Hi again Moochie.
Just for the record, the Primal Therapy practiced in Australia is entirely different to the 'real' Primal Therapy practiced in Venice, California. The Dr. Janov Primal Center is the one that first started Primal Therapy and has by far the most experience and knowledge with the Primal process. The Dr. Arthur Janov Primal Center considers the Australian practices to be highly dangerous, and do not associate themselves with these 'mock' primal therapists.
Moochie, you have given me a link to an author who does not supply any evidence in any form, that can show that Primal Therapy is unsafe or ineffective. Instead, the author asks many questions, as if the questions are proof in themselves.
The author does not seem to be aware that the questions have already been answered in great detail in the books that the author claims to have read. The author seems to make implications about primal therapy techniques, without being clear as to whether the techniques mentioned are actual techinques practiced at the Dr. Janov Primal Center, or just hypothetical techniques to fit a hypothetical situation. There's a lot of "what if..." and "don't you think..." in this student's website.
I could go from one link to the next, to search for the promised evidence, but I always end up with opinions and speculations and hypotheses. Much of this information is backed up with more opinions and speculations and hypotheses. I guess eventually one could be confused into thinking this is evidence.
I am so tired of this crap.
If the author had some bad experiences at the Primal Center, and is now psychologically no better or even worse....then that is sad and unfortunate.
Do you want to provide a link that points directly to some hard evidence?
You won't find any. Nor will you find any for the 'mainstream' therapies.
This is why there is no governing body that has the power to stop some of the most apalling techniques (in my opinion) that are almost as bad as lobotomy.
There is no governing body that has the power to stop surgeons from conducting unnecessary experiments on unborn children. I'm talking about experiments that cause psychological trauma on the person in the womb. I have witnessed television footage of such events. I have witnessed television footage of a woman being brought back to semi-consciousness (by greatly reducing the anaesthetic) so that she could answer the surgeon's questions, while her heart was exposed and beating for everyone to see.
The pain caused by these surgical techniques is not always felt by the patient....the pain is repressed by the patient...much to the fascination of the surgeon.
There is no governing body that has the power to stop Electroconvulsive Therapy. There is no governing body that has the power to stop invasive Hypnotherapy, and 'dangerous' meditation experiments.
There is no governing body that has the power to stop a wide variety of wreckless, experimental psychotherapies.
Unless the therapist does something CRIMINAL, you can pretty much do what you like, once you are a 'qualified' therapist.
This is the real world we live in. The therapist or surgeon or cult leader is innocent until PROVEN guilty.
My friend suffered a psychotic episode during an experiment conducted by his therapist (not primal therapy). During the psychosis, the therapist began to cry and left the room. My friend was left to get through the psychotic episode on his own.
You don't need to convince me of the dangers of bad therapy. You don't need to talk to me about scientology, or any religion or cult.
Read a little more about what it feels like to experience a Primal. Apparently (I don't know for sure), a Primal is just a natural event that happens to people all over the world. Many of these people have never heard of Primal Therapy. It is when a traumatic feeling is felt properly for the first time, and understood properly for the first time. In a safe environment, this event happens naturally. When the feeling is understood properly, then the conscious mind no longer feels the need to defend against the 'invisible' feeling. The traumatic memory never goes away, but the emotional and physical reaction to the 'now visible' trauma does go away.
The ongoing effects of an 'invisible' trauma can be very subtle....but can be enough to make your life miserable. Simply not being loved enough when you are very young, is all it takes to create the 'program' that makes us over-react to the smallest problems in life.
Most patients who are successful at allowing themselves to Primal, end up experiencing most of their primals away from the Primal Center, in the safety of their own homes.
It sounds weird, but not that weird. According to the patients, the weird part is the feeling of slipping through your defences, which always has a threatening vulnerable feeling. This is the beginning of the primal, and can be the hardest part to get through. Once you get past the scarey defensive reaction, the feeling that follows is different. The PRIMAL feeling begins. The primal feeling is the feeling that belongs to the trauma. If you were burnt physically, you will feel burnt. If you were frightened in a car accident, you will feel frightened and will see and feel the accident happening. If you were rejected at a time when you really needed mummy....then you will feel rejected...etc etc. The primal feeling is the real one - the one that you were unable to feel at the time of the trauma.
I haven't explained why a traumatic feeling becomes repressed, or why we need to 'unrepress' it. It's about the way the brain protects itself and holds on to the information for later recovery. Repression is the body's way of allowing the heart to beat at a survivable rate while the trauma is happening. It takes too long to explain properly...I have to go to work now.
If primal therapy doesn't work for me, then that will be a shame....but I want to find out if it can. (NOT in Australia).
