Saturday, January 10, 2009

Cold Feet, Cold Hands and a Hurting Heart

Most of us know someone who has chronically cold feet and hands (the extremities), and who are forever cold. We think, “That’s just their nature.” But what if it’s not? What if it is “nurture?” What if those cold hands and feet went with a certain kind of personality that got its start a few months after conception? Moreover, suppose we could change all of those tendencies at once.
Well that is a tall order and will need some explanation. My general philosophy is that most of us are normal, born normal and adapt normally. So when there is a deviation leading to changed anatomy or physiology early in life it means something went wrong. It is not normal for there to be serious illness or emotional problems after birth if something did not go wrong some time before.
I shall address this problem and try to explore what can go wrong that produces radical deviations in the first few years of our lives. (Some of the following information is taken in part from the work of D. Singer, Germany)
One of the constants I see in my practice is the reliving of oxygen deprivation at and before birth (Hypoxia/depleted oxygen or anoxia/reduced). It turns out that the literature is now filled with studies that indicate that a majority of babies are born with limited oxygen. This is often due to painkillers and anesthetics which reduce oxygen input. The baby then has to adapt to this situation. It does this in many ways but one is to revert to the animal “diving reflex.” It redistributes oxygen to where it is most needed, namely, the key vital organs, lungs and heart. It deprives the extremities of oxygen so that there is set up a tendency to have cold hands and feet, not just for the moment of plus two days, but for life/plus 80 years. Not only that, but there is a reshaping of the personality, at the same time, that also can last for those eighty years. Reduced oxygen (don’t forget the smoking mother or one who takes suppressive tranquilizers) also happens when a mother takes serious pain killers and/or tranquilizers during pregnancy. Involved in this is a long-terms adaptation syndrome. The body needs to slow its metabolism (how fast it uses up nutrients), not for then only, but again for a lifetime. This adaptation I have called the parasympathetic one.
A structure in the brain is called the hypothalamus. It controls many hormone secretions. It also controls two different nervous systems—the sympathetic, managing our aggressive, active tendencies; and the parasympathetic, managing the more reposeful, healing ones. A trauma such as low oxygen at birth can produce a dominant parasympathetic predilection that encompasses many biologic parameters and also psychological ones, as well. In short, we have the makings of a phlegmatic, passive, unassuming, held back personality; someone who is always reacting to the imprint of low oxygen input. Thus, everything becomes a problem, everything is too much, and there is a tendency to give up easily because there is a not a prolonged and continued aggressive, assertive response. These are the shallow, slow breathers, cold in the extremities, reluctant of personality, not a self-starter. We think we can change these individuals. Remember that the ensemble of all these biologic/psychological responses are involved in survival strategies; not things picked at random because they were simply convenient.

Reconfiguring our oxygen reduction response is one key way to prevent oxygen damage to the brain. The system does it for us and sends more oxygen to the heart and lungs than to the feet. It also means less possible damage to the heart. If there is a trauma that affects the heart it may not show up for fifty years until the first heart attack. Of course, one way to avoid all that is to provide sufficient oxygen at birth. Failing that, the fetus/newborn will reduce its oxygen demands. But that can mean inadequate cerebral oxygen supplies, lower cerebral metabolism rate, which later can mean learning problems. You know when we say, “He’s got cold feet.” It is true. The person is reacting based on fear and terror, the same fear accompanying oxygen lack early on.

As I have written in my Musings book, it is not unexpected that there may be an early oxygen deprivation involved in later Alzheimer’s disease. That is, the brain is in constant adaptation to imprinted reduced brain oxygen. The brain is saying, “I am lacking supplies,” and originally adapted to that lack in various ways, including a change in the amount and strength of certain synapses, which are the gaps between nerve cells that are filled with chemicals that either enhance or slow the neuronal message from one cell to the other. In brief, that earlier adaptation becomes permanent and almost immutable. All of this underlies much of the deep depression I have seen constant hopelessness and helplessness accompany the personality (see my book “The Janov Solution”, for a more elaborate discussion of this). And of course, a drop in core body temperature. As patients get close to these deep early feelings of womb-life and birth, the temperature can fall three degrees in minutes as it is being relived. Or, patients deeply depressed can come into a session with a 96-degree reading. The parasympath has generally a one to two degree lower reading than the sympath. He seems to be in a permanent “dive” state of the polar bear. He too is ready for oxygen reduction.

The point about reduced oxygen needs is that the whole personality seems to “shrivel up.” It is a constricting one rather than expansive. When she speaks she takes up much less space and air; her words hardly move out of her mouth, and there is an air of fatigue about her. Is it any wonder that she (or he) is less sexual? Again, the whole system slows to adapt to reduced oxygen; the system is doing its best to avoid a mismatch between supply and demand (see D.Singer, “Neonatal Tolerance to Hypoxia.” Comp. Biochem. And Physiology, part A 123 (1999 pages 221-234). And when there is imprinted low oxygen we might expect slower growth rate. One way we see this is in neonates born to smoking mothers who are often of smaller stature. That in itself assumes trauma somewhere during womb-life maturation. That can foretell of a premature heart attack or cancer later in life. I think it is more likely to lead to cancer than cardiac problems because of the massive repression or inhibition that goes along with this kind of personality. Repression of womb-life events are nearly always of life-and-death matters; the repression it engenders is massive, and the result may be serious distortion at a cellular level. Thus, in my scheme, heart disease is that of expression (sympath) and cancer of repression. This is clearly not a hard and fast rule, but is something to think about. So many other factors play a role in all this, not to exclude a whole childhood filled with experiences.

There are so many later effects of womb-life trauma. Namely, diabetes and hypertension (high blood pressure). It has been shown that when a pregnant woman is given steroids (the stress hormones) the offspring tends to suffer from high blood pressure.
(J.Seckl and M.Meaney. “Glucorticoid Programming and PTSD Risk.” Annals of the N.Y. Academy of Science 1071 351-378 2008) In particular, babies born of these mothers show hypertension tendencies just after birth. They note a strong link between stress hormone intake of a mother animal and her baby’s long-term hypertension (sheep). It seems like the later in pregnancy this occurs, the more permanent the adult high blood pressure. It has to do with the sensory window when a stimulus is most apt to create alterations in functioning. And the reason why this is important is that an anxious mother is delivering stress hormones to her baby/fetus. And so the baby can be said to be born with a tendency to anxiety, as well. One way we know this, is that mothers who are anxious seem to raise the cortisol levels in the amniotic fluid surrounding the fetus. It may seem like heredity, but it is not.
More is getting known about high levels of stress hormones in the carrying mother. It is implicated in later diabetes, immune disease, allergies, hypertension and others. There is now a much stronger correlation between mother’s stress level and later dementia. What is most important in all this is that this stress in the mother/fetus compromises the repressive system so that later it will be difficult to hold down surging feelings. The importance of this is that low level imprints cannot be suppressed so that the person has difficulty in concentrating and focusing—attention deficit disorder. A key element of that repressive system is the prefrontal cortex, which is pressed into service to counteract feelings that are on the march into awareness. Hence, overt anxiety states.
We begin to understand a bit about later drug addiction, which always seems like such a mystery. We are slowly becoming aware that pain can be installed in the fetal system before she is born. It still needs quelling. It is generally of such high valence, (witness our patients reliving early trauma), that it is logical that one uses pain killers later on. Until we re-direct our focus earlier we shall never solve these human problems.
The University of California, Irvine is important in this research. Gary Lynch, a well-known neurobiologist there, found that with very early trauma there was a later likelihood of memory problems. After years and years of suppressing feelings, there seems to be a “caving in” of the externally oriented prefrontal area as neurons, under constant pressure from the imprint, begin to die. That is one reason why in early stress a memory structure in the brain, the hippocampus, tends to diminish in size. Mice who have their hippocampus surgically tampered with, are much more excitable and prone to anxiety states. They do not adapt well.
In short, one’s personal history, one’s neuro-biologic memory, is a significant factor in what happens to one’s brain.

28 comments:

  1. Very interesting.

    I saw a tiny fetus being poked with a 'stick' while it was in the womb. (saw it on TV). The doctors stopped when they thought the fetus's heart rate was getting too high. There was nothing wrong with the fetus before they started poking it. It was all in the name of scientific learning, and the mother had consented.
    Now that the fetus is a person - not just a speechless organism (sarcasm intended), I wonder how he/she feels now?
    Geeeeeez....how dumb can the medical world be??
    It seems to me that scientists can be so caught up in their science, that they can actually lose their ability to use some common sense.

    Then we have people like Janov showing them a lot more detail than common sense will reveal....and they still don't listen.

    It seems like neurosis spreads faster than it's cure.

    On a brighter note, I think Arthur and his team are sewing the seeds which should accelerate when people start to see them growing. The uphill climb might not be as long as it seems.

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  2. It is a real shame that we humans are so vulnerable in the 9 months or so before we are born. Your examples of Hypoxia and lack of oxygen or other examples such as if a mother is worried or stressed, or if she is a smoker show this, and I have read that just the thought by a mother that she does not want a child will have dire consequences for that child.
    Alot can go wrong in the 18 years it takes to mature and become independent, as we are malleable and labile. The vulnerabilities and long dependencies on outside help seem to be our collective downfall.
    What can go wrong will go wrong!
    In my case when I became self-conscious and introspective in my teens it was already too late and I was stuck with factual states of limitation that were unsolvable.
    If birth and maturity were short as in other species we would be better off.

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  3. Dear Dr. Janov, I'm very much enjoying reading your blog. Would you be able to do a piece on psychosis? My mum has episodes of psychotic paranoia and I'd like to get my family to understand where it might have come from. Perhaps even persuade her that primal therapy might be able to help???? Actually I'm a current patient - we met in the summer. Emma

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  4. If the mother has high cortisol levels, then the fetus will have lower dopamine (and subsequently lower norepinephrine-) levels, which may result in ADD.
    But why doesn't the brain of the baby go back to normal after birth? Is it due to a reduced number of dopaminergic neurons? Or is the mesocortical/mesolimbic pathway that transports the dopamine, which is somehow impaired? Or is it that some of the dopamine receptors are blocked in the frontal lobes?
    Whatever the reason, there might be an alternative solution.
    If the purpose of brainwaves is to facilitate the transportation of neurotransmitters, and you'd stimulate beta-waves...the brain would start increasing the secretion of neurotransmitters to 'catch up' with the increased brain activity, right? Isn't that how a desirednatural boost of dopamine could be obtained?

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  5. Madiya,
    Now why doesn't the baby go back to normal after birth? Because "normal" has been changed. Events do change the set-points for ever more. But you are putting me on cause you are no doubt a neurologist or close to it. Anything you do TO a patient to try to establish "normal" is generally wrong. It has to come from her. That is what is wrong with biofeedback. The doctor decides what is normal and tries to get the brainwaves of the subject to go there. The important question is: WHY IS THE BLOODY BRAINWAVE ABNORMAL, IN THE FIRST PLACE? How about a "why.?" What happened to curiosity? I will leave the neurology to you since Maydiya, you are clearly a professional. So you tell me, don't ask me.


    If the mother has high cortisol levels, then the fetus will have lower dopamine (and subsequently lower norepinephrine-) levels, which may result in ADD.

    But why doesn't the brain of the baby go back to normal after birth? Is it due to a reduced number of dopaminergic neurons? Or is the mesocortical/mesolimbic pathway that transports the dopamine, which is somehow impaired? Or is it that some of the dopamine receptors are blocked in the frontal lobes?

    Whatever the reason, there might be an alternative solution.

    If the purpose of brainwaves is to facilitate the transportation of neurotransmitters, and you'd stimulate beta-waves...the brain would start increasing the secretion of neurotransmitters to 'catch up' with the increased brain activity, right? Isn't that how a desired natural boost of dopamine could be obtained?

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  6. Maydiya. Are you a neurologist? If not how come you know so much? I will leave the neurology to you since my guess is that you are a professional. Why don’t things go back to normal?

    As I have written in a forthcoming book, it is not unexpected that there may be an early oxygen deprivation involved in later Alzheimer’s disease. That is, the brain is in constant adaptation to imprinted reduced brain oxygen. The brain is saying, “I am lacking supplies,” and originally adapted to that lack in various ways, including a change in the amount and strength of certain synapses, which are the gaps between nerve cells that are filled with chemicals that either enhance or slow the neuronal message from one cell to the other. In brief, that earlier adaptation becomes permanent and almost immutable.

    All of this underlies much of the deep depression I have seen (see my Janov Solution, for a more elaborate discussion of this)where a constant hopelessness and helplessness accompany the personality. And of course, a drop in core body temperature. As patients get close to these deep early feelings of womb-life and birth the temperature can fall three degrees in minutes as it is being relived. Or, patients deeply depressed can come into a session with a 96 degree reading. The parasympath has generally a one to two degree lower reading than the sympath. He seems to be in a permanent “dive” state of the polar bear. He too is ready for oxygen reduction.


    The point about reduced oxygen needs is that the whole personality seems to “shrivel up.” It is a constricting one rather than expansive. When she speaks she takes up much less space and air; her words hardly move out of her mouth, and there is an air of fatigue about her. Is it any wonder that she (or he) is less sexual? Again, the whole system slows to adapt to reduced oxygen; the system is doing its best to avoid a mismatch between supply and demand (see D.Singer, “Neonatal Tolerance to Hypoxia.” Comp. Biochem. And Physiology, part A 123 (1999 pages 221-234). And when there is imprinted low oxygen we might expect slower growth rate. One way we see this is in neonates born to smoking mothers who are often of smaller stature. That in itself assumes trauma somewhere during womb-life maturation. That can foretell of a premature heart attack or cancer later in life. I think it is more likely to lead to cancer than cardiac problems because of the massive repression or inhibition that goes along with this kind of personality. Repression of womb-life events are nearly always of life-and-death matters; the repression it engenders is massive, and the result can may serious distortion at a cellular level. Thus, in my scheme, heart disease is that of expression (sympath)and cancer of repression. This is clearly not a hard and fast rule, but is something to think about. So many other factors play a role in all this, not to exclude a whole childhood filled with experiences.

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  7. It's common knowledge that a newborn baby's immune system learns from the things it eats and is exposed to. So it's not too far-fetched to think that the 'learning' process could be tied into the very building blocks of the developing fetus. We have so many physical back up systems to deal with every imaginable problem, why wouldn't our 'growing style' be just another part of that back up system?
    If the body and mind is clever enough to adapt in such a complex way, then it's not unreasonable to see how far it can re-adapt by allowing it to re-learn for itself.
    Provide a better environment and see what happens.

    Not sure if this comment is constructive or just obnoxious.

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  8. Hello Dr Janov and whoever's reading this,

    Can I contribute a summary for what I think the core point is behind this?

    I'm quite convinced that neurosis can be summarised, in short, as a natural system where the mind/body "internalises" a toxic reality so as to control its responses [to that reality], without being overwhelmed by it in terms of excessive pain hammering and overloading the consciousness. So neurosis is a kind of way that our body's switch the system onto "auto pilot" so as to manage input to consciousness, for the purpose of allowing us to better and more successfully manage ourselves in an emergency*.

    I think the key insight/assertion you give here, Dr Janov, is that not only does this essential function happen on the psychological level (as we know it), but also the biological level. So, our "core" biology (not just brain) defensively reacts to an original traumatic input, though later out of context. Our bodies act-out all on their own, like you effectively say with this example of the body forever fighting early traumatic oxygen deprivation. This would suggest that neurosis really is an ancient (in evolutionary terms) system?

    Assuming that's sound, I can see that those early 'biological' traumas must do nothing for our long term health. Our biology must be doing all sorts of "nonsense" out-of-context things that shouldn't be applied, just like we do nonsense things on the behaviourally level as a consequence of our neurosis.

    The neurobiological correlation is just the details, I think. It's just the identified mechanisms of the defensive response to the original infliction.

    If the system is designed to defend againts a traumatic imprint, then it makes sense that toying with the defenses -rather than the infliction itself- is probably going to be fruitless at best, and highly destructive at worst. If the defense is natural so we are specifically *designed* to have it, and the defense is driven by the trauma-memory (which is the real infliction), then how on earth can we hope to "correct" the brain when it is already basically "correct" in response to its history?

    *And the problem is of course when we don't turn the auto-pilot off by re-connecting the originally blocked/redirected circuit, so the auto-pilot keeps on ticking over indefinately. Why don't we commonly re-connect spontaineously (without help) when the danger has gone? That's an important question I think, though I know that sometimes we do re-connect spontaineously.

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  9. Here in England there's an old saying that "cold hands mean a warm heart". Could this actually be true? Perhaps parasymathetic people tend to be kinder due to the lack of aggressivness.

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  10. Dr. Janov says: „Reconfiguring our oxygen reduction response is one key way to prevent oxygen damage to the brain.“ Peter Nathanielsz wrote in one of his books that the fetus is able to adapt to a lack of oxygen or nutrients to some degree by redirecting them to the places where they are most needed. In the case of nutrients the outcome may be a person with normal head size but strikingly small belly.

    In his book “Why You Get Sick and How You Get Well” Dr. Janov hypothesizes that early lack of oxygen may change the cell metabolism. As there is only little oxygen available the cells “decide” to do it the old anaerobic way. In 1924 Otto Wartburg, a German biochemist, had hypothesized that anaerobiosis is the starting point of maligne cell processes (cancer). Might those changes in cell metabolism be involved in Alzheimer’s disease, too? Anyway, there are clues that Alzheimer may have to do with a low-oxygen milieu: I searched a little in the web and found that the neurotransmitter glutamate seems to be involved in Alzheimer’ disease as well as in neonatal hypoxia. The mechanism may be as follows: Lack of oxygen forces increased glutamate in the nerve pathways. Increased glutamate leads to calcium overload within the nerve cells and the final result would be cell damage or cell death. Another (strange) result in a Alzheimer study: An unusually high proportion of nerve cells (20%) in Alzheimer brains double their DNAs but they do not divide. Instead they die.

    Whatever the precise mechanisms are that make cells go crazy or die, it seems to have a lot to do with imprinted early events (trauma). The system has to bear and process the metabolic corollaries of early trauma and regarding the tremendous physical power, which often reveals itself in a reliving episode, it is no miracle at all that so many people will fall seriously ill some decades later.

    A very important question: To what degree can reliving in Primal Therapy stop or reverse the widespread corollaries of imprinted early adversities (for example, hypoxia)? And in case of irreversible imprints - to what degree will lifting of repression and removing of high valence trauma energy improve a person’s life quality and life expectancy? In other words: How well can Primal Therapy make us?

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  11. I don't know why I am writing when there are so many brilliant well versed people out there. I am writing a chapter on this subject. I will add some of it here:


    Traumas can be laid down in the viscera during womb-life and at birth, when the highest level of neurologic function is the brainstem/limbic structures. When patients come in complaining of visceral symptoms such as Crohns Disease, we have evidence of how early the trauma was set down. The signs of an early imprint are sensations—visceral/stomach churning, tightness in the chest, difficulty breathing, sensations of being squeezed or crushed, and a general sense of agitation.

    Thus, the amygdala and the hippocampus can control the release of stress hormones. As the system is flooded with cortisol, the hippocampus, for example, can send the hypothalamus a message to ease up. In some respects the amygdala is pleading, “release!” while the hippocampus is begging, “hold back!” We want to be just stressed enough to handle emergencies but not so much as to be overwhelmed. We want to be sure that the signal of danger does not become a danger itself. We do not get panicked out of some irrational force. There is a good reason for it; something in lower levels of the brain are driving it. The panic (and panic attacks) is a response to an alarm, a danger. In brief, panic attacks may be quite rational, responding to real imprinted events. Too often we try to remove the danger signal while leaving the danger intact. This often happens when the danger is situated down in the brainstem and out of sight. So long as we deal in words and explanations we can never arrive at the original danger, by definition.

    Panic is a terror from early in the gestation period. It, by itself, has weakened the repressive, gating system so that any current lessening of vigilance can set it off. It predates by a long time the affliction of depression because it occurs before the full development of the inhibitory, gating system. It is purely physical and seems such a mystery—until the person gains deep access. Then it is no longer a mystery. It is the most primitive of reactions; words will not touch it. It represents the highest level of brain function at the time. Look at its manifestations: shortness of breath, chest pain and pressure, rapid heartbeat, choking or smothering sensation, butterflies in the stomach, dizziness, the sensation of impending doom. None of these need a cortex or higher level brain function. That is one very important reason that words cannot cure it. It is basically visceral and sub-cortical. These manifestations are telling us that they emanate from a very primitive brain organization and from a time when there was only an inchoate cerebral structure (lacking a fully developed neocortex) to handle trauma. There is no insight that can treat it because it began its life long before we had words.

    It is what we see in lower animals who are frightened by another animal. Their reactions seem like pure panic. We see this in some individuals who undergo MRIs. The minute they are enclosed in a steel and cement sheath panic surges forth. It is approximating what happened originally. It takes the confines of such a machine to reawaken the primitive feeling. The patient may believe it is the machine that is producing anxiety, but it is the primal panic from a confined, enclosed space. What the MRI does is stimulate a resonating memory; not a memory in the way we usually think of it, but sets off a bodily reaction. If we do have this kind of anxiety having an MRI exam, we can be fairly sure that we endured a difficult birth; it is, in short, a differential diagnostic, tool, to separate out those with healthy births from those with traumatic births. I teach the technicians who perform MRIs on me to tap my foot at irregular intervals so that I cannot organize a full-fledged anxiety reaction.

    It does take some kind of higher cerebral organization to produce an anxiety state. The concept of resonance is important because situations can resonate within us below the level of language. We can be stirred up even when we don’t know with what the outside situation is resonating. Thus, in sex, a nude female body can resonate in a man with an early experience with his mother. She may have been seductive long before the child had any understanding of it. I had one white (Caucasoid) patient who had a very seductive mother; she French-kissed her son. Later, he could only have girlfriends who were Black or Asiatic—too white a girlfriend would resonate with that early seduction and scare him. Here “White” women resonated with a White mother, something to be avoided. I treated a lesbian woman who was molested sexually by her (white) stepfather. She could only have relationships with Black men. Later, any man resonated with the early stepfather. She switched to sex with women. It seemed much safer to her.

    When there is a life-and-death struggle at birth due to lack of oxygen (anoxia), for example, the existing reactive system is activated, but because it cannot fully respond due to the complete load of pain (to feel it completely would be to die, or at least to lose consciousness), it reacts partially within its biologic limits and then puts the excess part of the terror away for good keeping; it houses it until our system is strong enough to feel and resolve it. It lives behind our repressive gates.

    However, we continually respond to this stored terror with chronically high stress hormone levels, a compromised immune system, misperceptions, strange ideas, nightmares, and chronic malaise. This high activation level gnaws away at the cardiovascular system so that we fall seriously ill at age fifty-five, even though at the time we seem to be living a normal, relaxed life. Not surprisingly, one of the highest concentrations of inhibitory neurotransmitters—part of the brain’s gating mechanism—is found in the thalamus, which is constructed so as not to relay overwhelming information. It needs to block pain when pain threatens the frontal cortex.

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  12. Mahdiya. You ask why doesn't the baby's brain go back to normal after birth. You need to understand the imprint that prevents that from happening and re-circuits brain tracks. If you speak only of nerve circuits you miss the humanity behind why levels go up or down. It is not that pathways are impaired; it is that they are rerouted to accommodate the adaptation to the imprint. It is never desired to artificially fiddle with brain circuits until we know why they are too high too fast, etc. When we relive early trauma those brain circuits change radically. art janov.

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  13. Hello Dr Janov,

    I know the following is off topic (don't mind if you don't publish it), but I thought I'd throw it in anyway. It's a 'guessy' suggestion as to why we generally don't spontaineously primal when we are older and strong enough, without dedicated help. Which, as I said in my earlier post here, I think is an important question (for me at least) because it's the only 'primal' thing that's specifically mysterious to me.

    As follows:

    I am suspicious that Primal Therapy is running against the tide - that is, Primal Therapy may be trying to take people somewhere that their society doesn't want them to go. I mean that in the sense that a neurotic society may put a direct 'natural' [as in we are evolved to do it] psychological pressure on people that has a distinct anti-primal affect on them.

    I remember you saying in one of your books, Dr Janov, that some time in the beginning of civilisation we developed neurosis, or something close to that? Of course that was and only could be your speculation, but I think that we, as a species, may have generally been very neurotic for a very, very long time - maybe hundreds of thousands and even millions of years?*

    Because humans can survive in spite of their neurosis, we could speculate that my former suggestion could very well have been so. If so, then neurosis in the human animal may have become a notably advanced system that we have likewise intimately evolved with. And that is where you could speculate that our society may have a distinct "anti-primal" effect - that is, we may not be "designed" to de-repress in a neurotic society?

    My suggestion is that evolution may have decided that it's best for the survival of our species if we all tend to get mentally well or sick as a collective movement. Maybe if you tried to give someone Primal Therapy from a less neurotic social base (refering to their social world outside your clinic) it would be an easier and more successful process? Less 'evolved' socially-affective resistance?

    Adding to my suspicion: In my current workplace I have to work with people who I know have been exposed to a lot of damage in childhood - probably a lot more than myself (and I'm hardly non-neurotic, I know). The effect is that I feel distinctly more tense in this particular environment than I do and have done in others. I also notice that the tension has a direct controlling impact on my thinking and feeling-reactions; on critical and fundamental levels, I react and don't react to the same things that they do, and that is a direct effect of the somewhat controlling "collective tension". Maybe I am responding to a natural anti-primal effect? Maybe my reaction is 'normal' in that sense? I don't know of course, but it's an interesting possibility to consider I think.

    Maybe our society needs to sort our other big functional problems (to create a basic peaceful prosperity) before we can have the luxury of 'collectively' breaking out of neurotic shells? Until then, maybe de-repression will and only can be for the lucky few recieving special help?

    My guess is that the dynamic between your clinic and the world outside of it is a bit of a knowledge hole for you Dr Janov. Of course I don't suggest that with contempt, because you understandably must specialise your focus from within your clinic at the level that you're dealing with the primal process. But that, from my outlook, could render you unaware of this effect if it's real. Maybe it's something to somehow investigate?

    *There are many non-civilisation tribes out there that show every sign of being very mentally sick, going by what we see of their often strikingly "inhuman" cultural behaviour. My point is that you don't seem to need a civilisation to go neurotic.

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  14. Hello,
    Obviously, neurosis is a self-replicating process derived from being a helpless child and needing to obtain resources from the mother/father (including time, attention) who will lay some conditions (consciously or unconsciously upon it). Therefore a distinction between civilisation/non-civilisation is meaningless. There is only society without which the helpless infanct couldn't survive in the first place. Neurosis is the consequence of early dependency when the organism is slowly growing and becoming socialised - no matter whether its in New York or New Guinea.

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  15. I know I can't say it better than you, Will. dr. janov

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  16. Will,

    I agree with you. The question I was considering was whether or not a civilisation is required for the *original* manifestation of neurosis (I doubt it very much, as you probably do). Of course you must have an original deprivation before you can have self-perpetuating neurosis.

    Anyway, my best guess is that neurosis is born out of an enduring serious hardship, and serious hardship may, historically at least, be inevitable.

    Explaining my view: When a species expands (from population growth) out to the limits of its recourse base, it has 2 logical choices: active or passive population control. Active control means effective (or actual) steralisation, and passive control means starvations and wars (from forced competition for the limited resources). I would bet that the latter has been our history for many, many thousands of years (take a look at Africa!).

    And I would bet that the periodic desperation-induced horrific scenarios that have affected our species for probably eons have been responsible for the genesis of chronic neurosis, and likewise neurosis may have been with us since virtually forever because serious hardship should be the norm for which our biological evolution has responded to. In evolutionary terms, it doesn't take long to expand out to the limits of your resource base. And then, I would say, the "golden age" is over. Hello hardship. Hello neurosis.

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  17. I am always amazed at the intelligence out there from everyday people not pundits. Power is in the wrong hands, because those who seek it are the ones who shouldn't have it. It is not that power corrupts; it is that those who need it are already corrupted. dr. janov

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  18. Dr Janov,

    I totally agree that positions of power tend to attract the wrong people and for the wrong reasons, and that the 'corruption' was always there in the individual, waiting to rear its head with the opportunity. You only have to look at how so many people treat their kids (where they have relative absolute power) to know what they're capable of if they get into the highest levels of politics. Scaling up the game won't change it. It doesn't matter what context we are in, we will always see the world first through our neurosis.

    To say, I think the same can be said for brainwashing. We seem to think that people get brainwashed by freaky cults, as though something fundamentally new happens to them in these environments. I doubt it. I reckon if a person can be brainwashed by others then they probably always were brainwashed, it's just that someone changed the variables to a code outside the normal indoctrination. It starts with the individual.

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  19. Dr. Janov,
    You should try to be more like Dr. Phil. You need to become more paternal and speak in a TV-friendly manner. Short sentences won't heal anyone, but they are a provocative tool for marketing. Why was your book 'Primal Scream' such a big seller? Maybe it's because it sounds like a blockbuster movie. Most people want to 'watch the movie'. They begin as a voyeur, but at least that's a beginning.
    The professionals who reply to your blog.....they don't really want to debate with you. They are trying to show you a better way. They are trying to show off. "Look at me and all of my wisdom". Speak in their language. Tell them what to do. Swallow your pride and start strutting your stuff.....on TV.

    The Janov Show, starring Art and France (husband and wife....great marketing angle). Keep it simple and highly provocative, but maintain an affectionate facial expression (like that British professor with the moustache who does all those 'human mind' documentaries). Mothers will watch your show. Politicians will watch your show. Pretty soon you will have a huge audience. Most of them won't want to do Primal Therapy, but that's okay. Make sure you have a voice-over at the beginning and end of every show, warning people of the dangers of bad primal therapy.

    People will talk about Primal Therapy. "What the heck is Primal Therapy?" BAM!! People knocking on your door...."I want to be a Primal Therapist, and for all the wrong reasons". Again, that's okay. There will be some who will be good at the job. BAM!! People offering donations. BAM!! More interest from the government (they are only human). BAM!! BAM!! BAM!! BAM!! BAM!!

    I think you are starting to get my point: More exposure is a good thing (just be careful).



    ps. I'm not totally serious. Just thought there might be some truth in there.

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  20. I am not exactly sure what you mean but it is said so well we will publish it. dr. janov

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  21. I think all Richard is saying is that you should sell out a bit for the sake of attracting intitial interest. He's suggesting to start where people are at, and where they are first interested, and then give them the capacity to move on (explore primal therapy) from there. Basically, just a bit more marketing that targets the reality of most people, instead of just the reality of primal therapy. Provoking widespread initial interest is the target.

    I agree with him that there's some truth in that, in that people can't know to be interested in primal therapy until they know that it even exists, or what it's even remotely about.

    And when he says "not really serious" I think he is referring to his specific suggestions as to how you could do that. They are only vague example/possibilities?

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  22. Yes Andy, that's exactly what I was saying.

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  23. Richard, Andy,
    i like a lot your ideas. i have been wondering for many years, why primal therapy is not as well known as it should be!?
    Hmm... Let's see now,
    I imagine thousands of people on the waiting list for having primal therapy, as i bet there could be not enough therapists? More mock therapists might be a result as well?
    But, if it can happen that pr. therapy is well known around, pretty understood and well accepted (or should i say needed), then...
    What about those billionaires who own the drug company's? Ohh they will have to start worrying for losing more and more clients?
    Jails will be more and more empty?
    Politicians will be stressed with less and less voters?
    Religions of all kinds will start losing their victims? Ohh "poor" priests...
    Can lawyers and judges become artists of any kind? Poets or singers? ha,ha..
    And cops? whom are they going to arrest if there are no crimes etc happening? I bet they can become actors for future western(kind) movies so that future generations be always reminded of what shit world they came from..
    Anyway, u have a serious point here and i'm making some fun of the idea. but i like what u both said.
    I'm wondering if dr Janov and staff could possibly stand the pressure of such a change, or would it be better to live things the way they are now? Just a few lucky primal patients into history?

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  24. Anthanasios,

    Quite true. If the demand for Primal Therapy exceeds supply, then the money makers will absorb that supply with their own brand of PT, legitimate or not. And I suppose that exactly that has happened in the past in response to Janovs' hugely successful original "the primal scream" book.

    It's a shame that so many people damn Primal Therapy on the basis of bad examples of it, even though you can do any right the wrong.

    I think the greatest far-reaching social value of Janov's work will probably prove to be in its advancement of our understanding of mental health. Getting rid of neurosis will take a long inter-generational time in any circumstance, but with Janov's (and others) help we might be able to speed up the process with critical tips for better childcare, and also better neurosis management for where that can help.

    As far as your other comments go I can give you one of my favourtite sayings: "The primary objective of any establishment is to stay established, not to meet its advertised purpose as such"...

    ...And another: "All doctors want you to get better, but they certainly don't want you to stop getting sick".

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  25. Thank you Andy,
    Are u in therapy already?
    I feel like saying i like you for the way you think. No need to answer. I just expressed the way i felt. I'm glad there are brilliant minds around. Arthur was right about that.

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  26. Thanks Anthanasios,

    No, I'm not in therapy yet. I certainly intend to be though, in good time.

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  27. Dr. Janov,

    Interesting post.

    To interpret in a different way , am i right in saying we technically live 3 lives : 1) The womb life, 2) early childhood & 3) the adult life....and the adultlife is merely a reaction (without choice) to the earlier two lives - - technically speaking...

    Q 1: In medical school we learn that all of us carry the genes for cancer , hypertension and other diseases but all of us dont have cancer... very often there is a necessity for a trigger in adult life for the pathogenic gene to be activated... do studies show that steroid use/other womb life trauma activates/renders these genes more vulnerable?

    Q 2: In early childhood, the upbringing and mother's beliefs while rearing a child seem to be of great importance... Plato mentions in his works that a mother who brings up her son feeling like a hero in early childhood will enable the boy to carry that feeling throughout his life ... no matter what difficulties he faces.... now the important question is does such parental upringing in early childhood have the power to override trauma in womb life which may otherwise cause anxiety in difficult situations? Do we need to connect different studies to determine the truth...

    Q 3: I have always wondered why tear jerkers, horror movies and books which are first hand experiences of terrible memories in a nazi camp ( Ex: mans search for meaning ) have such a big audience even in affluent countries during times of prosperity.... can such media serve as temporary pain killer beacause it gives the reader a window to relive the states of anxiety ?


    Dr.Stephen Antony,
    Psychiatry resident,
    Ukraine

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  28. Hey doctor. My family is from the Ukraine. My opinion is that womblife trauma is largely psychological, depression, anxiety etc. You are catching on. Good art janov

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Review of "Beyond Belief"

This thought-provoking and important book shows how people are drawn toward dangerous beliefs.
“Belief can manifest itself in world-changing ways—and did, in some of history’s ugliest moments, from the rise of Adolf Hitler to the Jonestown mass suicide in 1979. Arthur Janov, a renowned psychologist who penned The Primal Scream, fearlessly tackles the subject of why and how strong believers willingly embrace even the most deranged leaders.
Beyond Belief begins with a lucid explanation of belief systems that, writes Janov, “are maps, something to help us navigate through life more effectively.” While belief systems are not presented as inherently bad, the author concentrates not just on why people adopt belief systems, but why “alienated individuals” in particular seek out “belief systems on the fringes.” The result is a book that is both illuminating and sobering. It explores, for example, how a strongly-held belief can lead radical Islamist jihadists to murder others in suicide acts. Janov writes, “I believe if people had more love in this life, they would not be so anxious to end it in favor of some imaginary existence.”
One of the most compelling aspects of Beyond Belief is the author’s liberal use of case studies, most of which are related in the first person by individuals whose lives were dramatically affected by their involvement in cults. These stories offer an exceptional perspective on the manner in which belief systems can take hold and shape one’s experiences. Joan’s tale, for instance, both engaging and disturbing, describes what it was like to join the Hare Krishnas. Even though she left the sect, observing that participants “are stunted in spiritual awareness,” Joan considers returning someday because “there’s a certain protection there.”
Janov’s great insight into cultish leaders is particularly interesting; he believes such people have had childhoods in which they were “rejected and unloved,” because “only unloved people want to become the wise man or woman (although it is usually male) imparting words of wisdom to others.” This is just one reason why Beyond Belief is such a thought-provoking, important book.”
Barry Silverstein, Freelance Writer

Quotes for "Life Before Birth"

“Life Before Birth is a thrilling journey of discovery, a real joy to read. Janov writes like no one else on the human mind—engaging, brilliant, passionate, and honest.
He is the best writer today on what makes us human—he shows us how the mind works, how it goes wrong, and how to put it right . . . He presents a brand-new approach to dealing with depression, emotional pain, anxiety, and addiction.”
Paul Thompson, PhD, Professor of Neurology, UCLA School of Medicine

Art Janov, one of the pioneers of fetal and early infant experiences and future mental health issues, offers a robust vision of how the earliest traumas of life can percolate through the brains, minds and lives of individuals. He focuses on both the shifting tides of brain emotional systems and the life-long consequences that can result, as well as the novel interventions, and clinical understanding, that need to be implemented in order to bring about the brain-mind changes that can restore affective equanimity. The transitions from feelings of persistent affective turmoil to psychological wholeness, requires both an understanding of the brain changes and a therapist that can work with the affective mind at primary-process levels. Life Before Birth, is a manifesto that provides a robust argument for increasing attention to the neuro-mental lives of fetuses and infants, and the widespread ramifications on mental health if we do not. Without an accurate developmental history of troubled minds, coordinated with a recognition of the primal emotional powers of the lowest ancestral regions of the human brain, therapists will be lost in their attempt to restore psychological balance.
Jaak Panksepp, Ph.D.
Bailey Endowed Chair of Animal Well Being Science
Washington State University

Dr. Janov’s essential insight—that our earliest experiences strongly influence later well being—is no longer in doubt. Thanks to advances in neuroscience, immunology, and epigenetics, we can now see some of the mechanisms of action at the heart of these developmental processes. His long-held belief that the brain, human development, and psychological well being need to studied in the context of evolution—from the brainstem up—now lies at the heart of the integration of neuroscience and psychotherapy.
Grounded in these two principles, Dr. Janov continues to explore the lifelong impact of prenatal, birth, and early experiences on our brains and minds. Simultaneously “old school” and revolutionary, he synthesizes traditional psychodynamic theories with cutting-edge science while consistently highlighting the limitations of a strict, “top-down” talking cure. Whether or not you agree with his philosophical assumptions, therapeutic practices, or theoretical conclusions, I promise you an interesting and thought-provoking journey.
Lou Cozolino, PsyD, Professor of Psychology, Pepperdine University


In Life Before Birth Dr. Arthur Janov illuminates the sources of much that happens during life after birth. Lucidly, the pioneer of primal therapy provides the scientific rationale for treatments that take us through our original, non-verbal memories—to essential depths of experience that the superficial cognitive-behavioral modalities currently in fashion cannot possibly touch, let alone transform.
Gabor Maté MD, author of In The Realm of Hungry Ghosts: Close Encounters With Addiction

An expansive analysis! This book attempts to explain the impact of critical developmental windows in the past, implores us to improve the lives of pregnant women in the present, and has implications for understanding our children, ourselves, and our collective future. I’m not sure whether primal therapy works or not, but it certainly deserves systematic testing in well-designed, assessor-blinded, randomized controlled clinical trials.
K.J.S. Anand, MBBS, D. Phil, FAACP, FCCM, FRCPCH, Professor of Pediatrics, Anesthesiology, Anatomy & Neurobiology, Senior Scholar, Center for Excellence in Faith and Health, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare System


A baby's brain grows more while in the womb than at any time in a child's life. Life Before Birth: The Hidden Script That Rules Our Lives is a valuable guide to creating healthier babies and offers insight into healing our early primal wounds. Dr. Janov integrates the most recent scientific research about prenatal development with the psychobiological reality that these early experiences do cast a long shadow over our entire lifespan. With a wealth of experience and a history of successful psychotherapeutic treatment, Dr. Janov is well positioned to speak with clarity and precision on a topic that remains critically important.
Paula Thomson, PsyD, Associate Professor, California State University, Northridge & Professor Emeritus, York University

"I am enthralled.
Dr. Janov has crafted a compelling and prophetic opus that could rightly dictate
PhD thesis topics for decades to come. Devoid of any "New Age" pseudoscience,
this work never strays from scientific orthodoxy and yet is perfectly accessible and
downright fascinating to any lay person interested in the mysteries of the human psyche."
Dr. Bernard Park, MD, MPH

His new book “Life Before Birth: The Hidden Script that Rules Our Lives” shows that primal therapy, the lower-brain therapeutic method popularized in the 1970’s international bestseller “Primal Scream” and his early work with John Lennon, may help alleviate depression and anxiety disorders, normalize blood pressure and serotonin levels, and improve the functioning of the immune system.
One of the book’s most intriguing theories is that fetal imprinting, an evolutionary strategy to prepare children to cope with life, establishes a permanent set-point in a child's physiology. Baby's born to mothers highly anxious during pregnancy, whether from war, natural disasters, failed marriages, or other stressful life conditions, may thus be prone to mental illness and brain dysfunction later in life. Early traumatic events such as low oxygen at birth, painkillers and antidepressants administered to the mother during pregnancy, poor maternal nutrition, and a lack of parental affection in the first years of life may compound the effect.
In making the case for a brand-new, unified field theory of psychotherapy, Dr. Janov weaves together the evolutionary theories of Jean Baptiste Larmarck, the fetal development studies of Vivette Glover and K.J.S. Anand, and fascinating new research by the psychiatrist Elissa Epel suggesting that telomeres—a region of repetitive DNA critical in predicting life expectancy—may be significantly altered during pregnancy.
After explaining how hormonal and neurologic processes in the womb provide a blueprint for later mental illness and disease, Dr. Janov charts a revolutionary new course for psychotherapy. He provides a sharp critique of cognitive behavioral therapy, psychoanalysis, and other popular “talk therapy” models for treating addiction and mental illness, which he argues do not reach the limbic system and brainstem, where the effects of early trauma are registered in the nervous system.
“Life Before Birth: The Hidden Script that Rules Our Lives” is scheduled to be published by NTI Upstream in October 2011, and has tremendous implications for the future of modern psychology, pediatrics, pregnancy, and women’s health.
Editor