Word: primal
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Dates: during 1970-1979
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...first volume, The Primal Scream, published three year ago, provoked intense personal reactions, both in those to whose common sense Janov appealed and in those who claimed the book was unmitigated nonsense. Almost all the people I know who have read the book were visibly upset by it. None were psychology majors and, therefore, they were all relatively unaccustomed to "intellectualizing" about psychology. While reading Janov's chapter on "The Nature of Feeling," I discovered I was reliving, in rather vivid detail, several childhood experiences I would have thought I'd entirely forgotten. I am not surprised by those...
...great usefullness of The Primal Scream, though, stems from the theoretical issues Janov raises. Unfortunately, his critics rarely discuss him on theoretical grounds. Competing psychologists smirk and point out connections between Primal Theory and older theories, most of which Janov acknowledges in The Primal Scream. Some claim that various other therapies can be helpful and hardly address the substance of Janov's work. Some critics strike at Janov's often naive language, undoubtedly a vulnerable point but not an excuse for avoiding the usefulness of his ideas. Janov clearly leaves himself open to such criticism, saying things like...
...needing, and the vast majority of us die after a lifetime of struggle with many of our needs unfulfilled. These needs are not excessive--to be fed, kept warm and dry, to grow and develop at our own pace, to be held and caressed, and to be stimulated. These Primal needs are the central reality of the infant...
...PRIMAL THERAPY attempts to uncover the source of symbolic behavior, to determine the source of unresolved tension within each patient. One source of tension may be the kind of parental deprivation I've described; another may be unavoidable deprivation, brought about perhaps by the prolonged illness of a parent. The purpose of the cure is to enable the patient to experience the suppressed pain resulting from his inability to evoke love, the voluntary attempt by another to fulfill his needs. As pain is re-lived the patient feels formerly repressed connections between sensations, the causes of sensations, and the incidents...
...communication is appropriate for the time of childhood deprivation, the patient frees himself from the impules to release tension through symbolic behavior. This is accompanied by physical convulsions as muscles loosen after a lifetime of tension and resistence. The physical reaction--the all-out cry for fulfillment--is the Primal Scream. It is a reconnection of mind and body, and physical changes--in voice pitch, height, breast size, and so on--often accompany the cure and are specifically connected with each patient's neurosis...