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Arthur Janov (born August 21, 1924) is an American psychologist, psychotherapist, and the creator of Primal therapy. Janov directs a psychotherapy institute called the Primal Center in Santa Monica, California. Janov is the author of many books, most notably The Primal Scream, in which he claimed that mental illness can be eliminated by a therapy that involves repeatedly descending into, feeling, and expressing supposedly long-repressed childhood pain. Some twenty years after The Primal Scream, Janov wrote:

Life

Arthur Janov was born in Los Angeles. Janov received his B.A. and M.S.W. in psychiatric social work from the University of California, Los Angeles and his Ph.D. in psychology from Claremont Graduate School in 1960. Janov originally practiced conventional psychotherapy in his native California. He did an internship at the Hacker Psychiatric Clinic in Beverly Hills, worked for the Veterans’ Administration at Brentwood Neuropsychiatric Hospital and has been in private practice since 1952. He was also on the staff of the Psychiatric Department at Los Angeles Children’s Hospital where he was involved in developing their psychosomatic unit. Janov claims that his professional life changed in a single day in the mid-1960s 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 what Janov considers repressed feelings. Janov's patients included John Lennon and Yoko Ono.

Marriages

Janov's first wife was Vivian Glickstein, with whom he opened the Primal Institute, of which she remains the Executive Director. They had two children: Ellen Lisa Janov (22 April 1953 - 7 January 1976) and Richard Janov (born 26 April, 1956). As a teenager, Ellen showed talent as a singer and actress, recording Portobello Road and Theme, under the name Ellie Janov and going on to play a supporting role in a Disney movie, The Horse in the Gray Flannel Suit. . Later she became a therapist at the Primal Institute until her untimely accidental death. Richard Janov also formerly practiced as a Primal Therapist.

Bibliography

The Primal Scream (1970) ISBN 0-349-11829-9 - (revised 1999)
The Anatomy of Mental Illness (1971)
The Primal Revolution: Toward a Real World (1972) ISBN 0-671-21641-4
The Feeling Child (1973) ISBN 0-349-11832-9
Primal Man: The new consciousness (1976) ISBN 0-690-01015-X
Prisoners of Pain (1980) ISBN 0-385-15791-6
Imprints: The Lifelong Effects of the Birth Experience (1984) ISBN 0-399-51086-9
New Primal Scream: Primal Therapy 20 Years on (1992) ISBN 0-942103-23-8
Why You Get Sick and How You Get Well: The Healing Power of Feelings (1996) ISBN 0-7871-0685-2
The Biology of Love (2000) ISBN 1-57392-829-1
Grand Delusions -- Psychotherapies Without Feeling (2005); unpublished manuscript available at the Primal Center's website
Sexualité et subconscient : Perversions et déviances de la libido (2006) ISBN 2-268-05720-8 (original English manuscript titled Sex and the Subconscious unpublished as of May 2006)

Primal Healing: Access the Incredible Power of Feelings to Improve Your Health (2006) ISBN 1-56414-916-1
The Janov Solution: Lifting Depression Through Primal Therapy (2007) ISBN 1-58501-111-8