I think the knowledge contained within these works can really help someone who has previously been enchanted with the problematic and culture-attacking persuasion of primal therapy books and websites. To be clear, by “recovery” I refer here to recovery from several myths in primal theory and the rule-of-thumb simplistic thinking it creates. These books will also serve to clarify some popular myths about memory and catharsis that are now considered outdated due to newer data. Read these and share in a truely amazing journey out of woo.
1. How To Think Straight About Psychology, by psychologist Keith Stanovich
The quintessential antidote to The Primal Scream.
Still number one. It’s still there, almost three years after I first recommended it, still waiting to be read.
A truely inspiring and logical book that does not mention primal therapy directly, but its pages contain an almost comprehensive set of tools to understand many of primal theory’s problems. Read it to discover just why this book is so important for those whose critical thinking skills and understanding of psychology were undermined by primal theory or similar cathartic repressed memory theories.
For a inexpensive version of an earlier edition click here.
2. Remembering Trauma, by the director of clinical psychology at Harvard University, Richard J McNally.
A shockingly complete and logical evidence-led review of the research on traumatic memory and repression. Essential life-changing reading for anyone enchanted by primal therapy and related therapies. A truely brilliant book that shows that there really is enough evidence in now to give us a profound and nuanced understanding of the various types of memory. The argument that false memories are a real possibility in therapies is shown brilliantly in McNally’s own research on alien abduction memories, in which people have vivid memories of events that we know are false. These false memories are so emotional and so disruptive that they clearly show the tragedy of creating false traumatic memories.
If you read this book fully, and consider all the evidence, it becomes clear that Janov’s view is wrong: that traumas are repressed immediately (inspired by Freud’s guess) and can be recalled pristinely in therapy decades later (inspired by Wilder Penfield’s mistaken conclusions). Read it and regain a healthy, sane and accurate view of memory, a crucial step in recovering from questionable therapies.
3. Insane Therapy: Portrait of a Psychotherapy Cult, by sociologist Marybeth F. Ayella, a specialist in cults who obtained her Ph.D. from UC Berkeley.
Another critical step in moving on from primal theory, or similar neoFreudian theories, is understanding the social influence and groupthink that characterize the therapy and its offshoots.
No one does a better job than Ayella at slowly revealing the cult-like development of a therapy group that were initially trained and influenced by Janov. It is a chilling story that warns about the pitfalls of embracing primal-rhetoric, grandiosity, monetary greed, and ignoring falsifiability.
The book illustrates a great example of 1960s /1970s philosophical relativism gone mad (a la Kuhn or Feyerabend), and a lesson in why psychology should not be “anything goes.” This book will explain so much to those who have gone through primal therapy or primal therapist training: even if they did so relatively recently: in the 1990s or 2000s. A fantastic book that reveals the story in a way that gives great insight to the reader, without ever telling the reader what to think.
4. The Myth of Repressed Memories by Elizabeth F. Loftus, an experimental psychologist who has specialized in memory research for three decades.
A very readable book designed to communicate to those who cannot tolerate reading the dry research articles on memory. There are many stories that clearly point to the unavoidable conclusion that people were having false memories in some therapies, and sometimes outside of therapy when influenced by books like The Courage to Heal.
The tragic story of Paul Ingram and the subsequent rather risky but effective ”experiment” by a skeptical psychologist called Richard Ofshe, clearly illustrate how beliefs about how memory works can lead to false memories. This book has stood the test of both time and follow up psychology experiments into memory.
5. Science and Pseudoscience in Clinical Psychology edited by psychologists highly respected in the field: Scott O. Lilienfeld, Steven J. Lynn, and Jeffrey M. Lohr. Many of the chapters are contributed by many other top psychologists.
Highly recommended, this book managed to crack the pseudoscientific beliefs of at least two people I know in the psychological field. Somehow, and I don’t know how they did it, the writers manage to pull back the curtain on the pseudoscience in clinical psychology in such a way as to leave the reader thinking “aha, I get it now.”
The journey from the dark-side is not complete without reading this book!
6. Therapy Gone Mad by Carol Lynn Mithers
Recommended for similar reasons to the book Insane Therapy: it helps broaden the understanding about the Center for Feeling Therapy offshoot. Essential reading for those involved in less cultic versions of primal therapy too. Absolutely a must-read for aspiring psychotherapists.
