to talk to him but I didn’t know what to say, so I asked him what time it was?  He grunted, humm? And that was my night with Parker, but his music influenced me for ever.

I took my horn to hear Count Basie at the blue room of the hotel Lincoln, and later Duke Ellington and got to play with both.  Basie asked me to take another solo of one o’clock jump.  But my neurosis could hardly let me enjoy it, yet it was one highlight of my life.

I was good at playing solos out of pure feeling but due to my severe ADD I could not learn transposition and many  other technical aspects of my trumpet.  Then years later I played every Thursday night with the “Psychopathic  Syncopators” at the Brentwood mental hospital. Girls came from everywhere to dance with patients; never an untoward event.  The entire sax section had lobotomies; and when we travelled for gigs we had to hold hands to keep from losing people.  Lobotomy became one of the most devastating therapies of all time and left most patients vegetables.

I have already written about my pal Hector Acosta who, I think because he was Mexican, was assigned to lock himself inside the ship in case of a submarine attack.  He would sink but the ship would not.  That night he called out from the dance floor and I saw him for the first time since the war.  It was such a joy and I asked what he was doing in a mental hospital?  He shrugged and recounted his battle station locking himself inside against a sub attack.  That did it. I wonder now if he is still alive as we are all in our nineties.  Our first battle was in the Aleutians in the early 1940s. From there to the south Pacific and then to Europe being chased by German subs all the way across.

It was while I was playing in the mental hospital band that I played second trumpet to a patient who was pre-psychotic and an addict.  He played great, so great that I knew then and there that I could never play that good, no matter what. I sort of gave up on music until I wrote songs with David Foster.  I played gigs but I always knew that I was never going to be above an everyday player.

My ADD neurosis was deeply embedded and could not be seen or conceptualized until I saw first line, brainstem imprints decades later. Then I knew what had plagued me all my life and why I could not learn.  I treated myself with my new found therapy and now I have an excellent attention span and great concentration.

Why?  I dug into my deep brain and relived and therefore eradicated what was driving my ADD.  Now, I am never distracted and can work hours at a time sitting still.  There is nothing agitating me from inside.

I wrote before that my “No” was taken away in childhood, so when I boarded my ship to be in the band, I was told the papers  never mentioned it.  I never protested and became a machine gunner.  Six battles later I was sent to college by the navy without my knowledge; all because of an intelligence test we all had to take when joining up.  I did well and got  As.  I began to think that I could do this, so I did go to college, paid for by the navy. Spent 11 or 12 years at Oregon State,  USC,  UCLA, Claremont Graduate University who awarded me the academic hall of fame.  Until therapy, I never could feel I earned it until I felt stupid over and over again.  Only then, could I feel smart;  the dialectic at work and the linchpin of my work.    We need to feel deeply hopeless to get back real hope, and feel a failure to then later feel like a success.  You fill in the blanks.  The dialectic means the interpenetration of opposites.    Toward a new state; a new whole.  Alas, by the way, success is not a feeling; it is others’ idea of you.  So don’t wait to feel it.

So I began to wonder why could I not learn?  Why was I so anxious with allergies all over?    I found the source.  And as I relived it my allergies and neurotic ADD left forever and I am allergic to nothing now.

My last year in the Navy I had a 26 piece band that play all over Oregon and then the war ended.  I had a constant pressure in my head with periodic vomiting toward the end. The commander said to me, “Janov did you want to go out like a man or like a pussy?” I answered immediately, “Like a man, sir.”  Where upon I lost all chance for a medical/psychiatric pension. So goes life.




26 comments:

  1. Art.
    There are obviously two unsung heroes in the house. Fascinating reading. Thanks again.
    Erik

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  2. I was forced to lie for what I was forced to stand up for myself in situations I could not possibly handle!

    "I went to hear him and was so impressed that i decided to talk to him but I did not know what to say, so I asked him what time it was?"

    You talk about me... it's been my problem throughout my life... lockups with effects that lies became my life... it was what I did when I could not find answers tied to an experience of feeling... a terrible suffering state... lies without its meaning to their cause... but saved my life from life-threatening experiences hidden in my limbic system through "help" from my neocortex by my lies. I know how my body reacted at times when it was up to me to be seen... the suffering ... with its cause. WHAT COULD I DO???

    Art this is what people are suffering... they only live on with what the underlying pressure is without the slightest idea what is going on and we die with it without the slightest glimpse of what life was all about! A task as a professional is also a life of falsehood extremely difficult to catch!

    Your Frank

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  3. An email comment:
    "I have always thought that war was one of the oldest worst forms of child abuse. The only improvement was upping the age to that of college kids. Still god awful.

    I shared this and I am thinking how brave you now are sharing things so personal with such honesty and candor. Honesty from the heart is the beginning of all virtue.

    Geez your work inspires so many great sayings..."

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  4. Hi:

    A most interesting post. Anyone talking about music and feelings gets my immediate attention, since music has the most incredible power to evoke feeling, at least in my case (women are a close second).

    About 6 months ago, I decided for the first time to learn some music theory, not to get all analytical, but to complement my responses to music, which had deepened for some reason in the last year. I was amazed at how quickly my mood could change for the better when listening to some of my favorite passages, for instance. Unfortunately, I have been going through a light depression lately due , I think, to being unable to express the distress I feel about health problems I have, and due generally to living in a decrepit lonely degenerate society that shies away from feeling.This has caused me to be much less responsive to music, and it's like a part of me has literally died.My soul has dried up! Little that is exciting and meaningful is happening!

    Another thing I have noticed lately re music is the interpersonal context of music in some films where music is part of the drama, not just as important background of the film. One film actually showed a teacher who conducted his classes along military lines, and the fearful students actually went along with this! I could not believe it; does that actually happen in some music schools? The main character, a drummer, was trying so hard to please him that he drove himself crazy, had an accident, and had to leave the school, and abort his career! This film shows at least how toxic that is, and shows that this harsh context goes totally against what music and art generally should be. Another film with Richard Dreyfuss shows him, on the other hand, as a caring teacher who tells his students to have fun and FEEl more for what they are doing (if they can get into it), not just go through the motions of playing because it is a course.To do that they must start however getting into rock music which is mostly what they like, but this goes against school rules. A classic cultural clash.One particular lovely young redhead just can't get the hang of the clarinet because she is trying too hard to be successful like her high-achieving family. Once she gets off that and connects to her soul with the teacher's instructions, she starts to play accurately and with flow, just for the music. What a lovely scene that was , especially for the beauty and emotional responsiveness of that young actress!

    Anyways, I can go on. But I will end by asking Art: what music do you like in addition to what you have mentionned? Do you use music in your therapy with people? As for myself, some types of jazz are what I like the best, stuff like Miles Davis's "Kind of Blue",Bill Evans, some John Coltrane like "My favorite Things" (see Youtube)...and especially the great Pat Metheny. Gregorian chant, Irish music, is also wonderful, as is much folk music.

    Marco

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    1. Marco, As an old jazz musician I love jazz, and yes Coltrane and Miles Davis and my good friend who is coming to see me soon. Charles lLloyd. But I went to operas in Europe often when I lived there. Every time I met with Foster I had him always play me Bill Evans who I still listen to. Louis Armstrong's Memories of you and Billie Holliday. You get it. I am too old for rap and I am not a fan of it. art

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    2. Art: Thanks for your reply. Ah Charles Lloyd...One night at a vernissage I heard this wonderful music, asked who it was, Charles Lloyd I was told...Never forgot that.

      Well I ain`t no fan of rap either. That ,and most rock, and heavy metal, punk, is just noise. There`s enough strident noise and manic energy around. I want to relax and listen to something beautiful!

      I got into some music last night after posting here of my depressed state, and the energy of the music started to flow through me again.Back to life, at least a bit! I am so grateful to musicians and most artists .

      Before I leave, may I recommend the jazz music of Pat Metheny. His piece Minuano 6-8 is a good place to start, on Youtube.

      Take care.

      Marco

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  5. I am lost for what now "science" is a quackery! How is so-called science proven to be quackery? It happens when science has proven otherwise!


    My brain is an amazing organ it intends to free myself from feeling life-threatening experiences from time impossible to the time it is possible... if I should get the opportunity to it. The tragedy is that I must first collapse from what I suffer instead of "learning" about my pain... it before there is any possibility to get the help needed. And then when there should be opportunities for help I am brought into a crazy world for what I do not need and I am forced to remain there without any opportunity to protest even when I know science tells us otherwise!

    So-called professional are refusing to listening to science... it with both their "teeth and claws as defence"... it for what madness they are engaged... it for refusal to acquaint themselves with what is the most important discovery mankind has done in any area!

    Proven experience is about to kill a whole world... as proven experience silences sufferings in its infancy.


    Can an outcry for the right to be heard echoing louder?

    Frank

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  6. I was just in a feeling this morning about wishing I had never gone to Vietnam ( I was a medic ) and how sorry I am if my participation brought harm to anyone. When I came home I dated a girl I took to see B.B. King. I’d never been in love before and I fell hard for her.
    It was ironic, because she and my friends were all hippies in the Peace movement but we had a real attraction going on. Years later, we talked about why we didn’t take it further. I was too damaged by life and came home mentally broken from war. I’ve had to “feel” the loss of how much I was in love with her way back in 1972 and what could never be.
    Like you Art, It’s taken me a lifetime to work through my own feelings of being made to feel I was stupid and my own ADD. I enjoy writing and recording Folk music but am still terrified to perform in front of people though with therapy it has gotten easier. I had to prove to myself I could do it but now feel no real desire to do so. I enjoyed reading your stories of life and music and wished to share mine. Such is life as you say

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    1. Walt, thanks so much for your letter. It ain’t easy, right? art

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  7. Art, if you could sense that some other musician was great, then you could also sense when your own music was sounding great. Anyone who can enjoy music can also create it by recognising when it sounds good, after some experimentation. Great music is never the best because one piece of enjoyable music can never be better than another. The feeling is subjective and changes with one's surroundings. Your attitude towards other musicians was indeed very neurotic; based on an egotistical measurement rather than a judgeless joy of music. I am glad you did not forever give up on making music.
    An interesting point: Ringo Starr has often been criticised for his undeveloped drumming skills, yet his loose style gave much of the Beatles music the right sound. Was he a better drummer than all the other Beatles drummers? Was he more feeling than the others? Not necessarily. He was a good match for many of their songs. And Bono, the lead singer for U2, sang much better, in my opinion, when he had first joined the band. Later he starting adding inappropriate breathing and grunting which made him sound vain and distracted from the appropriately asexual driving sound of the other musicians. Bono later criticised himself for screaming too much in his earlier recordings, yet it was his plain yelling that integrated perfectly with the straight U2 sound.
    Some of my favourite musicians are the ones who push their ego aside when they are recording... and instead they just listen to the overall sound that they are creating. Artists like Gordon Sumner, David Bowie, Robert Smith before America bought him, and many others. And I bet none of them are concerned about their ranking in terms of musical skill.

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    1. Richard,

      we make these 'judgements' for the lack of a guiding parent when we were children. This probably drives the teen obsession with 'fame'. When we are little, parents are supposed to be a 'lens' between ourselves and our environment, to 'mediate', to develop a sense of proportion to our experiences. Without a parent working as our 'agent' in the environment for us we are compelled to erect barriers, screens which we need to do the job for ourselves. A really good agent understands craft & art and knows how to 'promote' their 'artistes'. . . Our parents should have been our promoters AND agents. . . But that's not what happens for most of us. Most of us (artists) still feel 'upstaged' by our parents. . .

      Paul G.

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  8. To be honest I don't know much about any of the wars. I vaguely remember the impact of my first realisations as a child, that this thing called war existed, after accidentally seeing images on TV.
    It made me feel very sad and sickened . I would say now, that the sick feeling was and is, feelings of helpless rage, about something so outrageous happening to people in my world. The world and my world, were more like one thing as a child. So when something terrible was happening in the world, it was happening in my world. Where as today, as an adult , when I hear about terrible tradgedy, it's happening somewhere else in the world. I guess this is how I learned to defend against the pain of war . If not I wouldn't survive . I don't want to grow up if that means having to learn about war! But I can see that it's very enabling to feel about war.
    My Farther was born in London in 1939 .He came to Australia on a ship with his Mother, during the war. The ship behind theirs was bombed.
    My Farther didn't know his Farther, and didn't know his Farther had died fighting in the war until recently. For most of his life , he thought his Farther had abandoned him . I was greatly relieved to find out that my grandfather hadn't abandoned my farther, but had died fighting for a better world.
    Think I will write to my dad and ask him if it's really true, and how he found out . I can't believe his mother, my grandmother, didn't tell him what happened to his farther. Maybe she didn't know. Maybe she thought her husband abandoned them.
    All I can resolve to say right now about war, is that anyone who can own their life, and their fight for life, is a hero! And music? Well, that's how we survived!
    Dear Art, Thanks for leaving no stone unturned !

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  9. Art, You're welcome. It is not easy but still an amazing gift. Walt

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  10. Art, have you ever worked with Barbra Streisand? She is incredible.

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    1. Richard, I met her. She lives near me. But never worked with her. art

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  11. It's all about our history!

    How was life on Earth 70 million years ago? It will die with me for what my illusions created its image! How Napolion was and thought will also die with me for what my illusions created a picture of him. What was on his mind and why he was acting like he did... no one will ever know! And that is what much of learning is all about in school... about something no one will ever know!

    When we come to relegion and its preaching of meeting with God and eternal life makes us truly astray for our further life. The need for god as we created through a cognitive activity for faith as we learn in school binds us there for what need we had of a loving mother and we learn otherwise for what other people's failure to understand this phenomenon is all about. Our teachers in our schools are labile individuals in need of something they do not understand... and still they are escorting for what they do not understand... what their illusions cause suffering without any reaction to what madness they preach. If they are reminded... they are just "professional" for the job... it with katastrofala consequences for all living creatures.

    I am in the life cognitive therapy that binds me in my suffering to its infancy because I did not have any parents who understood better! And although if I had parents who understand better so was the political system compelling to obedience to the cognitive activity learning was all about! But if I would had parents that loved to me???

    I understand that there are only a few who carry this with them and we will die with it... if we do not do MUCH MUCH MUCH more!

    Frank

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  12. Stockholm 2016-05-14



    It's all about our own history!

    How was life on Earth 70 million years ago? It will die with me for what my illusions created its image! How Napolion was and thought will also die with me for what my illusions created a picture of him. What was on his mind and why he was acting like he did... no one will ever know! And that is what much of learning is all about in school... about something no one will ever know!

    When we come to relegion and its preaching of meeting with God and eternal life makes us truly astray for our further life. The need for god as we created through a cognitive activity for faith as we learn in school binds us there for what need we had of a loving mother and we learn otherwise for what other people's failure to understand this phenomenon is all about. Our teachers in our schools are labile individuals in need of something they do not understand... and still they are escorting for what they do not understand... what their illusions cause suffering without any reaction to what madness they preach. If they are reminded... they are just "professional" for the job... it with katastrofala consequences for all living creatures.

    I am in the life cognitive therapy that binds me in my suffering to its infancy because I did not have any parents who understood better! And although if I had parents who understand better so was the political system compelling to obedience to the cognitive activity learning was all about! But if I would had parents that loved to me???

    I understand that there are only a few who carry this with them and we will die with it... if we do not do MUCH MUCH MUCH more!

    Frank

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  13. Life in its blossoming bud beaten tormented and despised!

    Our fixed needs of sex is a physical need that concentrated to our genitals due to non-fulfillment of love as includes feelings in the entire body! It manifesting itself clearly in our faces when we are shy which is a sign of our suffering of its missing... not to talk about what we avoided and so well retain within ourselves... as hatred shows its face without its cause and and so we discipline our children and we have an army to kill the whole world!

    The need of love is in tears... but also a killer!

    Frank

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  14. Off topic:

    Art, I don't know if you can answer this but I will try you.

    Do you find that more feeling people (after and during a lot of PT) have better memories, in particular when they are back in the context that any given information was received?

    I speculate that the more open we are, the more emotional 'tags' we would have in relation to any environment where we learn. The result should be a better practical memory (maybe?), as we have a larger net of emotional/sensational associations with respect to all learned information.

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    1. Hi Andrew,

      though I havn't been in proper primal therapy I have 'opened up'. Consequently the locus of my focus has changed and therefore what & how I remember has changed.

      I used to have what could be called an extremely sharp memory for detail in time and sequence. Thus I was a very good production manager and quite a good percussionist(!) It made me very unpopular with certain people who began to feel that I was some kind of 'clip board' inspector, some kind of 'CIA' agent. I found it almost impossible to 'turn a blind eye' to 'errors'. . . Being on watch for 'errors' was one of my act outs but back then I didn't realise it.

      I think this kind of attention to detail (and remembering it all) is very useful for learning new things but a point should come where one lets go of that fixation and gets on with applying what you learned rather than continually fixating on the errors along the way.
      I have noticed I am now much more focused on how people feel (including myself) and how that changes over time. So my memory seems to have developed into one of emotional process rather than factual detail. If I am asked to describe or explain a past event, I now find myself wondering who's point of view am I offering as my own view; my own memory has become infused with a more inclusive membership of other peoples feelings and potential memories. I may even 'choose' to ignore certain 'photographically recorded' facts and recall a different aspect of what was 'going on' at the time; knowing how others may have been 'blind' to what I saw, even though they were present at the time.
      I have noticed that many people have 'photographic' memory and can only recall or 'find' what they want by surrounding themselves with an exclusive array of things relating only to the task in hand at the time. I would say that kind of memory is typical of neurosis, which always muddles through a task despite any apparent 'organisation'. Neurosis is very subjective and carries with it a very random type of recall. Usually a recall by association, thus 'photographic'. . .
      Being a carpenter and production manager and psychology researcher (!), I used to recoil at this but now I have become less believing of anyone's memory, most of all my own. I no longer 'collect facts' and erect them in rows of defensive barriers. This seems to be a real advantage because it prevents others (particularly those who rely on me to be their 'production manager') from also erecting lines of defensive barriers when relating with me.
      There is one caveat though. For those who are still trapped in defensive barrier erection / memory recall having a more feeling production manager at their disposal tends only to advantage them and not me, their production manager and so. . . . . I find myself planning to leave the exploitative situation I am in whilst smiling sweetly at my exploiters. . . Which is exactly what they are doing but of course without being aware of it.

      Thus I can conclude that access to feelings allows you to lie (or be 'economical with the truth') consciously for a good aim despite anyone's 'memory'. This applies to both recent and distant events. . .

      Paul G.

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    2. I agree with you Andrew. The more open we are, the more information gets in, the fuller the experience and bigger or more impressionable the memory, as if we were children again able to absorb and learn more.

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    3. The only time I get close to being awake is when I am asleep. No matter what is happening in my dreams, it is always a very rich, powerful, 'environmental' feeling... and not in an extraordinary way... it just feels normal.
      From my dreams, I know that every event in life is supposed to be a rich feeling. When I wake up, most of the feeling is gone, but I often get momentary flash-backs of the dream and its feeling for weeks afterwards. I have no doubt that Andrew is right in regards to the way feelings will illuminate an event as it happens, and also reinforce the memory of it. Feelings give us an instant "knowing" of a large amount of complex information. We just "know" where we are and what is happening... we don't need to think about all the details, the details are already known, they are just a part of the feeling. It's called "being awake". The purpose of a rich feeling is to make a detailed situation seem so simple and obvious. And the feeling can quickly guide one's thoughts if a problem-solving analysis of the situation is needed. Your thoughts will never stray from the current reality... you will never get lost in your thoughts.
      I once wrote a song called "I want to wake up." It sounded like shit because I was too lost when I tried to make the sounds in my imagination become reality.

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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