ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author looks at what was significant and useful in Arthur Janov's contribution to psychotherapy, what were its weaknesses, and how primal psychotherapy evolved. The Oxford English Dictionary defines "primal" as "Belonging to the first age or earliest stage; original; primitive; primeval". Sigmund Freud was to use the expression "primal scene" to describe the impact of a child witnessing parental intercourse. Over the past twenty years primal psychotherapy has developed against a background of deep distrust of cathartic therapy, and it has been an ongoing process involving attempts to address the dangers and weaknesses of catharsis without throwing the baby out with the bathwater. Primal psychotherapists have also been concerned to ensure that patients are able to manage their emotions once they leave their session. The history of cathartic therapies is littered with patients who have regressed in therapy and have not been able to manage themselves outside of the therapy hour.
