Janov is just as much a quack as Casriel I think, but they each do express how they are separate in their philosophies. Janov’s theory of ‘primaling’ is virtually identical to hypnotherapy’s use of abreactive therapy and Bleuler and Freud’s development of the Cathartic Method. The difference is that hypnotherapy would view it as entering a subject into a deep trance and modifying or installing new beliefs into their deep unconscious structuring of reality, and Janov believes that the age-regressed, sobbing, screaming individuals ARE their ‘primals’, or ‘those little children’, like there is a person literally trapped inside that has been let out. These days you are more likely to see that this view of Primal therapy has been pretty much abandoned but still is paired with any other number of therapies under the name “Primal Integration”.
One thing about Casriel is that he stressed (in his book, A Scream Away from Happiness) the philosophy of ‘as if’. If you are (‘are’ meaning ‘ your symptom is’) a homosexual, addict, not-sexually flirtatious enough for your husband, etc. you are supposed to act ‘as if’ you are(n’t). This philosophy of ‘as if’ is not his own. I have read this exact phrasing ‘as if’ within Chales Diedrichs (Synanon’s) philosophy also. The popularity of the Philosophy of ‘As If” can be traced to ...
“Kelly, George A. (1905-1967), American psychologist. Kelly developed a theory of personality known as personal construct psychology, whose focus is on the distinctive ways in which individuals construct and reconstruct the meanings of their lives.
http://www.pcp-net.org/encyclopaedia/kelly.html”
“Personal Construct Theory (PCT) represents a coherent, comprehensive psychology of personality that has special relevance for psychotherapy. Originally drafted by the American psychologist George Kelly in 1955, PCT has been extended to a variety of domains, including organizational development, education, business and marketing, and cognitive science. However, its predominant focus remains on the study of individuals, families, and social groups, with particular emphasis on how people organize and change their views of self and world in the counseling context.
Philosophy of "as if"
George Kelly (1964/1969) advocated adopting an "as if" position towards knowledge. That is, he encouraged people to try out different constructions of events in order to see what might happen when they act "as if" these constructions are so. This "as if" position nicely complements Kelly’s seminal notion of constructive alternativism, which holds that there are an infinite number of ways to construe the world. In order to gain a fresh and potentially transforming perspective, all people need to do is loosen their constructions of something, entertain novel possibilities for construing it another way, and then test out these new possibilities by acting "as if" these new constructions are true.
http://www.pcp-net.org/encyclopaedia/as-if.html”
Janov, in The Primal Scream P. 229, has a section...
“Psychodrama
A technique used widely in group therapy by a variety of therapists is Psychodrama. I would term Psychodrama the ‘As If’ game. The patient takes a role designated by the therapist and acts ‘as if’ he were someone else or himself in a special role such as talking back to his boss. The patient may take the role of his mother, father, brother, or teacher....”
Although I think Janov is no different than the other therapies he criticizes for precisely the same reasons (basically re-routing the neurosis). Ultimately I side with hypnosis on this one.
(He wrote a book about the various therapies he was contending with here (hypnotherapy, behaviorism, humanism, Rational Emotive Therapy, Transactional Analysis etc). Actually I thought this was a really interesting read, again I would evaluate him under his own microscope. GRAND DELUSIONS Psychotherapies Without Feeling by Dr. Arthur Janov Posted June 2005 on primaltherapy.com
http://www.primaltherapy.com/GrandDelus ... ntents.htm )
One more important point on Janov is that he viewed all defenses as neurotic. He would see many successful people in society who’s successful behavior is actually neurotic, or derived out of a neurotic defense (i.e. repression, dissociation). But traditional psychotherapy would view that as healthy development.
“Freud bequeathed us with the notion that the person with the strongest defense system is necessarily the one who can best function in society. Primal theory indicates that the healthiest people are those who are defense free. Anything that builds a stronger defense system deepens the neurosis.” – The Primal Scream, Arthur Janov 1970 p.20
There is alot more about Casriel and his book that are interesting, in terms of the historical connections that can be made with other methods, therapies, and philosophies, but when comparing to Janov, I think these are important distictions.
Compare this.:
“Janov distinguishes the "primal" from emotional catharsis or abreaction, an abreaction being (according to Janov) a "pseudo-primal" [18]. A primal may be referred to as a "connected feeling" but a complete connected feeling will usually take months or even years to feel, in many primals.[15] It should be noted that "abreaction" or "catharsis" as used by other psychologists does not mean a false or unconnected feeling. Psychiatrist Anthony Storr claimed that Primal Therapy techniques have much in common with abreaction [19].
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Primal_therapy”
And this application is comparable to Janov also.
"Hypnotherapy in Post Traumatic Stress Disorders (PTSD)
Ph. D. Irina Holdevici
Bucharest "Titu Maiorescu" University, Romania
Department of Psychology
In the present paper a short term eclectic psychotherapy model, based on clinical
hypnosys, for patients suffering from PTSD, is presented.
The rationale for using hypnosis in PTSD consists in the analogy between trance state
and the spontaneous state produced by psychological defence mechanisms activated in
trauma victims: dissociation, increased suggestibility and narrow focused attention
(Spiegel, 1993).
The model includes the following strategies:
??inducing and deepening of the trance state;
??age-regression and abreaction (catharsis) of the traumatic event;
??suggested amnezia;
??memory modifications;
??relabelling (the traumatic event receives a positive connotation - a destiny trial);
??ego-strengthening and specific suggestions aimed at symptom reduction;
??guided imagery technique focused on relaxing scripts;
??post-hypnotic suggestions;
??mental restructuring;
??self-regulation techniques.
The aim of the psychotherapy consists in regaining a controlled access to the traumatic
memories and modifying them in a less stressful form.”
-
And look at some more recent viewpoints from Primal therapy.
“If we believe, as Michael Broder (1976) suggests, that the primal process consists of five phases: Commitment, Abreaction (catharsis); Insight (cognitive-affective restructuring); Counter-action (fresh behaviour in the world); and Pro-action (making real changes); then it must be the case that the later phases are just as important as the earlier ones. In other words, working through is just as significant as breaking through.
The glamorous part, and the controversial part, of our work is the 'primal', the cathartic breakthrough; but in reality the process of integration is necessary and equally exciting in its quieter way. For example, it is a great thing to get to the cathartic point of forgiving one's mother; it is another thing to start treating women decently in daily life, as a result of this.
http://primal-page.com/johnr-1c.htm”
--
And this is an article about Casriels’s New Identity Process that COMES FROM THE PRIMAL PAGE! (I think this is like Primal therapy, in terms of Janov’s vision, has accepted it’s own failure.)
The New Identify Process (NIP) and other forms of emotive psychotherapy embrace the healing tradition of catharsis--intense emotional expression is elicited within a contained therapeutic environment. This emotive therapy follows in a direct line from the earliest forms of ancient healing arts through recent scientific studies exploring the link between body and mind. The challenge for clinicians in answering the criticism about the use of catharsis is to conceptually bridge past and present in evaluating emotive methods…..
First, a bit of history. Although the use of catharsis was a key element of treatment during the first 200 years of early psychotherapy (with Mesmer, Charcot, Janet, and Bruer), Freud's rejection of this cathartic method within psychoanalysis and his reliance on free association, "The talking cure" as a sufficient form of abreaction, spread until dominating the field. By 1920, methods of emotive psychotherapy moved to the fringes of conventional psychological practice. Freud gave as one of his reasons for rejecting emotive methods his frustration as a neurologist in trying to theorize about the workings of emotion. Although some of his colleagues continued to rely on methods of catharsis (notably Ferenczi, Brown and Reich) and although a second wave of interest sparked the development of additional methods in the early 1950's (by Janov, Lowen, Perls, Casriel and Jackins) the academic literature continues to reject catharsis, following Freud. Methods of emotive psychotherapy, when mentioned, are usually discounted as unproved and ineffective at best, or counterproductive and harmful at worst. Currently, the criticism of emotive therapy is based on the results of often flawed, past research about catharsis.
http://primal-page.com/pert.htm"
Now compare that with a more modern approach from the hypnotherapeutic tradition.
Journal of Heart-Centered Therapies, 2003, Vol. 6, No. 1, pp. 105-122
? 2003 Heart-Centered Therapies Association
105
Hypnotic Trance in Heart-Centered Therapies
David Hartman, MSW and Diane Zimberoff, M.A.
Abstract: This article traces the roots of the use of trance states in Heart-Centered therapies.
A discussion of traditional hypnosis includes Brown and Fromm’s (1986) proposed four
treatment approaches with hypnosis: symptomatic hypnotherapy, supportive egostrengthening
hypnotherapy, dynamic hypnotherapy, and hypnotherapy of developmental
deficits. We review several ways of defining hypnosis, and Holroyd’s (1990) nine trance
characteristics. Ericksonian and NLP techniques that fit well with the Heart-Centered
approach are calling to awareness senses within the body, which encourage the client to
exclude external stimuli and focus on internal realities; stating permission to the
unconscious mind either for searching memory archives or for expression of unaccustomed
feelings and experiences; and nonverbal cues such as changing voice patterns and modeling
appropriate trance behaviors. We also review some of the hypnobehavioral approaches and
behavior modification techniques utilized in Heart-Centered therapies, including systematic
desensitization, modeling, anchoring, sensitization or aversion, flooding and implosion,
role-playing (behavioral rehearsal), assertive training, and observational learning.
Primary topics
1. Traditional hypnosis
2. Ericksonian and NLP techniques
3. Hypnobehavioral approach and behavior modification
Utilizing an altered state of consciousness in psychotherapy provides a
powerful added dimension to the process. Hypnotic age regression
accesses a much deeper level of material than cognitive psychotherapy can
by following an affect bridge from a current intense emotion back to earlier
and more traumatic antecedents of that emotion (Watkins, 1971). The
experience is one of re-living, releasing and integrating the memory, not
just remembering and analyzing it. Experimental evidence verifies that the
most effective age regressions are those associated with highly affective
events (Nash et al., 1979).
http://www.heartcenteredtherapies.org/g ... Trance.pdfAnd probably the oldest know usages of catharsis in psychotherapy.
“The so-called "cathartic method" was a treatment for psychiatric disorders developed during 1881-1882 by Joseph Breuer with his patient "Anna O." The aim was to enable the hypnotized patient to recollect the traumatic event at the root of a particular symptom and thereby eliminate the associated pathogenic memory through "catharsis."
Reading the case history of Anna O., one sees that the method developed gradually. At first, Breuer limited himself to making use of the patient's self-induced hypnotic states in which she would strive to express what she preferred to avoid talking about when normally conscious.
To move the treatment along faster, Breuer began use hypnosis, which he had not regularly employed previously.
Freud and Breuer filled out the notion of catharsis with the concept of "abreaction"—a quantity of affect that was linked to memory of a traumatic and pathogenic event that could not be evacuated through normal physical and organic processes ….
Tired of poor results and of the monotony of hypnotic suggestion, by 1889 Freud appears to have decided, in treating Emmy von N., to employ "the cathartic method of J. Breuer." But failure to regularly induce hypnotic states inclined him by 1892 to give up hypnosis, which his patient Elisabeth von R. disliked. He asked her to lay down and close her eyes but allowed her to move about or open her eyes as she wished, and he experimented with a "pressure technique": "I placed my hand on the patient's forehead or took her head between my hands and said: 'You will think of it [a symptom or its origin] under the pressure of my hand. At the moment at which I relax my pressure you will see something in front of you or something will come into your head. Catch hold of it. It will be what we are looking for.—Well, what have you seen or what has occurred to you?" (Freud 1895d, p. 110). This procedure "has scarcely ever left me in the lurch since then," (p. 111) Freud added, claiming that this was the case to such an extent that he told patients that it could not possibly fail but invariably enabled him to "at last [extract] the information" (p. 111)
His explanation of the difficulties that patients experienced during treatment to defend themselves against pathogenic memories would come to be known as "resistance," while the concept of "transference" would emerge from his understanding of Breuer's sudden termination of Anna O., or the time that a patient, upon waking from hypnosis, threw her arms around his neck.
Catharsis and abreaction, even while still observed during psychoanalytic treatment, no longer constitute therapeutic aims as in 1895. However, they remain prominent in several psychotherapeutic techniques, such as in "Primal Scream" therapy and certain types of psychodrama.
http://www.enotes.com/psychoanalysis-en ... tic-method.... So I guess you have to ask yourself why you think THEY are doing it to you.
