“Shout” -- Tears for Fears
I will be brutally honest. As a certifiably crazy person in good standing, I think Primal Therapy insane. Like Scientology, ouija boards, and UFO abductions, it falls beyond the verge of the reasonable. Primal Therapy is a fad like hula hoops, pet rocks, and poodle skirts, only lacking any of their charm or merit. There always exists a “Smart Set” ready to embrace the Next Big Thing. After all, who doesn’t want to in the vanguard of intellectual revolution? In the the case of Primal Therapy, that set was a smart one indeed, including such notables as Dyan Cannon, Steve Jobs, James Earl Jones, John Lennon, Yoko Ono, and Roger Williams.
Not all those seduced by Primal Therapy’s saccharin promises number among the Beautiful People. A drowning man will grasp even an anchor his desperation. Likewise, troubled individuals, finding the mental health system unequal to their distress will too often seek alternative sources of succor -- drugs, religion, Primal Therapy, or any of a million other substitutes. Sometimes a placebo effect can be better than no effect. But even those illusions which convey superficial gratifications are nonetheless illusions.
Not all those seduced by Primal Therapy’s saccharin promises number among the Beautiful People. A drowning man will grasp even an anchor his desperation. Likewise, troubled individuals, finding the mental health system unequal to their distress will too often seek alternative sources of succor -- drugs, religion, Primal Therapy, or any of a million other substitutes. Sometimes a placebo effect can be better than no effect. But even those illusions which convey superficial gratifications are nonetheless illusions.
Please forgive my critical appraisal of Primal Therapy. By nature, I am a skeptic. I like my facts empirical and my conclusions deductive. When I hear terms such as “deconstruction” or “avant-garde” or “postmodern,” my suspicions are instantly aroused. I’ve always suspected the artist displaying that upside down urinal at the Museum of Modern Art is somewhere secretly laughing at adulatory admirers. Primal Therapy is nothing if not avant-garde. It is psychology’s upside down urinal.
California produces more than its fair share of psychologists, and at one time Arthur Janov was just one more faceless member of their ranks. But in 1967, Janov would experience an epiphany. A patient being counseled told of seeing a performance by Raphael Montañez Ortíz in which the avant-garde artist cried out “Mama” and then encouraged the audience to return the shout. Inspired, Janov urged his patient to call out “Mama” again and again until the unfortunate man fell to the floor in pain, remaining there for about thirty minutes. An amazed Janov as he observed what he would describe as "an eerie scream welling up from the depths of a young man lying on the floor." Janov watched the recording of that session time and again, and would soon reshape his practice around that unusual experience.
Arthur Janov
Janov soon developed a new understandings of certain mental disorders then called by the now unfashionable title “Neurosis” -- anxiety, hysteria, impulse control problems, and obsessive-compulsive disorders for example, and more phobias than you can hide within the covers of the DSM-V. These ailments, he reasoned, were born from the repressed pain of childhood trauma -- almost always before the age of three and often at birth or even prenatal. Traditional methods of psychological therapy -- counseling sessions -- were ineffective because they engaged the conscious mind rather than the hidden anguish. Healing was possible only if that submerged pain and its causes were recalled. Only then could a patient finding healing resolution. Until then, the repressed pain had manifested as a form of neurosis. But now, that the pain was pulled to the surface of the conscious mind, the patient could dispel the turmoil by responding to the memories of those traumatic events in a manner unavailable at the time they were inflicted.
The Primal Scream:
Primal Therapy:
The Cure for Neurosis
On 1 January 1970, Janov would publish his first book, The Primal Scream: Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neurosis, describing the transformation of his practice after his 1967 viewing of that young man calling out “Mama” and rolling about his floor in anguish. He writes of treating some 63 patients in the eighteen months following that experiences, and completely healing each and every one.
I remain ever the skeptic.
Popular and talented musicians Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith proved so impressed by Janov’s theories as to call upon his methodology when selecting the name “Tears for Fears” for the band they headlined. Their best-selling 1984 single “Shout” is widely believed to reflect the duo’s admiration of Primal Therapy. When asked if Janov was indeed their muse, the pair demur. Orzabal and Smith had occasion to encounter Janov about the same time “Shout” was topping the charts. The man the artists met was not the man they had so long admired. The disillusioned pair would later claim “Shout” to be a song of political protest, not the anthem of Primal Therapy.
Who can say?
I remain ever the skeptic.
Popular and talented musicians Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith proved so impressed by Janov’s theories as to call upon his methodology when selecting the name “Tears for Fears” for the band they headlined. Their best-selling 1984 single “Shout” is widely believed to reflect the duo’s admiration of Primal Therapy. When asked if Janov was indeed their muse, the pair demur. Orzabal and Smith had occasion to encounter Janov about the same time “Shout” was topping the charts. The man the artists met was not the man they had so long admired. The disillusioned pair would later claim “Shout” to be a song of political protest, not the anthem of Primal Therapy.
Who can say?
“Shout” -- Tears for Fears
Shout, shout, let it all out
These are the things I can do without
Come on, I'm talking to you, come on
In violent times
You shouldn't have to sell your soul
In black and white
They really really ought to know
Those one track minds
That took you for a working boy
Kiss them goodbye
You shouldn't have to jump for joy
They gave you life
And in return you gave them hell
As cold as ice
I hope we live to tell the tale
I hope we live to tell the tale
They gave you life
And in return you gave them hell
As cold as ice
I hope we live to tell the tale
I hope we live to tell the tale
They gave you life
And in return you gave them hell
As cold as ice
I hope we live to tell the tale
I hope we live to tell the tale
They gave you life
And in return you gave them hell
As cold as ice
I hope we live to tell the tale
I hope we live to tell the tale
And when you've taken down your guard
If I could change your mind
I'd really love to break your heart
I'd really love to break your heart
They gave you life
And in return you gave them hell
As cold as ice
I hope we live to tell the tale
I hope we live to tell the tale
They gave you life
And in return you gave them hell
As cold as ice
I hope we live to tell the tale
I hope we live to tell the tale
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