The Primal Scream
The Primal Scream (1970) is a book by Arthur Janov Ph. D, the inventor of Primal Therapy. It is subtitled Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neurosis.
Some editions of The Primal Scream featured Edvard Munch's painting The Scream on the cover. See, for example, the 1977 edition published by ABACUS. This edition does not reproduce the entire painting, focusing on the screaming figure at its center, holding up its hands to its head. Both the title of the book and its author's name are in large capital letters.
The Primal Scream contains an introduction, twenty one chapters, two appendixes, a bibliography and an index.
The introduction, The Discovery of Primal Pain, describes how Janov heard what he considered a remarkable scream from one of his patients, a twenty-two year old college student, identified with the pseudonym Danny Wilson. Janov likened the scream to what one might hear from a person about to be murdered. Janov suggested that the scream could "change the nature of psychotherapy as it is now known." According to Janov, despite the fact that neither his patient nor he himself could see the sense in such a childish act, he asked Wilson to call out "Mommy! Daddy!". After some reluctance and hesitation, Wilson followed Janov's instruction. As a result, Wilson became upset, had convulsions, and finally uttered a loud scream. Following the scream, Wilson declared that he could feel. Janov claimed that several months later he tried the same procedure on a thirty year old patient, identified with the pseudonym Gary Hillard, and that Hillard also screamed. Janov wrote that he and Hillard were both shocked by this, but afterwards Hillard gained insights and seemed to understand himself. Janov wrote that he developed Primal Therapy as an outgrowth of his explanations of the changes he observed in his patients.
Contents
Chapters
- The Problem
- Neurosis
- Pain
- Pain and Memory
- The Nature of Tension
- The Defense System
- The Nature of Feeling
- The Cure
- Breathing, the Voice, and the Scream
- Neurosis and Psychosomatic Disease
- On Being Normal
- The Post-Primal Patient
- The Relationship of Primal Therapy to other Therapeutic Approaches
- Insight and Transference in Psychotherapy
- Sleep, Dreams and Neurosis
- The Nature of Love
- Sexuality, Homosexuality, and Bisexuality,
- The Basis of Fear and Anger
- Drugs and Addictions
- Psychosis: Drug and Nondrug
- Conclusions.
Chapter 1, The Problem, begins by defining a theory as "the meaning we give a certin observed sequence of reality." Janov complained about the proliferation of different therapeutic theories and approaches, writing that "What we have lacked is some kind of unified structure that would offer concrete guidelines on how to proceed with patients during each and every hour of therapy." Janov insisted that all neuroses had the same cause and responded to the same treatment. Janov then criticised Freud for his belief that people are born neurotic, and that people with the strongest defence systems are the best able to function in society. Janov contrasted this view with his own, that, "There is a state of being quite different from what we have conceived: a tensionless, defense-free life in which one is completely his own self and experiences deep feeling and internal units."
Chapter 2, Neurosis, claims that neurosis is caused by unsatisfied needs. According to Janov, "Since the infant cannot himself overcome the sensation of hunger...or find substitute affection, he must separate his sensations...from consciousness. This separation of oneself from one's needs and feelings is an instrinctive maneuver in order to shut off excessive pain. We call it the split." These suppressed needs persist and must be expressed symbolically, but these symbolic satisfactions can never fulfill the underlying need. The suppression of feeling leads to the development of neurosis by a series of stages, leading to a division into a real and an unreal self. Janov calls the event that finally trigers neurosis the major Primal Scene, stating that it usually occured between ages five and seven. The major Primal Scene is preceded by many minor Primal Scenes.
Janov described the major Primal Scene of a patient he called Nick. Nick had bought a necktie for his father, who had returned from the army. Nick's father humiliated him by reacting to this gift with sarcastic over-praise. Minor as this incident might seem, for Nick it showed that his father would never love him. Nick became homosexual: "...after attaining puberty, Nick disguised his need for a warm father and replaced it with homosexual fantasies." Janov wrote that Nick's denied needs and feelings remained inside him as repressed memories, which caused tension. Nick's tension "kept him unaware of behaving as he did and impelled the struggle to fill the need symbolically (homosexually)."
Chapter 3, Pain, asserts that turning away from pain plays a crucial role in the development of neurosis. Janov compared becoming neurotic to the way that physical pain can render people unconscious. Janov also compared suppressed feelings to a tank and neurosis to the tank's lid. Janov maintained that present day pains that are disproportionate to their cause are caused by suppressed pain. These suppresed pains remain unaffected by age and can be released only by reliving them, which requires great effort by Primal Therapists.
Chapter 4, Pain and Memory, claims that the development of neurosis affects memory. Memories are suppressed along with pain. In Janov's view feeling pain restores these memories.
Chapter 5, The Nature of Tension, makes a distinction between natural tension, which in Janov's view is necessary, and unnatural tension, which is not.
Chapter 6, The Defense System, asserts that any defense is neurotic. In it Janov compared drug addiction to homosexuality: "Because he [the drug addict] cannot manage to defend himself as other neurotics do, he develops a direct relationship with the needle: Pain. . .needle. . .relief. Remove the needle, and there is the Pain. The penis serves the same purpose for the homosexual. Both represent relief from tension." Janov claimed that, "Irrespective of the pain involved in the use of the needle or in intercourse as practiced by male homosexuals, the symbolic feeling is pleasure, or more correctly, relief."
Chapter 17 , Sexuality, Homosexuality, and Bisexuality deals with homosexuality as one of its main subjects. Janov identified homosexuality as a neurosis, and denied that homosexual acts are sexual, insisting that they are a denial of real sexuality.
The Primal Scream has two appendixes. Appendix A: Tom deals with a patient Janov called Tom. It was included in a separate appendix because Tom's treatment was the subject of a documentary about Primal Therapy. Appendix B: Instructions for New Primal Patients contains seven instructions for primal patients. These are to abstain from smoking and drinking, to abstain from drug use, to stop tension-relieving habits, to be totally alone for twenty-four hours before therapy, to do exactly what the therapist says, to not work or go to school during the initial phase of therapy, and to attend a group of post-Primal patients. According to Janov, Primal Therapy would not be effective if these instructions were not followed. [1]
Criticism
For criticism of The Primal Scream and primal therapy in general, see Primal Therapy Criticism.
See also
Notes
- ^ Janov, Arthur. (1977). The Primal Scream. New York: Abacus. ISBN 0-349-11834-5.
Books
- Janov, A. The Primal Scream (1970) ISBN 0-349-11829-9