Tag: Bruce’s posts

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Primal Therapy and the Limits of Science

by Bruce Wilson

A comment I hear frequently is that primal therapy can never be proven by science. As Phil states in his comment to my last post:

“…the actual practice of primal therapy can never really be scientific, in my opinion. How could it be when it is based on feelings? Adding blood pressure measurements and brain wave readings might help a little, but not much. What is critical is what the therapist says and does, and has the patient say or do. That can’t be scientific, I am afraid. It is based on feelings and intuitions on what will work or not work, based on experience and the degree to which a therapist has done his or her own feeling work.” Continue reading “Primal Therapy and the Limits of Science”

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Primal Therapy on the World Stage!

by Bruce Wilson

Today, Peter flies off to Athens, Greece, where on May 18 he will present a talk on primal therapy to an international audience of psychiatrists and psychologists. The title of his talk is:

Primal Therapy, Psychodynamic Therapies, and the Early Life Determinants of Mental Health

The conference is the:

16th International Conference of the Association of Psychology and Psychiatry for Adults and Children

At this point, it’s unclear whether Peter’s presentation will be recorded, but we look forward to hearing all about it on his return.

Good luck, Peter!

 

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Baloney Detection Kit

by Bruce Wilson

While doing some research on science versus pseudoscience, I ran across this great video: Michael Shermer of Skeptic Magazine talking about the ideal baloney detection kit – science. Ask yourself as you view this, are these principles being applied to primal therapy?

 

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Can empathy be learned?

by Bruce Wilson

This morning, I received a tweet about a new book written by Simon Baron-Cohen, a Cambridge psychologist and psychiatrist who studies empathy. His book is Zero Degrees of Empathy: A New Theory of Human Cruelty.

Baron-Cohen says that our view of cruel people as “evil” is misguided and rooted in obsolete, theological notions of morality. In an interview with the Guardian, he explains that people who are cruel have a low capacity for empathy because of genetic makeup and early childhood experiences. Cruel people tend to have had an insecure attachment in infancy, now recognized as a critical factor in the human development of empathy. Continue reading “Can empathy be learned?”

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Primal Therapy and Spirituality

by Bruce Wilson

The main purpose of this blog is to discuss the science of primal therapy, but I want to address a question that goes beyond science: is primal therapy compatible with spirituality and is spiritual practice compatible with primal?

First, let’s define those amorphous terms, “spiritual” and “spirituality.” To scientific skeptics, they often elicit a gag reflex. At worst, spirituality is condemned as “woo,” at best, it’s put in scare quotes, held it at a distance like some stinking, dead animal with comments like, “just what the hell is ‘spirituality’?” Check out the many blogs and websites devoted to skepticism and you’ll see that spirituality is usually equated with religion, God (or Satan), magic, the occult, mysticism, new age, ghosts, souls, spirits, fairies, angels, or a number of other supernatural concepts, and often scorned as “woo,” “spooky stuff” or worse. In my former life as a hard scientific skeptic, I had this same response, and I admit, I still have a visceral revulsion to the words, “religion” and “religious.” Continue reading “Primal Therapy and Spirituality”

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Toward a True Science of Primal Therapy

by Bruce Wilson

What is science? A simple definition is offered by George Orwell in his essay by that name. He defines science is either: “(a) an exact science, such as chemistry, physics, etc. or (b) a method of thought which obtains verifiable results by reasoning logically from observed fact.”

By this simple definition, primal therapy might be defined as a science. Arthur Janov developed his theory through observed facts by watching his patients descend into deep feelings, gain insights, and get better. He then reasoned logically from those facts and developed a therapy that obtained verifiable results. He then went further to find supportive evidence for his theory from physiology and neurobiology, both exact sciences (or close enough to it). Throughout this process, he developed a theory of mental illness based on early life trauma and a conclusion that primal therapy can be the one and only “cure for neurosis.”

Continue reading “Toward a True Science of Primal Therapy”

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Is Primal Therapy a Science or is it Pseudoscience?

by Bruce Wilson

Critics have lambasted primal therapy for being pseudoscientific. In fact, much of criticism on the site I mentioned in my previous post is aimed at “debunking” the therapy as a pseudoscience. But Arthur Janov often states that primal therapy is “the first science of psychotherapy.”

So who is right? Let’s start with a brief primer on science vs pseudoscience.

Continue reading “Is Primal Therapy a Science or is it Pseudoscience?”

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Debunking the Debunker

by Bruce Wilson

Anyone searching online for information about primal therapy may have come across a website purporting to “debunk” the therapy. This is an elaborate site with many pages consisting of arguments drawn from clinical psychology, philosophy of science, and the rules of critical thinking, all aimed to expose primal therapy as a pseudoscientific fraud. (As a science writer, I have nothing against critical thinking, but I do object to its improper use as demonstrated on that website.)  The author is an insider, an ex-trainee at the Janov Primal Center, so he has a patina of authority that sets him apart from ignorant critics such as Martin Gardner, who wrote a horribly misinformed article in the Skeptical Inquirer called, Primal Therapy: A Persistent New Age Therapy. Despite that, the author cites Gardner’s article in his section, “articles exposing primal therapy” along with other misinformed or irrelevant books and articles, many of which have nothing to do with primal therapy. (The author of the website writes anonymously, so I will called him LP to preserve his identity.)

Continue reading “Debunking the Debunker”

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Bruce’s letter to the LA Times

by Bruce Wilson

On November 15, the LA Times published an article on “four psychology fads,” one of which was primal therapy. In typical fashion, the journalist reported the same tired old errors about primal therapy that have been around since its creation. Peter and I each wrote a letter to the editor, but the paper didn’t publish them. Here is a longer version of mine. The copy I sent to the Times was cut to 150 words, as per the requirements for letters.

Continue reading “Bruce’s letter to the LA Times”

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Support the Kid’s Help Phone Line

by Bruce Wilson

A health/medical writer colleague, Marijke Durning, alerted me to a cause very worth supporting. Kid’s Help Phone is a free, confidential, bilingual call-in service for Canadian kids in distress, no matter what the issue. We’ve all heard the horror stories of  kids pushed to suicide by bullying, or who had to escape to the streets to escape abuse at home. Kid’s Help Phone is a life line for these kids and may mean the difference between life and death. I’m sending some money today. Please do the same.

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