Primal Therapy: Some real help for a troubled World

[dr.syntax]

I believe Primal Therapy offers some much needed help in a very troubled World. The need for human beings to find their way out of the maddness we all inherited seems to me, to be of paramount importance. I believe Primal Therapy offers the only true cure for neurosis. The only way to free ourselves of all the old fears,pains,anger and such that most of us have piled up within ourselves over our lifetimes. Dr. Arthur Janov dicovered this therapy over 40 years ago and has worked with thousands of cleints over those many years and devoted much of his time and resources toward researching his new therapy. I encourage everyone to visit his website : http://www.primaltherapy.com ]. There is a tremendous amount of information about primal therapy there: videos,articles,forums,etc.. There is no fee and no sign in or registering required. You can just go there and blog on. He has his own blog site that requires registration of a minimal amount for you to be able to ask him questions. Primal therapy differs from traditional therapies in many ways. In primal the idea is to elicit feelings from the patient. To help the patient allow himself to allow a feeling or feelings to arise from within himself and grow in it`s intensity in a natural way. Never to try and push or hurry the process along. That`s almost a sure way of screwing up the process. If done properly old memories of events that were blocked off and rerouted to different storage depots within the person begin to emerge and make themselves felt. These feelings never reached the cortex and remain as disconnected entities exerting harmful forces on the nervous system. Triggering stress hormones such as cortisol and adrenaline. These stress hormones are very destructive to the entire body and brain. These buried memories have a very negative impact on a person`sbody, brain,mind,feelings about life and other people, things like that. As these feelings emerge they intensify and the patient may begin crying or moaning or perhaps screaming in fear or anger. Evenually a point is reached where the old feeling arrives at the correct place in the cortex to be fully expressed and then to become but a mememory. A bad memory with NO PAIN OR DISTRESS attached to it. Simply a memory. I wish to get this posted now. ...Dr.Syntax

Edited October 3, 2009 by dr.syntax

[iNow]

Too bad it doesn't help people find their carriage return, or deal with social incompetencies.

 

On another note, your beloved primal therapy is NOT the ONLY way to resolve the issues you describe. As one counter example, exposure therapy has had enormous success, as have other cognitive behavioral therapies... but hey... Why let reality get in the way of a good story which looks like spam? That's what I always say!

[dr.syntax]

Too bad it doesn't help people find their carriage return, or deal with social incompetencies.

 

On another note, your beloved primal therapy is NOT the ONLY way to resolve the issues you describe. As one counter example, exposure therapy has had enormous success, as have other cognitive behavioral therapies... but hey... Why let reality get in the way of a good story which looks like spam? That's what I always say!

 

REPLY: This thread was started by me. What you think means nothing to me other than that you are someone who feels compelled to ridicule others. I believe Primal Therapy is the only way to cure the problem [ unresolved feelings ] and finally be free of them. All any cognitive therapy can hope to do is to help you cope better with these troublesome feelings. Until and unless these feelings are resolved they will lie buried somewhere within you causing very real and harmful things such as cortisol and adrenaline to be pumped into your bloodstream causing damage throughout your body. No cognitive therapy can hope to do this because the painful memories never reached the cortex with the full force of the memory. There may be some partial memory there. But the really bad stuff gets blocked automatically and you therefore have no memory of it. It may and will cause a never ending distortion of everything you percieve. By the way,I tried to create paragraphs and it doesn`t work. The words just start piling up on the right side of the typing area and evetually form these blocks. So if you know of some answer tell me and I will see if it works for me. ...Dr.Syntax

Edited October 3, 2009 by dr.syntax

[Mr Skeptic]

I believe Primal Therapy offers the only true cure for neurosis.

 

I suppose you have piles and piles of evidence to support such a bold claim?

 

And for god's sake, you should use paragraphs to separate unrelated thoughts.

[iNow]

By the way,I tried to create paragraphs and it doesn`t work. The words just start piling up on the right side of the typing area and evetually form these blocks. So if you know of some answer tell me and I will see if it works for me. ...Dr.Syntax

 

Press the Enter / Return key.

 

 

Request thread be moved to P&S due to comments such as these:

 

I believe Primal Therapy is the only way to cure the problem [ unresolved feelings ] and finally be free of them.

 

<...>

 

No cognitive therapy can hope to do this because the painful memories never reached the cortex with the full force of the memory

 

<...>

 

It may and will cause a never ending distortion of everything you percieve.

[dr.syntax]

Here is a couple more websites that deal with some of the principals Primal Therapy is based on: " Crying for Comfort : Distressed Babies Need to be Held "written by Aletha Solter at : http://www.awareparenting.com/comfort.htm . That`s a good one and here is another :" Understanding Tears and Tantrums " by Dr. Solter at : http://awareparenting.com/tantrums.htm . These are both ecellent articles that focus more on how this pain comes about, but also recognizes that crying and having tantrums is what cures the infants when they are allowed to and that this same principle is as true for adults as it is for babies. They are interesting articles written by what I think of as the 21st Century Dr.Spock. ...Dr.Syntax

Edited October 3, 2009 by dr.syntax
editing

[Mokele]

Can you cite any peer review journal articles supporting this?

 

Because websites are not reliable sources - I can find websites promising to regress me through my past lives or reveal an alien abduction experience.

 

Is there any peer-reviewed statistical analysis of outcomes compared against control groups?

[dr.syntax]

Can you cite any peer review journal articles supporting this?

 

Because websites are not reliable sources - I can find websites promising to regress me through my past lives or reveal an alien abduction experience.

 

Is there any peer-reviewed statistical analysis of outcomes compared against control groups?

 

REPLY:He developed a truly original therapy . He was trained as a tradional psychoanalyst but it was Janov who decided to let those first few patients he describes in THE PRIMAL SCREAM go where they would with their apparantly wild outbursts and see what happened. What happened was they had an unrestrained tantrum and felt much better afterwards. He knew something important to psychiatry had taken place and built his therapy on these new concepts. Primal therapy is the antithesis of cognitive therapies and therefore he is not very popular with traditional psycologists and psychiatrists. Frued himself never got beyond the notion that people were by their very nature in a never ending struggle with different aspects of thier brains. The conscious mind forever suppressing the unconscious mind. He saw this as normal. What a bizarre notion. And all that other nonsense he espoused. So Janov has few friends in the psychiatric hierarchy and many enemies. The peer review papers I found were written in german and French and I have no idea what they say but if you can read one of those languages I could probably find them again. Have you bothered to go to any of those websites to make what YOU will of it. There is some research he refers anyone to at the website [ http:http://www.primaltherapy.com ]. you can read it and make what you will of it. Janov has managed to piss a lot of people off over the years. He is uncompromising and a bit obstinate with those doing what he calls mock therapy. Any notion that Primal is a bunch of mindless screaming egged on by the therapists is antithical to how it actually works. There is nothing easy about illiciting feelings people have spent thier lives doing everything they can come up with to avoid feeling. It`s sad because when you get to that point where the repressed feelings have worked their way up from where ever they got buried up on through the complexities of a neurotic brain to the area of the cortex where it is about to be laid down after and only after it has been felt in all of it`s original intensity by primaling,whatever that is for that feeling. Very often it is deep prolonged crying. But even in the depths of the different miseries you know you are doing something crucial to your wellbeing. One good primal and you are a believer because it really does work. Janov was not much for sucking up and continues to pay a price for it. I do sense a new growing interest in Primal Therapy. It may just peter out again, I don`t know. I think Janov has a sense of urgency about getting his work more widely accepted. Also the internet is allowing him to contact many more people and he has loosened up a good bit. I think he`s offering online courses in Primal Therapy. I`m not sure that would get you certified as a therapist. It seems to me you really have to go through the therapy yourself to become any sort of a competent therapist. So whatever. ...Dr.Syntax

[Pantaz]

Here is a couple more websites that deal with some of the principals Primal Therapy is based on ...

 

I rather prefer the website http://debunkingprimaltherapy.com/

 

From the Introduction page:

"It is necessary to outline my background a little so that the reader can assess whether I am qualified to write such an assessment of primal therapy. In the early nineties I began to read Arthur Janov’s primal books, and by the end of that decade had read every one of them, some more than once. Later, I went through 7 semesters of therapist training at Dr Janov’s Primal Center in Venice California. Before and at the same time I was a participant in the therapy too, as was deemed necessary to become a primal therapist. With the initial goal to start the long process to get state licensure in California, (and returning to the Primal Center training perhaps later if I decided to be a primal therapist), I went back to school to prepare myself for graduate school. These goals changed slowly as I learned more in college. What I learned at school, in many courses in psychology and science combined with many first hand observations of primal therapy is what this article and website is about."

[dr.syntax]

I rather prefer the website http://debunkingprimaltherapy.com/

 

From the Introduction page:

"It is necessary to outline my background a little so that the reader can assess whether I am qualified to write such an assessment of primal therapy. In the early nineties I began to read Arthur Janov’s primal books, and by the end of that decade had read every one of them, some more than once. Later, I went through 7 semesters of therapist training at Dr Janov’s Primal Center in Venice California. Before and at the same time I was a participant in the therapy too, as was deemed necessary to become a primal therapist. With the initial goal to start the long process to get state licensure in California, (and returning to the Primal Center training perhaps later if I decided to be a primal therapist), I went back to school to prepare myself for graduate school. These goals changed slowly as I learned more in college. What I learned at school, in many courses in psychology and science combined with many first hand observations of primal therapy is what this article and website is about."

Quoting no one. There is no name attaced to this quote: who ever wrote it blacked out the name of RECIEVED FROM on reciepts from The Primal Center. I doubt they ever finished the therapy or the course. They never said they did. From the reciepts they didn`t appear to have attended much of anything. HOW CAN YOU QUOTE SOMEONE WHO WON`T GIVE THEIR NAME ? It seems an oxyMORON to me.

Who are you quoting ? I find it hard to beleive it was some oversite. I want to know who you are quoting. That website is devoted to debasing Dr.Janov. Anyone who goes there be sure and check out their "Quote of the month" for some real laughs. And they devote themselves to debasing Dr.Janov. By all means check that website out and see the kind of hateful snobs crawling around down there. ...DS

Edited October 3, 2009 by dr.syntax
addition

[CharonY]

It was near to impossible to find anything recent in journals. The latest positive one regarding primal therapy was from the eighties with a ridiculous low N (around a dozen or so). The newest one is from 1996 is less positive

 

The abstract

A random sample of 300 psychologists listed in the National Register of Health Service Providers in Psychology were surveyed about the soundness of forms of mental health treatment and use of these treatments in practice. The 139 psychologists responding expressed greatest confidence in cognitive-behavioral therapy and antipsychotic medications. Approaches most in question as to soundness were primal therapy, neurolinguistic programming, bioenergetics, and aversive therapy.Factor analysis indicated widespread endorsement and use of multiple techniques within two broad camps of research-based "hard-edged" versus clinical wisdom/philosophy-based "soft-edged."

(My bold)

 

Starker and Pankratz Psychol Rep. 1996 Feb;78(1):288-90.

 

Quite apparently it is far from being an accepted basic technique.

[dr.syntax]

It was near to impossible to find anything recent in journals. The latest positive one regarding primal therapy was from the eighties with a ridiculous low N (around a dozen or so). The newest one is from 1996 is less positive

 

The abstract

 

(My bold)

 

Starker and Pankratz Psychol Rep. 1996 Feb;78(1):288-90.

 

Quite apparently it is far from being an accepted basic technique.

 

REPLY: I can always expect a cheery little reply from you. Dr. Janov will eventually prevail just as Charles Darwin did and for the same reason. The truth is on his side. The evidence is mounting as to the validity of Dr.Janov`s principles. A Primal Revolution is coming to the World of Pschology and Janov`s going to prevail. ...Dr.Syntax

Edited October 3, 2009 by dr.syntax

[insane_alien]

thats your opinion. it does not change any of the facts.

[Mokele]

So, you have no peer reviewed sources at all? None that support this?

 

Moved the Psuedoscience & Speculations.

 

Provide peer review sources in your next post, or the thread will be closed.

[bascule]

There's only one good thing that's ever come out of primal therapy, and that's the song Shout by Tears for Fears:

 

0bqgy1mebh8

[dr.syntax]

So, you have no peer reviewed sources at all? None that support this?

 

Moved the Psuedoscience & Speculations.

 

Provide peer review sources in your next post, or the thread will be closed.

 

REPLY: YOU STICK IN P&S AND EXPECT PEER REVIEW PAPERS ? If you want to close it I can`t stop you. You people seem to enjoy doing that to me. There is nothing I can do about it. I hoped to reach a few people who would could understand the importance of Dr.Janov`s work. Oh well, Whatever Dr.Syntax

[ydoaPs]

REPLY: YOU STICK IN P&S AND EXPECT PEER REVIEW PAPERS ?

 

That's how threads get moved out of P&S.

[dr.syntax]

There is no mention of moving my thread back where it originated. No, what I am told is : " provide peer review sources in your next post or the thread will be closed". I find that a bit odd. Here I am in psuedoscience and speculations and peer review sources are demanded of me. Whatever, ...Dr.Syntax

[mooeypoo]

There is no mention of moving my thread back where it originated. No, what I am told is : " provide peer review sources in your next post or the thread will be closed". I find that a bit odd. Here I am in psuedoscience and speculations and peer review sources are demanded of me. Whatever, ...Dr.Syntax

You seem to contradict yourself, dr.syntax. On one hand you expect your question to return to mainstream science, on the other you seem to be surprised we're asking for evidence that it deserves to go back to mainstream science.

 

 

Pseudoscience and Speculation forum isn't a "punishment", it's the rightful place for speculations that are outside the realm of mainstream science. You still hold the responsibility to produce evidence and substantiate your claim.

 

~moo

[Mokele]

Thread closed due to failure to produce any sufficient evidence for this garbage.