Primal Therapy

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Primal therapy is a trauma-based psychotherapy developed and popularized by Arthur Janov, Ph.D. During therapy the patient is encouraged to cry, scream, and beat objects to express childhood, perinatal and prenatal feelings. Janov claimed that in primal therapy patients would find their real needs and feelings after experiencing all their accumulated pain. The absence of peer-reviewed outcome studies to substantiate this claim led to the therapy falling out of favor in academic and psychotherapeutic circles. Also, the ideas and theories supporting Primal therapy have had a large influence on psychological thought. They also have been co-opted in many legitimate and not-so-legitimate forms of therapies, sometimes in dangerous ways. However Dr Janov and his associates have continued developing the therapy and to provide it at his Center in Venice, California.

Books by Arthur Janov include The Primal Scream, Why You Get Sick, How You Get Well, The Feeling Child.