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PRIMAL THERAPY
by Richard Theed
Primal Therapy is a natural therapy pioneered by Dr. Arthur Janov in the late 1960's.
It is based on his hypothesis that neurosis is a disorder of feeling. Janov postulated
that we are born beings of need: we need to be fed, kept warm, allowed to develop
and grow, and nurtured in many differing but specific ways.
If we are denied any of
these needs for any length of time then we hurt. If the denial is strong enough then
we switch off that need, that is we bury the hurt feelings that ensue. In this way we
erode our capacity to feel, not only the bad but also the good feelings. The process
involves the original creation of the unconscious mind and marks the dawning of
symbolic behaviour and the creation of neurosis.
In Primal Therapy clients are helped and guided to feel these original trauma for
the first time.
What was a life threatening hurt for a three year old can be felt and
integrated as a twenty three year old. In a safe and controlled environment (darkened
lights, padded, safe room) and usually talking about events that disturb the client in the present, she or he is guided back to the primal event
and all it's attendant pain. The process is necessarily gradual and can take from nine months to two years to make
major inroads to effect the recovery and create an "ex-neurotic".
Dr. Janov has also pioneered the comprehension of these processes (the creation of neurosis and
it's healing during Primal Therapy) by the development of Primal Theory.
Primal Therapy drew worldwide attention after the publication of Janov's book "The Primal Scream".
This somewhat sensational title has led to many misconceptions about the therapy.
Traditionally,
formal therapy takes the form of a three week intensive with a follow up group and sessions. Dr. Janov
claimed it was the cure for neurosis, and reading "The Primal Scream" one expects some kind of
miracle to happen, if not in the first three weeks then soon after.
Time has proved that neurosis takes
a lot of hard work and dedication to unravel on the part of the client and a lot of experience and skill
on the part of the therapist.
Post-Primal people are not superhuman, miraculously cured by an intensive course of "screaming".
The cure exists in finding a way of living a feeling life in a world that often makes it hard to do just that.
Therapy gives one the means to drain off the levels of tension that the neurotic has grown up making
and then gives him a dynamic means of handling tensions that life itself might create. Importantly
one gets a true insight into one's behaviour and the ability to change the way one acts and reacts.
Therapy only works and continues to maintain health on the twin footing of feeling and resolving
painful situations and making changes in one's life appropriate to any revealed insight.
Information supplied by
The Brighton Natural Health Centre
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