Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Neurosis is a Brain Disease... What????

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Neurosis is a Brain Disease... What????: Who said that?  A great many booga booga aficionados plus someone else:  the former head of the National Institute of Mental Health.   How c...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: The Mysteries of Some Behaviors

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: The Mysteries of Some Behaviors: One of the great MYSTERIES escapes most of us:  why is this child so anxious and out of control, so incapable of doing school work, and mos...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On Evolution and its Role in Therapy

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On Evolution and its Role in Therapy: I am reading a book by Sean Carroll on evolution (Evo-Devo).   He points out that in a survey of many countries, the U.S. came out  last in ...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: More on Depression

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: More on Depression: Depression seems to be rampant today throughout the world so I thought I would discuss it a bit more.  What I have found after treating m...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Primo Levi

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Primo Levi: Yesterday was December 7, the anniversary of the start of WWII.    And now I have good friends who are German scientists. Before they might...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...: The Brain’s Hemispheres A natural cure must coincide with our knowledge of the way the brain is structured. First, we know that the brain...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...: Another Look at Reliving We need to make sure that reliving is important in the therapy for all kinds of neuroses. Neurosis means that th...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...: The Miracle of Memory I was looking around at some people I know and at least one third of them had the malady of needing to move constan...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: My War Years

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: My War Years: This is a dialogue about my war years: Art: There was a guy called Larry Allred and the dangerous part of war was what I didn't realiz...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...: On the Breakdown of Our Adaptive Capacity Some time ago I wrote about how it is the unrelenting input of pain that taxes our ability to a...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...: On the Breakdown of Our Adaptive Capacity Some time ago I wrote about how it is the unrelenting input of pain that taxes our ability to a...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...: On the Breakdown of Our Adaptive Capacity Some time ago I wrote about how it is the unrelenting input of pain that taxes our ability to a...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...: And how is this possible? Luckily, each new harmful experience that remains un-integrated at lower levels is later re-represented in a highe...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...: How Traumas Get Embedded A recent report from Northwestern University notes that some traumatic memories, such as chronic child abuse, ar...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Beliefs that Kill

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Beliefs that Kill: Yes, beliefs do kill. They create a zeitgeist for murder.  If there were no zeitgeist for murder in the Middle East it may well be that the...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...: Reversing Methylation through Reliving Can we reverse or undo methylation? Can the imprint of trauma be removed at a cellular level? The g...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...: Womb-life and the Mystery of Twins On my desk is a scientific paper concerning how early life affects adulthood. Chris Murgatroyd and Die...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...: A key point in all of this is that physiologic reactions are the basis upon which feelings are constructed. Thus, what distorts physiologic...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...: Epigenetics and Brain Development Although the study of epigenetics can get fairly complex, one of the keys to proper understanding lies in...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...: Neurosis is Inherited People exude who they are from every pore of their being. I mean that literally. An uptight, tense mother radiates h...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Primal Therapy and Epilepsy: a Letter From a Forme...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Primal Therapy and Epilepsy: a Letter From a Forme...: Art, If any of your patiens ever got long-term cured, I was one of them! Since cured has important components of time, evolution (in re...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...: Neurosis is Inherited People exude who they are from every pore of their being. I mean that literally. An uptight, tense mother radiates ...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...: The Urgency of Early Love What is important is that we can begin to zoom in on a specific answer to the question that eludes so many in t...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...: Heredity Turned on its Head Let’s make sure we understand this notion of epigenetics because in the coming years it will likely be one of...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...: Heredity Turned on its Head Let’s make sure we understand this notion of epigenetics because in the coming years it will likely be one of...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Looking Back on Five Decades of Primal Therapy

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Looking Back on Five Decades of Primal Therapy: I have been thinking about my discovery almost 50 years ago of primal therapy.  And now I am 91,  Sooooo?  Well, I realize that it has take...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Epigenetics and Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neuro...: This is the first part of a series I wrote on Epigenetics and Primal Therapy. The whole article will publish soon in the "Activitas Ner...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On Abreaction

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On Abreaction: I have been thinking a lot lately about abreaction.  I think it is the scourge of primal therapy. It is what is happening in almost every m...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: To My Colleagues and Shrinks Everywhere

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: To My Colleagues and Shrinks Everywhere: Forget what you learned in school: it is wrong Forget what you learned about diagnosis: it is wrong Forget what you learned about t...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Ken Rose on "Life Before Birth". Part 5/6

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Ken Rose on "Life Before Birth". Part 5/6: KR: Right, the fetus constantly adapts to the womb environment and pays the price for it. The first order is survive at all costs. Then if ...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Ken Rose on "Life Before Birth". Part 6/6

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Ken Rose on "Life Before Birth". Part 6/6: KR: Yes. We're gong to wrap it up, but I want to say something here, most of us to greater or lesser degrees have been wounded, have b...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Ken Rose on "Life Before Birth". Part 4/6

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Ken Rose on "Life Before Birth". Part 4/6: KR: Yeah… Would you talk a little bit about anxiety? JL: Yes, Dr. Janov has really fascinating things to say about anxiety. To begin with...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Ken Rose on "Life Before Birth". Part 3/6

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Ken Rose on "Life Before Birth". Part 3/6: Ken Rose: This is in the last chapter of the book, which is entitled, “Feeling emotional pain: can it be a matter of life and death.” And t...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Ken Rose on "Life Before Birth". Part 2/6

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Ken Rose on "Life Before Birth". Part 2/6: Ken Rose: What does Dr. Janov mean when he talks about pain or primal pain? Jeff Link: When he’s talking about pain, he’s talking about...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Ken Rose on "Life Before Birth". Part 1/6

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Ken Rose on "Life Before Birth". Part 1/6: This is the first part of a 6 part series. It is the transcript of a December 2012 interview of Jeff Link, the editor of my book "Life ...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Difference Between Abreaction and Feeling (...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Difference Between Abreaction and Feeling (...:  We Are Specialists of Joy, Not Pain  Primal Therapy is no quick fix. We are attempting to redo someone’s entire life. It will be done in...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Difference Between Abreaction and Feeling (...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Difference Between Abreaction and Feeling (...:  The First Science of Psychotherapy  The task of normalizing a patient’s entire system is a complex proposition because not all nervous ...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Difference between Abreaction and Feeling (...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Difference between Abreaction and Feeling (...:  How Good Primal Therapy Should Work  Now, let us look at how a Primal Therapy session is supposed to work.  A patient comes in for his ...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Difference Between Abreaction and Feeling (...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Difference Between Abreaction and Feeling (...:  Awareness V. Consciousness  The leitmotif of every intellectual therapy is that awareness helps us make progress. I’ll grant that awaren...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Difference Between Abreaction and Feeling (...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Difference Between Abreaction and Feeling (...:  Connection Is the Key         So how do we guard against abreaction and produce genuine feelings? There are two important factors at pla...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Difference Between Abreaction and Feeling (...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Difference Between Abreaction and Feeling (...:  The Dangers of Mock Therapy         In our four decades of experience, we have seen many ways the therapy can go wrong. A skilled therap...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Difference Between Abreaction and Feeling (...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Difference Between Abreaction and Feeling (...:  A Syndrome of Failure    When abreaction becomes an embedded groove, it’s like a hellish path to nowhere. It is a defense disguised as a...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: The Sensory Window Has Closed

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: The Sensory Window Has Closed: I feel that I have to bang on about the sensory window because it has only a brief lifespan.   That is why Marilyn Monroe was always headed...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: An Unsung Hero

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: An Unsung Hero:  There is someone who is doing heroic work in the shadows, who does not get paid but who works many hours a day.  She supervises all clinic...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Difference Between Abreaction and Feeling (...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Difference Between Abreaction and Feeling (...:  The ability to distinguish between abreaction and a genuine feeling is an essential skill of good Primal Therapy. The difference between t...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Where Do Nightmares Come From?

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Where Do Nightmares Come From?: I have been in a good position to know about nightmares, having had them all of my childhood, and also because I have hundreds of patients ...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: More on Leaky Gates

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: More on Leaky Gates: I have described the gating system several times in my blogs. Basically there are chemicals, not the least of which is methyl (as in methyl...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Breakdown of Our Adaptive Capacity

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Breakdown of Our Adaptive Capacity: Some time ago I wrote about how it is the unrelenting input of pain that taxes our ability to adjust and adapt, causing a breakdown of thi...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Does Being Poor Make You Neurotic?

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Does Being Poor Make You Neurotic?: The title is "What Poverty Does to the Young Brain" by M. Ostranger.(see http://www.newyorker.com/tech/elements/what-poverty-does...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: What Do We Mean By, He's Damaged?

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: What Do We Mean By, He's Damaged?: In the field of shrinks we usually mean his emotional makeup is askew; his views and perceptions are off,  and he can’t be counted on for s...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: How Do You Prove Primal Therapy?

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: How Do You Prove Primal Therapy?: I have been going on about my therapy for years that it is the cure. So what does that mean? I have always been warned not to use the wor...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: The Anti-Primal Solution: Meaning Ayayay

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: The Anti-Primal Solution: Meaning Ayayay: I don’t know why I read the NY Times articles which publishes grinders for me, (NY Times, May 17, 2015 see: http://opinionator.blogs.nytime...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On Feeling Lonely Again

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On Feeling Lonely Again: There is a news story today about a writer who says he has always felt lonely, and no one has been able to solve it:  he is at wits end.  I...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On Incipient Dementia

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On Incipient Dementia: I am going to depart from science on this one and tell you about my intuition and instincts.  As I grow older, and I cannot get a whole lot...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On My Rants Against Cognitive Therapy

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On My Rants Against Cognitive Therapy: I know I seem to rant against what I call “Half-therapy,”  or “almost therapy,”  that is, a therapy that encompasses only a piece of us and...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: You Mean the Brain is an Orphan?

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: You Mean the Brain is an Orphan?:  There is a picture in a new science magazine of a doctor holding a human brain declaring that she was going delve deep in the brain to fin...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: The Mysteries of Some Behaviors

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: The Mysteries of Some Behaviors: One of the great mysteries escapes most of us:  why is this child so anxious and out of control, so incapable of doing school work, and mos...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: What Is More Important Genes or Epigenes?

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: What Is More Important Genes or Epigenes?: Now with the new work on epigenetics we have to ask the question which has the most impact on influence on us, genes or epigenes (what happ...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Let's Pay Attention to Evolution to Find Out Who W...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Let's Pay Attention to Evolution to Find Out Who W...: I have been looking over some animal research on evolution.  There are literally thousands of studies but two stood out for me.  The first,...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Let's Pay Attention to Evolution to Find Out Who W...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Let's Pay Attention to Evolution to Find Out Who W...: I have been looking over some animal research on evolution.  There are literally thousands of studies but two stood out for me.  The first,...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Who Do We Lie To When We Tell Ourselves Not To Do ...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Who Do We Lie To When We Tell Ourselves Not To Do ...: Who else?  The deprived and needy self who is incessant in her grasping, social climbing and wants.  “I tell myself I should stop eating so...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On Drugs Again

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On Drugs Again: Drugs do not cause addiction;  addiction causes drugs.  If only we could keep this straight. If we only deal with the drug problem we miss ...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: The Barren, Sterile Life

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: The Barren, Sterile Life: I am going to wax egocentric and use me as an example of what can go wrong in life.  I have pondered how is it that a child can live 20 yea...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: It's Never Enough

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: It's Never Enough: What is wrong with wanting more?  Nothing if you really want more of what you need, and not what you want.  What’s the difference, you say?...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Here Is What Is So Strange About Us Humans

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Here Is What Is So Strange About Us Humans: A lot of you are writing in about justice and seeking justice in your lives, just as I, when younger, read police stories where there was a...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Act-Outs Are a Funny Thing

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Act-Outs Are a Funny Thing:  For years I was drawn to crime stories in the newspapers.  Ordinarily, we would not consider  that an act-out but it was, as so many small...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: How Do You Know What Is In Your Unconscious?

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: How Do You Know What Is In Your Unconscious?: Let’s start with the easy stuff first:  nightmares.    They are defined as something panicky,  anxiety producing, terror, proximity to deat...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Is Drug Addiction a Disease?

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Is Drug Addiction a Disease?: No, but we often treated as a disease.  So what’s the disease?  The changes in our neurobiology that cry out for the disease.   What?  Ad...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Why Am I Banging On About Womb Life?

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Why Am I Banging On About Womb Life?: I am sometimes accused of too much emphasis on the trauma of birth and/or life experience in the womb. So let me explain why this is so.  M...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: So What is the Meaning of Life? (Revised)

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: So What is the Meaning of Life? (Revised): Stop asking the question and you will be better for it. I have written before, there is no meaning to life, only to the meaning we give it;...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: The Looking Glass is Inside Out (Revised)

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: The Looking Glass is Inside Out (Revised): I have often wondered why there is so much nonsense out there in mental illness.  One psychiatrist says most of it is a brain disease and t...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: I Pronounce Myself a Hero

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: I Pronounce Myself a Hero: Well,  Brian Williams the NBC anchor man is really in the news today, not as the anchor but as someone anchored to a strange story.  This st...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Overdosing the Fetus and What that Means

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: Overdosing the Fetus and What that Means: Imagine you are taking your four year old child to a doctor. The doctor prescribes opiates for you for your anxiety and you give some to yo...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Beliefs that Kill

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: On the Beliefs that Kill:  Yes, beliefs do kill. They create a zeitgeist for murder.  If there were no zeitgeist for murder in the Middle East it may well be that th...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: So What is the Meaning of Life?

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: So What is the Meaning of Life?:  Stop asking the question and you will be better for it. I have written before, there is no meaning to life, only to the meaning we give it...

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: So What is "Crazy"?

Janov's Reflections on the Human Condition: So What is "Crazy"?: There is so much misunderstanding about what psychosis or “crazy” is. I think that once we take an evolutionary frame of reference it becom...