Critical Articles and Websites related to Primal Therapy
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Read a shockingly revealing newspaper article from 1971 here (or click here for pdf version)
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National Union of Associations of Families and Defense of Individual Victims of Cults
(English translation)
This is a French language organization whose French name is “Union Nationale des Associations de Defense des Familles et de l’Individu Victimes de Sectes”
Check out this organizations entry on the Primal Scream at the French language webpage here or at this English google translation here
(The following is an excerpt from the webpage translated using google translate, not a perfect translation, but you can understand the gist):
The primal scream
Arthur Janov, founder of the Primal Center in Venice (California) and author of numerous books, including the “Primal Scream” by Editions Flammarion, 1978, was inspired by the works of Freud, Reich and Otto Rank.In 1982, Arthur Janov Primal European Institute opened in Paris. Customers had to sign a contract releasing the Institute of “any responsibility”. (An article from “Science and Life” in October 1985, mentioned the closure of the institute – his patients have been abandoned.)
The goal of therapy is to connect the body’s needs with the memories stored in the unconscious to bring about unity.
To cure neurosis, we must encourage the brain to regain functioning less “suffering”. The re-experiencing the pain and to evacuate through the primal scream will allow better integration of frustration for the patient. Janov is selling that only his therapy can cure the neurosis!
For him, the fact of reliving some painful periods of existence could be free of it forever.
In practice:
First phase of admission where the patient talks about his problems2nd Phase: Individual therapy (three weeks of solitary confinement with loss of communication, cigarettes, television, books, music …)
Phase 3: deep regression
Phase 4: Group SessionAccording To Dr. Jean-Roch Laurence [1]: “All the techniques that require a return to the birth, either with the primal scream, or rebirth, capitalize on the confabulation. It is clear that people who have a good imagination, good imaging capability or absorption will be able to recreate extremely powerful and emotional scenes. But this does not validate the veracity of the scene.” [2]
[1] Jean-Roch Laurence is Director of the Laboratory for Research on autobiographical memory and altered states of consciousness at Concordia University in Quebec. He is interested in the phenomenon of false memories for almost 20 years. For his doctoral thesis in 1983 he passed the first “settlement” of false memories under hypnosis laboratory.
[2] (From the article by Robert Dehin “The new hypnosis n’endort it more, she wakes up! – 2003).
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Body Memories and Other Pseudoscientific Notions of “Survivor Psychology.”
Check out Susan E. Smith’s informative article Body Memories: And Other Pseudo-Scientific Notions of “Survivor Psychology. Miss this great and important article at your own risk.
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Affect and the Fundamental Nature of
Neurosis: Logic and Reality
Kenneth S. Isaacs, PhD
Excerpt:
The original psychoanalytic model of illness as a state caused by accumulations was invented by Anna O., although much elaborated by Freud (Breuer & Freud, 1895). She also devised what she called the “talking cure” with its technique of “chimney sweeping”—clearing out what she thought of as interfering accumulations of idea and affect. With the admirable credulity which enabled him to be open to multifarious ideas, Freud accepted her common wisdom view and wove it into the beginnings of a science of mind. Anna O.’s view, however, was based on an error of observation.
Those first formulations were affective formulations. However, catharsis (later renamed abreaction to make it more psychological) to clear out mental content did not provide the cures of psychological disorders that were sought. Subsequently psychoanalysis shifted away from the original affect-centered theory to become a drive-centered theory. That is, the failure of the catharsis blind alley unfortunately led not only to dropping catharsis but to dropping affect from central interest in the field. Broader explorations of affect processes other than abreaction could have been profitable. …
Some popular psychologies follow the original abreactive model of re-experiencing, releasing or expelling feelings in order to cure. However, the; curative results of Primal Scream (Janov, 1970), Gestalt (Perls, 1969), and other discharge therapies have been no more impressive than those of other approaches.
Isaacs, K.S. (1990). Affect and the fundamental nature of neurosis: Logic and reality. Psychoanalytic Psychology, 7(2), 259-284.
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Overview of Mental Health Industry Reform Legislation
Excerpt from article:
Ironically, what would be unethical and absolutely prohibited in a research setting goes on every day in therapy rooms around the country: mental health providers use dangerous and experimental procedures such as hypnosis, relaxation techniques which may induce hypnotic trance, and “guided imagery” without first notifying the client of the known risks and alternatives to these procedures and getting the client’s informed consent. Mental health researchers are strictly controlled by ethics guidelines, but mental health providers are free to use and abuse their clients as unwitting guinea pigs for the latest therapeutic fad without telling them whether a technique has been tested for safety and effectiveness or informing them of any known risks…
The Truth and Responsibility in Mental Health Practices Act is comprehensive model legislation to require that mental therapies, like medicines and surgical procedures, be tested for safety and effectiveness before they are rushed into use on vulnerable clients and before mental health providers can get rich by charging insurers and taxpayers for the latest fad, be it “memory recovery therapy” or “primal therapy” or lobotomies.
Excerpt from http://www.stopbadtherapy.com/reform/overview.shtml
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Up Against the Wall: Primal Therapy and ‘the Sixties’
European Journal of American Studies
This is an interesting article that is of very high quality. Here is a sample quotation from the Introduction:
“in some of its aspects the therapy was an amalgam of the ideologies of the 1960s youth movement translated into therapeutic terms. Primal Therapy also incorporated a critique of the counterculture that inspired it, one dedicated to making it more able to fulfil its revolutionary goals.”
Paul Williams and Brian Edgar, “Up Against the Wall: Primal Therapy and ‘the Sixties’,” European Journal of American Studies, Special Issue on May 68, [Online], put online Sep. 08, 2008. URL : http://ejas.revues.org/document3022.html. Consulted on Sep. 12, 2008.
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Pillsworld Blog
This site contains 6 articles related to primal therapy http://pillsworld.blogspot.com/ - just click on the “Primal Therapy” category once you enter the site. The articles are well done, concise, to-the-point and presents evidence in a way so as to let the reader decide. The site contains articles such as “Alice Miller on Birth Trauma,” “John Lennon and Primal Therapy,” “Carol Mithers, Primal Therapy and Alice Miller,” ”Professor Steven Rose and Primal Therapy,” and more.
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The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice
This is a website and a journal that deals with objective investigations of controversial and unorthodox claims in clinical psychology, psychiatry, and social work. The site and journal is affiliated with the Commission for Scientific Medicine and Mental Health (CSMMH). The website states that:
“A wide variety of unvalidated and sometimes harmful psychotherapeutic methods include…Primal Scream therapy.”
http://www.srmhp.org/0101/raison-detre.html
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Healthline.com
On Healthline.com’s website article on “Psychotherapy,” Joan Schonbeck (author of Gale’s Encyclopedia of Alternative Medicine) writes:
“Primal therapy, developed by Arthur Janov in the 1960s, is based upon the assumption that people must relive early life experiences with all the acuity of feeling that was somehow suppressed at the time in order to free themselves of compulsive or neurotic behavior. Primal therapy was a cathartic approach that many therapists now believe can impede progress because a person can become addicted to the release (even “high”) associated with the catharsis and seek to keep repeating it for the momentary satisfaction.”
Quotation from http://www.healthline.com/galecontent/psychotherapy
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Sciencetics.com
Check out the humorous yet educational podcast(s) from Sciencetics.com, a website that sets out to debunk pseudoscience with a mix of education, valid points and humorously unfounded personal attacks that aim to match those of the pseudoscientists or cultists (for example they accuse primal therapists of being Segway riders, which is probably one of the worse insults you could give them).
Note that the podcast host occasionally uses a little profanity for humorous purposes, so if you do not like that sort of humor, this may not be for you.
Link update: the original source website http://sciencetics.com/archive.html is currently not functioning, so click here to download the podcast. The podcast was available at Itunes, but may currently be offline. Email debunkingprimaltherapy@yahoo.com for more details.
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DISCOVER MAGAZINE, MAY 2007,
“WHATEVER HAPPENED TO Primal Therapy?”
written by Steve Ornes, a science writer.
This is an excerpt from a short half page article:
“…Janov’s approach never became widespread and came under fire from professional therapists and investigators…
Timothy Moore, chairman of the department of psychology at York University’s Glendon College in Toronto, points out that Janov’s ascertains of scientific linkage are based on uncontrolled case histories and personal observations, and as such his work has not been scientifically validated. ‘In terms of value of untested psychotherapy, some of it is useless because it is silly,’ he says, ‘but some of it is dangerous because the intervention can get out of hand.’ ”
Steve Ornes, Discover, May 2007
link: http://discovermagazine.com/2007/may/whatever-happened-to-primal-therapy
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Psychoanalytic Psychology(2003)., 20:717-726
The Scientific Review of Mental Health Practice: Implications for Psychology and Psychoanalysis
Review by: Robert F. Bornstein, Ph.D.
EXCERPT FROM ABSTRACT:
“Clinical researchers estimate that there are over 400 different types of therapy in use today, with more appearing every year (Corsini, 2000). Evidence supporting the efficacy of these therapeutic approaches varies considerably, with some forms of treatment (e.g., systematic desensitization for phobias) receiving strong empirical support (Barlow, 2002), others (e.g., antidepressant management of depression) receiving mixed support (Greenberg, Bornstein, Greenberg, & Fisher, 1992), and still others (e.g., primal scream therapy) receiving no support at all.”
http://www.pep-web.org/document.php?id=ppsy.020.0717a
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“Addiction Counseling Strategies That Lack Research Support”:
”A string of therapies often used by addiction counselors promotes, encourages, and even demands that clients ventilate their feelings in order to correct problems …Such strategies run the gambit from Primal Therapy that promotes literally screaming out pain and neurosis…The research does not support these or similar strategies.”
Michael J. Taleff, PhD
also published in Counselor, The Magazine for Addiction Professionals, October 2004, v.5, n.5, pp. 46-47.
http://www.counselormagazine.com/content/view/338/1/
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”Potentially Harmful Treatments”
“Primal Therapy” (2006)
by Byrd, Ensor, Mattachione
From the University of Tusla’s website
Excerpt from this article:
“There are very few peer reviewed articles on primal therapy outside of this journal. There has been one peer reviewed published outcome study which due to its multiple flaws within its design, no valid conclusions could be made. Furthermore, for one client within this outcome study, primal therapy triggered psychosis. Overall, primal therapy is not based on scientific theory or empirical support and requires the client to spend a lot of money and a long time away from home.”
http://www.orgs.utulsa.edu/trapt/ (website currently under reconstruction, link updated Oct 2009)
Link to the Word Format article “Primal Therapy” (2006) by Byrd, Ensor, Mattachione : (website under reconstruction, article temporarily available here: Byrd, Ensor & Mattachione (2006). Primal therapy. ).
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“THERAPEUTIC & OTHER HOAXES”:
Excerpts from the webpage http://www.religioustolerance.org/psy_hoax2.htm :
“Primal Scream therapy: This was invented and promoted by Dr. Arthur Janov, a psychologist in Los Angeles. His first book, published in 1970, The Primal Scream became a best-seller. (1) He has since written “The New Primal Scream.” (2) The rationale behind this therapy is that all of a persons “neuroses, psychoses and psychosomatic ills derive from repressed memories of childhood traumas, particularly the trauma of being born.” In therapy, the patient is age-regressed back into childhood. Repressed memories seem to emerge, leading eventually to memories of the person’s birth. “When patients recover their lost memories of early trauma, especially the trauma of birth, they often writhe on the floor, sobbing and screaming with rage at whatever was done to them or at the violence of their birth.” (3) With these memories restored, the patient’s emotional problems are believed to disappear; their aging processes slows, and their resistance to disease increases. In opposition to Primal Therapy is the near-consensus among memory researchers that infants cannot retain memories of events in their life. A person’s earliest memories typically are from 42 months of age or later; retained memories prior to 24 months are unheard of. “
Written on: 1997-SEP-05 Latest update: 2006-MAY-12. Author: B.A. Robinson
References
(1) Dr. Arthur Janov, “The Primal Scream,” Delta Book Co., (1970).
(2) Arthur Janov, “The New Primal Scream,” Trafalgar Square, (2000).
(3) Martin Gardner, “Primal Scream: A persistent New-Age therapy,” Skeptical Inquirer, 2001-MAY/JUN
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“Skepticism and Psychotherapy”
[In The Skeptic, an Australian periodical, the article called Skepticism and Psychotherapy in the winter 2003 edition, the table on page 25, “primal screaming” is listed as untested and unorthodox. In the therapist table on the same page, the therapist who is unscientific but caring is named as “the quack”]
Quack Psychotherapy
… strange and disturbing noises coming from [what] proved to be “primal scream” therapy…Arthur Janov is the name associated with so-called primal therapy. According to Janov the patient frees himself of primal pain by learning the proper way to scream.” (p.26)
“Why does non-evidence based psychotherapy prevail?..money, prestige and laziness…
…If you can make loads of money and have loads of prestige with so little effort, then why worry about the harm you might be doing? Even the patients you harm will be grateful, although victims’ families and friends may not.” (p. 29)
The Skeptic, Winter 2003 (p.25-26) Professor Jill Gordon, Associate Dean
http://www.skeptics.com.au/wordpess/wp-content/uploads/theskeptic/2003/2.pdf (link updated Sept 2009)
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