About the Author

Dr Arthur Janov is currently director of the Primal Training Centre in California. He is concluding a musical for the stage called SCREAM! and is in the process of creating a film-video series, THE UNIVERSE OF THE MIND.

Reviews

For a new generation of neurotics (psychotherapists included), psychologist Janov ( The Primal Scream , Putnam, 1970) recycles his famous psychophysiological cure-all for mental illness: primal therapy, widely known as scream therapy. He sticks to his original premise that pain experienced from unfulfilled needs produces an unreal, unfeeling self constantly at war with the real self. However, he now claims his theory has been validated by scientific studies in the fields of immunology, weeping, cancer, and brain science. Janov blends case studies with exposition on repression, imprinting, birth trauma, the difference between ``normal'' and ``neurotic,'' and a discussion on bogus primal therapists. Along the was he disparages New Age rebirthers and most conventional therapies. Controversial remarks abound, such as, ``Optimism . . . may only be a good defense.'' There's even an oblique reference to the cause of sudden infant death when Janov describes how the terror of being in a dark room alone can trigger earlier birth trauma. Twenty years later, he's still revolutionary, articulate, and maybe right. Highly recommended.-- Janice Aren ofsky, formerly with Arizona State Lib., Phoenix