Primal therapy
Primal therapy is a trauma-based psychotherapy created by Arthur Janov during the 1960s, who argued that neurosis is caused by the repressed pain of childhood trauma. Janov argued that repressed pain can be sequentially brought to conscious awareness for resolution through re-experiencing specific incidents and fully expressing the resulting pain during therapy. Primal therapy was developed as a means of eliciting the repressed pain; the term Pain is capitalized in discussions of primal therapy when referring to any repressed emotional distress and its purported long-lasting psychological effects. Janov believed that talking therapies deal primarily with the cerebral cortex and higher-reasoning areas and do not access the source of Pain within the more basic parts of the central nervous system.
Primal therapy is used to re-experience childhood pain—i.e., felt rather than conceptual memories—in an attempt to resolve the pain through complete processing and integration, becoming real. An intended objective of the therapy is to lessen or eliminate the hold early trauma exerts on adult behaviour.
Primal therapy became very influential during a brief period in the early 1970s after the publication of Janov's first book, The Primal Scream. It inspired hundreds of spin-off clinics worldwide and served as an inspiration for many popular cultural icons. Singer-songwriter John Lennon, actor James Earl Jones, and pianist Roger Williams were prominent advocates of primal therapy. Primal therapy has since declined in popularity. However, proponents of the methodology continue to advocate and practice the therapy or variations of it.
Primal therapy is not accepted in the field of psychology. Psychologists have criticized its lack of controlled outcome trials which would demonstrate effectiveness. Nevertheless, Janov continued to advocate the therapy up until his death in 2017, and primal therapy is still practiced by a few clinicians worldwide.
Concepts
Janov stated that neurosis is the result of suppressed pain, which is the result of trauma, usually trauma of childhood origin. According to Janov, the only way to reverse neurosis is for the neurotic to recall their trauma in a therapeutic setting. Janov contended that the neurotic can thereby re-experience their feelings in response to the original traumatic incidents but can now express the emotions that at that time were repressed, thereby resolving the trauma.Janov believed that there is only one source of mental illness : imprinted pain. He argued that this unitary source of neurosis implies that there can be only one effective cure: re-experiencing.
Pain
In primal theory, "Primal Pain is deprivation or injury which threatens the developing child. A parent's warning is not necessarily a Primal Pain for the child. Utter humiliation is... An infant left to cry it out in the crib is in Pain... It is not hurt as such which defines Primal Pain but rather the context of the hurt or its meaning to the impressionable developing consciousness of the child."Janov described "Pain" as the pain that does not hurt because, as soon as the person goes into it, it becomes simply feeling. Most of the suffering is in the blockage or repression, not the Pain itself.
Needs
Janov believed that much of the pain of childhood is the result of needs going unmet. Drawing from earlier psychologists, he described his take on the basic needs in his books. "Our first needs are solely physical ones for nourishment, safety and comfort. Later we have emotional needs for affection, understanding and respect for our feelings. Finally, intellectual needs to know and to understand emerge."Janov asserted that when needs go unfulfilled for too long, pain is the result.
Consciousness and repression
In primal theory, consciousness is not simply awareness but refers to a state of the entire organism, including the brain, in which there is "fluid access" between the parts. Using the triune brain work by Paul D. MacLean and adapting it to Primal Theory, three levels of consciousness are recognized in Primal Theory.The following table summarizes some of the fundamental ideas and terms Janov has used as well as conventional terms used in general and scientific papers.
| Level/Line | Technical name | Functions mediated | Brain structures involved | Incorporates |
| Third | cognitive | cognition and intellectual faculties | neocortex | thinking mind |
| Second | affective | emotional responses | limbic system | feeling mind |
| First | somatosensory | sensation and visceral responses | brainstem | survival mind |
- Janov described defenses as the agents of repression that protect the system from the catastrophic Pain of unfulfilled need. When referring to Pain or defense the word line is used instead of level; e.g. first-line Pain = early trauma imprinted in the brainstem usually involving physical injury, third line defense = intellectual defense.
- The brainstem has also often been referred to as the reptilian brain as it is the structure which mammals have in common with reptiles.
- First-line imprints occur before intellectual abilities, such as the use of verbal language, have developed. They are at the level of pure sensation and visceral reaction. The brainstem is capable of processing the most primitive emotions of rage and terror, and these can be experienced very early in life.
Origins of neurosis
Primal theory contends that many or most people suffer from some degree of neurosis. This neurosis begins very early in life as a result of needs not being met. There may be one or more isolated traumatic events, but more often, it is a case of daily neglect or abuse.Neurosis therefore may begin to develop at birth, or even before, with first-line Pains. Subsequent Pain is thought to be added on top of previous pain in what is called "compounding" the Pain.
Throughout childhood, more elaborate "defenses" develop, as the early unmet needs keep pressing for satisfaction in symbolic, and therefore inevitably unsatisfying, ways.
Format and process
The overall strategy of primal therapy has hardly changed from the early days. The therapy begins with an intensive three weeks of fifteen open-ended sessions with one therapist. After this, the patient joins group meetings with other patients and therapists once or twice a week for as long as is needed. Private sessions are still available, though not every day. The length of time needed in formal therapy varies from person to person.Primal
As a noun or a verb, the word primal denotes the reliving of an early painful feeling. A complete primal has been found, according to Janov and Holden, to be marked by a "pre-primal" rise in vital signs such as pulse, core body temperature, and blood pressure leading up to the feeling experience and then a falling off of those vital signs to a more normal level than where they began. After the primal, Janov claimed the patient will be flooded with his own insights.Based on Janov's own in-house studies, Janov and Holden concluded that the pre-primal rise in vital signs indicates the person's neurotic defenses are being stretched by the ascending Pain to the point of producing an "acute anxiety attack", and the fall to more normal levels than pre-primal levels indicates a degree of resolution of the Pain.
Janov distinguished the primal from emotional Catharsis or abreaction, an abreaction being a "pseudo-primal". A primal may be referred to as a "connected feeling", but a complete connected feeling will usually take months or even years to feel in many primals. Psychiatrist Anthony Storr claimed that primal therapy techniques have much in common with abreaction.
Duration
In The Primal Scream, Janov wrote, "By the time someone has reached his eighth month he is generally well...Many patients finish before the eight months; some remain in therapy for ten or eleven months. It all depends on how sick they were to begin with."A therapist working for Janov stated in 1973: "The need for therapy really never ends. Nobody is ever able to flush all the pain from his body." According to this source, there were patients who stayed in therapy for as long as two years.
In The New Primal Scream, Janov wrote that after a year to a year and a half, patients are able to continue therapy on their own, with only sporadic follow-up necessary.
Cost
In The Primal Scream, Janov wrote: "Primal therapy is much more economical than conventional insight therapy—not only in financial terms but also in the time involved. The total financial outlay is about one-fifth the cost of a psychoanalysis."In 1971, the three-week intensive had a cost of $1,650 USD. In 1973, the cost—payable in advance—was US$6,000 for six months of therapy. In 1978, a year of primal therapy had a cost of US$6,600.
Reports
Over the decades since Janov's first book on the subject, there have been several reports and critiques relating to primal therapy in books and peer-reviewed journals.Janov initiated from the outset small-scale research using questionnaires and measures of EEG, body temperature, blood pressure, and pulse from his patients. A 1971 Pittsburgh Press article cited a University of California at Irvine study on primal therapy patients that showed a slowing of brain waves. Janov claimed that primal therapy reduced, in some patients, the frequency and the amplitude of Alpha waves, core body temperature and blood pressure. Two Brain Research Institute scientists confirmed that there were brain-wave changes in primal patients.
Authors Prochaska and Norcross called the research by Janov "largely uncontrolled, non comparative and short term."
A small uncontrolled outcome study of 13 primal patients showed that 8 were definitively improved on all outcome measures, with 1 bad outcome. The authors concluded that primal therapy warrants further study.