In the mid-1960s, the course of Arthur Janov's professional life as a psychotherapist changed in a single day. During a therapy session, Dr. Janov heard, "an eerie scream welling up from the depths of a young man who was lying on the floor." Janov came to believe that this scream was the product of some unconscious, intangible wound that the patient was unable to resolve- an event the psychotherapist coined " Primal Pain." Janov subsequently devoted his professional life to the investigation of that underlying pain and the development of a precise, scientific therapy that could mitigate its lifelong effects. First published in 1970, The Primal Scream challenged all existing forms of therapy of its time by presenting a new approach to psychotherapy- an approach based on Janov's theory that neurosis is caused by the repressed pain of childhood trauma.
