In honor of the man, who revolutionized the understanding of the nature of our human being and who made psychology a real science.
Arthur Janov passed on October 1, 2017 at the age of 93.
In the early sixties the psychologist Arthur Janov made a revolutionary discovery for mankind.
It all started when a participant in Janov's group therapy, a young student, talked about a stage act which had caused strange feelings in him.
The artist spent the whole number parading around on stage in diapers, drinking bottles of milk and shouting at the top of his lungs "Mommy! Daddy! Mommy! Daddy!" At
the end of the act he vomited.
Then he handed out plastic bags to the audience and requested the audience to follow suit. Janov's student, a withdrawn, sensitive man, told the group session about
the fascination that the act had for him.
Whereupon Janov spontaneously asked him to actually do it and start calling out for his Mom and Dad.
At first it seemed a ridiculous idea to the student but finally he gave in to Janov's request and started shouting "Mommy! Daddy!" At first they were just
unmotivated cries, but as this experiment went on the student became noticeably upset and his crying took on an unbelievable inner strength.
The crying for his parents became continuous; the student was lying on the floor writhing in agony.
He was in a kind of hypnotic state, his breathing was rapid and spasmodic. The crying was bursting out of him almost involuntarily, until finally he released a
piercing, deathlike scream that rattled the walls of Janov's office.
The entire episode lasted only a few minutes. Janov was completely taken by surprise and he had no idea what had happened.
It baffled him at the time.
Even the student had no idea what had happened to him, but interestingly he already had the answer: "I made it! I don't know what, but I can feel," he said
afterwards.
Before long Janov had the opportunity to repeat the experiment about the longing for one's parents in his work with another client.
A thirty-year-old man was relating with great feeling in a session how his parents had always criticized him, had never loved him, and had generally messed up his
life.
When Janov urged him to call out for his parents, the client demurred since he couldn't see the point.
Why should he do it, since he already 'knew' that they didn't love him? Half-heartedly he started calling for Mommy and Daddy. Soon Janov noticed he was breathing
faster and deeper. His calling turned into an involuntary act that led to writhing, near-convulsions.
Finally he uttered a scream like the student had done before. After the man had quieted down, he was flooded with insights. He said that his whole life seemed to
have suddenly fallen into place.
Janov reported that this ordinarily unsophisticated man began transforming himself in front of his eyes into what was virtually another human being.
He became alert; his sensorium opened up; he seemed to understand himself. Janov was shocked at the result. He had taken the student's reaction as an isolated case
and didn't expect that it to be repeated by another client.
He began to listen even more carefully to the tapes he had made of the two sessions. He tried to analyse what common factors or techniques produced the
reactions.
Over the next months, he tried various modifications and approaches with different clients. Each time there occured the same dramatic results.
What had happened?
Through the client's simulating the condition of childhood by calling out for his parents, real recollections of early childhood feelings and experiences came into
consciousness involuntarily.
Unconscious, repressed pain from early childhood traumas flooded them with a powerful surge of feeling which involved the whole body and found expression in an
involuntary scream.
The arising into consciousness of the pain of these original, early hurts resulted in a comparatively complete dissolution of this pain and the neurotic structures
caused by it.
The persons concerned reached a holistic consciousness of themselves after this experience.
Janov had discovered what he called primal pain.
In 40 years of scientific research, Janov bridged the gap between psychology and neuroscience and created the basis to heal mental illness, neurosis and psychosis, and ushered in a paradigm shift
in psychotherapy.
“It is not possible to truly get well, by way of some easy, feelgood-process, which is what the selling point is
behind meditation, hypnosis, acupuncture, and all cognitive therapies.”
Arthur Janov
© 2000-2018 by Susanne Meyer