Shows how psychological traumas are processed by the brain in the same way as physical injuries, and how they can surface as painful diseases in adult life.
Psychologist, psychotherapist, and the creator of primal therapy, a treatment for mental illness that involves repeatedly descending into, feeling, and expressing long-repressed childhood pain. Janov directed a psychotherapy institute called the Primal Center in Santa Monica, California.
Janov wrote that his professional life changed in a single day in 1967 with the discovery of what he calls Primal Pain.During a therapy session, Janov heard what he describes as, “an eerie scream welling up from the depths of a young man lying on the floor”. He developed primal therapy, in which clients are encouraged to re-live and express repressed feelings.
Janov's patients included John Lennon and Yoko Ono.