tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post9131974877510928275..comments2024-02-11T18:16:53.445-08:00Comments on Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: The Simple Truth is Revolutionary: Revisiting AnxietyArthur Janovhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/16709863014923629409noreply@blogger.comBlogger18125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-92119643016060096732012-02-16T05:49:36.350-08:002012-02-16T05:49:36.350-08:00And to follow on is not stress simply early trauma...And to follow on is not stress simply early trauma breaking through because the mind has no more capacity to block it. Thus insanity as people like to call it is simply the confusion between the past and present. If one can unravel the confusion and get in touch with one's past one is called mad because one's family see's a change in one's character. My idiot of a Father told me that I had had a change of personality because I was getting angry and telling him he was talking utter rubbish. The hurt humiliated little Boy he had been had gained some sense of power by taking power over me. I saw a picture of him recently as he is now 5 years since I last spoke to him. He is a broken stooped old man castrated by a woman unable to aknowledge the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her Father so slowly killing the man she married. When he dies she will fall apart or go completely mad if she is'nt already. <br /><br />My Father called me mad because firstly he thought he had the omnipotent right to dictate who I was and how I should act and he ruined my life. Secondly he expected me to be a doormat just as he had been for the last 60 years. His life, his choices.<br /><br />I had to break the double bind of still wanting the love and approval of my Father, supporting him as a Son (why?) and then recognising that he had done the most damaging thing any Father can do to his Son. Sexually abuse him. I had to break the double bind of desperately wanting that approval and at the same time knowing that I would have to break him to be true to myself. It's enough to drive anyone crazy. Crazy angry not crazy mad!<br /><br />The fact that I could get angry and furious and cry stopped me going mad. And with that the anxiety has faded somewhat.<br /><br />It hurts like Hell though.planespotterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05315637682741508786noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-39242771154942553652012-02-04T01:54:27.937-08:002012-02-04T01:54:27.937-08:00The earliness, and accompanying lack of repression...The earliness, and accompanying lack of repression, explains why the effects are felt so powerfully later on-- anxiety is almost impossible to control. Despite the clin psych's attempts which I hate.Jacquienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-81008702936321889482012-02-04T01:48:10.441-08:002012-02-04T01:48:10.441-08:00Reply to Paul G's question "Are we making...Reply to Paul G's question "Are we making a stressful environment around us?<br /><br />I would have thought that life throws up problems and conflicts. The mind only has a certain capacity and if a lot of that capacity is used up with obsessions and fears (as well as real events denied) etc then there is little left for sorting out life's problems. This person probably has problems with feeling feelings of the present (mixed up with the past) and cannot understand those feelings due to lack of left/right Brain connection. The person is using the obsessions etc to suppress stuff, gets to the point where the problems in the outside world cannot be worked out because the suppressing obsessions are getting in the way and then boom the Dam bursts and they have a breakdown as early trauma breaks through and because it's all mixed up and told from the position of a small child's view and interpritation of the world everyone thinks the person is crazy when all they are doing is expressing pain in the only way that small child could and add to that stuff from pre-birth and how many people including shrinks understand that. Thus is not stress the war between the past and present and left and right brain. Is not stress simply very slight insanity building up. I also hate the word insanity. Mental distress would be a kinder and more appropriate term. <br /><br />My experience anyhow.planespotterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05315637682741508786noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-87922971304192836082012-02-03T06:23:11.563-08:002012-02-03T06:23:11.563-08:00Hi Jan Johnson,
I use the term 5 cent magazine wis...Hi Jan Johnson,<br />I use the term 5 cent magazine wisdom when people seeking publicity, get paid for articles and say nothing new. You will see what I say if you enter the word anxiety in google. Thousands of websites provide explanations we know already without naming the real source. More free information can be extracted from the DSM and the ICD 10. <br />And this website writes in regards to The Two Faces of Anxiety : As I read the article, it seemed that it was written using anxiety and stressor interchangeably. http://www.dietsinreview.com/diet_column/12/time-magazine-confuses-healthy-stress-with-anxiety/<br />Please tell me what is new in these articles? Is there a real healing solution presented? Or just ways how to “manage” or “repress”.<br />SieglindeS. W. Alexanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12087227301358286386noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-4386305850820653082012-02-03T04:00:24.730-08:002012-02-03T04:00:24.730-08:00Hi,
-"I think that emotional pain is always ...Hi,<br /><br />-"I think that emotional pain is always surging toward connection only to be met by gating. So if there truly is not current stress at all and the body can take it, then yes it is possible that feelings are generated spontaneously. You defense system is allowing it, which is rarely the case". art<br /><br />So this beggars the question: "What is current stress"? Also "Are we making a stressful environment around us (socially, culturally, economically) as part of the 'distraction' from our internal pain"?<br /><br />Paul G.Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02006514330039884557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-38144446812905079862012-02-03T03:58:41.321-08:002012-02-03T03:58:41.321-08:00Jacquie: yes anxiety is much more primitive for ...Jacquie: yes anxiety is much more primitive for one reason, very early on (and this is fully explained in Life Before Birth) there is a time when there is yet hardly any production of inhibitory chemicals such as serotonin which is what accompanies depression but there is trauma, nevertheless. It is very early, a smoking or anxious mother, and yet no chance to repress as yet. Hence pure anxiety. artArthur Janovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009571728800026496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-12223069011082152462012-02-03T03:56:38.628-08:002012-02-03T03:56:38.628-08:00Jack: good enough for me. artJack: good enough for me. artArthur Janovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009571728800026496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-35737113888527217632012-02-02T14:18:19.689-08:002012-02-02T14:18:19.689-08:00I would like to corroborate this last comment of A...I would like to corroborate this last comment of Art's from my 'subjective' point of view. After many years of therapy I can now feel, even on my own. Since I now find it 'relatively' easy to allow my feelings to rise and then express them 'relatively' simply. For me, my old feelings come up willy-nilly as I go through life (sometime even once a week) and I am now able to easily allow myself to express them (mainly crying). It is so incredible to me how little stress I feel and, this to me allows for the feeling to rise and for me to express them. I don't doubt that I have some defenses left, but for the most part, allowing my body, and not my head, to go into it is such a great, great asset. <br /><br />As I stated this is just my current SUBJECTIVE view.<br /><br />JackJack Waddingtonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/06427501529242639591noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-88190304560066488552012-02-02T05:50:19.927-08:002012-02-02T05:50:19.927-08:00I remember in one of Art's texts he said anxie...I remember in one of Art's texts he said anxiety is closer to feelings than depression, true Art?<br />I've been caught up w/music and am excitingly gearing to spend time in LA later this year but am reading your comments friends.<br />JacquieJacquienoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-82136131992040723662012-02-02T02:14:22.427-08:002012-02-02T02:14:22.427-08:00And my answer:
I think that emotional pain is al...And my answer: <br />I think that emotional pain is always surging toward connection only to be met by gating. So if there truly is not current stress at all and the body can take it, then yes it is possible that feelings are generated spontaneously. You defense system is allowing it, which is rarely the case. artArthur Janovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009571728800026496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-85520137327731235132012-02-02T02:13:15.069-08:002012-02-02T02:13:15.069-08:00An email comment: "Dear Dr. Janov,
I have ON...An email comment: <i>"Dear Dr. Janov,<br /><br />I have ONE main question....<br /><br />If one's environment is ideal and one has no obligations and can be 'relaxed' in supportive surroundings...does the body have the ability to release these old suppressed traumas and memories automatically by ITSELF...WITHOUT doing anything actively to enhance it?<br />In the event of you answering this question negatively, how will you substantiate it...since the body has such an innate intelligence?<br /><br />Why do I ask this? Because I'm going through the weirdest of physical symptoms which can disappear in one day or after a week without doing ANYTHING about it. By the way I'm on NO medication at all. AND, I find I'm dreaming my past experiences so vividly.<br /><br />Kind regards."</i>Arthur Janovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009571728800026496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-24029823995088971932012-02-01T05:01:44.387-08:002012-02-01T05:01:44.387-08:00“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believ...“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” Sören Kirkegaard<br /><br />What is true? Illusions fill our lives. Someone can obsess about dirt and scrub their fingers raw as that is preferable to the painful truth that a Parent sexually abused them. They felt dirty as small child and that sense of dirtiness is so engrained how can one scrub off the dirt? If something is below the surface of conciousness it can still effect our concious mind like the Moon effects the tides so getting to the truth and knowing it to be the truth can be a dreadfully painful process.planespotterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05315637682741508786noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-30759892246003277772012-01-31T04:15:54.327-08:002012-01-31T04:15:54.327-08:00Does terror imprinting have a deliberate history?
...Does terror imprinting have a deliberate history?<br /><br />The other day I watched this You Tube article on slavery. In it, it claimed that when the blacks were brought to America the procedure was to get the slave woman pregnant, then later take about 10 pregnant woman to see one of them be cut in half, then watch her baby fall out of her belly and then stomp on the baby's head to kill it.<br /> <br />According to the narrator, this was "scientific imprinting" to infuse terror into the unborn children, via the womb and of course the mothers experience. The idea being you end up with scared slaves in the future who can be easily intimidated/controlled.<br /><br />It's highly speculative but I wonder if this was an origin of circumcision? That is, make the baby boys terrified of the idea of grotesque torture because it has already happened (been imprinted into them) via circumcision? I suggest this because I'm suspicious that I have this imprint myself, with that effect. I get strange chills down my lower abdomen when I think of grievous bodily harm, and the idea of torture in general absolutely horrifies me - maybe inordinately? Also, I remember the boys at primary school who were not circumcised. They were different. More intimidating and bullish - maybe less fearful?<br /><br />Back in the Roman days, if you put a sword in every slaves hand then you've got a serious problem. This is why they used terror to suppress rebellion - the playing field was just too easily leveled out, with potentially bloody consequences. So who knows, maybe they took the principle further with various kinds of terror-imprinting epigenetics?<br /><br />Those psychopaths are capable of anything, at the end of the day.Andrew D Atkinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04492591375757227409noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-11977254314418960842012-01-30T23:40:48.358-08:002012-01-30T23:40:48.358-08:00Hi Jan & All,
I have condensed Arts' enti...Hi Jan & All,<br /><br />I have condensed Arts' entire body of work to the following words ('précis').<br /><br />Repression (through epigenetics) is our naturally evolved defence mechanism against trauma.<br /><br />Suppression (through various beliefs, distractions & drugs) is the maintenance system of it.<br /><br />Oppression is the collective family, social & cultural consequence.<br /><br />Depression & Anxiety is the inevitable consequence in the individual.<br /><br />Through acknowledging these 4 stages and accessing their historical impact on us (in reverse order) we can 're-live' the trauma and 'un-cook' the set points.<br /><br />In no way do I mean to trivialise Arts' work but really, the basic premise is not complicated is it? <br /><br />Paul G.Paulhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02006514330039884557noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-46044179702099798962012-01-30T13:43:59.087-08:002012-01-30T13:43:59.087-08:00Jan I suggest to you to write to the author or mag...Jan I suggest to you to write to the author or magazine. artArthur Janovhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18009571728800026496noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-65766010372755041752012-01-30T10:51:45.555-08:002012-01-30T10:51:45.555-08:00Two articles about Anxiety. (The Two Faces of Anxi...Two articles about Anxiety. (The Two Faces of Anxiety and Revisiting Anxiety)<br /><br /><br />Time Magazine’s article is as good as most non-primal information I have read about anxiety. The paper by Alice Park is very ambitious, and I feel embarrassed when somebody calls it unprintable “5 cent wisdom”.<br /><br />I interpret it as a serious intent to identify one of the most widespread health problems of our days. It seems to me, seriously to try to come to terms with, and explain our anxiety ridden reactions for good and bad. To know about imprinted pain from before birth and its lifelong impacts on our defenses and leaky gates take quite a trip and Alice Park can hardly be blamed for not having insight into evolution in reverse. How should a journalist, publishing an article in the prestigious Time Magazine, find and verify scientific and established information about how Dr. Janov and his disciples are seeing things? <br /><br />There are a few insiders understanding the healing which may be achieved by living old pain so still there is a way to go before the connections can be made to quite a few of the<br />areas where Alice Parker is lifting a warning flag for what is not good for us. She is identifying examples when people she is referring to see the other face of anxiety. One, understandable, negative aspect of the article is that she does not mention all the people with heavy pain having efficient defenses, where the pain is transferred to the heart, the stomach and/or effects, the vital signs and shorten lives, escaping the anxiety label.<br /><br />The world Alice Parker is writing for is a true reality for billions of people. We might say that most of them think and act wrongly. To reverse evolution and change the way very many are living takes a genius in the shape of an enlightened despot, “Evolutions own Steve Jobs”. However, even if it seems almost impossible, some of us know that the Janovian way works so at least in theory we have the tools for the future.<br /><br />What a splendid article it might have been if Alice Parker had had the input of Art to show that for those, among all the curios people reading the article, there is an alternative.<br /><br />Our problem is not whether Alice Parker is right or wrong, but that Art Janov’s Reflections are not in the Time Magazine. <br /><br />Jan Johnsson<br /><br />PS<br />Since Alice Parker referred to Sören Kirkegaard (who Art also quotes) I remind us of:<br /><br />“There are two ways to be fooled. One is to believe what isn't true; the other is to refuse to believe what is true.” Sören KirkegaardJan Åke Johnssonhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15107966321155297159noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-3247914547397963072012-01-30T01:24:10.336-08:002012-01-30T01:24:10.336-08:00Over the past 7 years I have slowly worked my way ...Over the past 7 years I have slowly worked my way towards my deep internal world and obviously have not got there. By this I mean that before I discovered people like Dr Janov and Alice Miller etc I was trying out different diets etc to stave off my very real anxiety, or trying to meditate. How is one supposed to sit still and ignore ones thoughts when there is an internal earthquake going on. Everything in one's body is preparing one to fight or run and I was being told to be contemplative. There is also the third option of just freezing. I think very often I have felt the terror underneath.<br /><br />Quite obviously it is very frustrating for someone to read about the effects in the womb and it is like Tantalus reaching for the bunch of Grapes. They always move away. It would be good to deal with that early stuff too.<br /><br />What I can understand is the anxiety of not feeling loved by my Parents because I was not good enough or clever enough. Not being loved is pretty much a death sentence to the forming character of a child. My Father has always been proud of his criticism of me throughout my childhood. He boasts that his comment "You were a lazy little Sod at school" got me to work hard when it did the exact opposite. Dr Janov you often cite the very real needs of a tiny baby and child to be loved by his or her Parents. I was never loved by my Parents. I was exploited for their own neurotic needs and strove every day of my life to try and live up to their rediculous pressure. It is ironic that since I have no longer seen them my career has taken off to a certain extent.<br /><br />7 years ago I ended up curled up under my desk at work (I work for myself) for about 3 weeks or so. I could not concentrate and woke up terrified of the alarm clock. Quite obviously being curled up in a ball was about wanting to be back in the relative safety of the womb though I wonder how safe I felt then. I think my Father was a malign and dreadful creature throughout my life. Oh Hell both my parents were.<br /><br />I suppose I have been working my way back through my life though many of the events are jumbled and ghostlike sometimes. <br /><br />The clue that I must have suffered from early womb terror is that my Mother lost a child to dreadful Spinabifida about two years prior to my birth. My understanding is that Folic Acid is easily destroyed by anxiety. Thus the little embryo I was, had to deal not only with my Mothers already deep anxiety but also a terrified Mother who though she might lose another baby. I then had to deal with the rejection and lack of bonding that a child who appears after such a tradgedy has to but obviously does not understand. Add to that being told "We chose ********** (my name) because it would look good in neon" and there was time bomb waiting to happen. Place huge pressure for success on an anxious and terrified Boy and one day all he is, is going to come crashing down.<br /><br />Boy can I relate to this piece!planespotterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05315637682741508786noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3420173096635836108.post-75087977821057634462012-01-29T10:18:05.666-08:002012-01-29T10:18:05.666-08:00Dr. Janov,
A little knowledge can be very dangerou...Dr. Janov,<br />A little knowledge can be very dangerous. <br />Aren’t you getting tired of statements like “anxiety is neither helpful nor hurtful”…?<br />My answer to these “specialists on anxiety” would be – keep your 5 cent magazine wisdom to yourself. <br />SieglindeS. W. Alexanderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12087227301358286386noreply@blogger.com