Janov's Reflection on "What a world it could be."

What a World it Could Be

Today my children I am going to tell you about a world we could have, not for our children or grandchildren, but for us. And we can do it easily. But first in order to explore the subject I want to tell you about an article in the paper today. A man had a quarrel with his girlfriend. He left home and came back with a knife and stabbed her 50 times; this with their children in another room. No thoughts about those kids and certainly no thoughts that he was taking a life, savagely.


I thought to myself could I go out and get a knife and stab anyone 50 times? Of course not. Then I said, “Is he really from a different species than I?” And the answer is “yes!” What? Do I mean that? Absolutely. Now we have to go back to my three levels of brain development and revisit the first line. Remember we start out in the womb with a brainstem and little else. That brain structure is primitive, equal to the whole brain of the crocodile. It allows quick and immediate responses to get out of the way and save our lives. It allows impulsive reactions and is the base for the deepest aspect of feeling—hopelessness and helplessness. It organizes terror and above all, rage! When we need to fight to save our lives. When adverse events occur while we are being carried, it impacts the brainstem and first line.


When something happens as adults it can resonate with those first line reactions, unless of course there is adequate gating to hold down those primitive responses. But when a child is neglected, abandoned and unloved and untouched growing up, the pain grows and is compounded, weakening the gates between levels of consciousness. Gating is defective so that when there is resonance it reaches all the way down to first line. And rage ensues or other great pain hidden in the antipodes of the brain. Normally that reach does not trigger off first line reactions unless our lives are in danger and we have to react to save ourselves. Those with faulty gates are immersed nearly all of the time in first line. And that is what we often call the hysteric, who overreacts to almost anything.


So mister killer got jealous, she looked at another guy and that’s all, and the rage bubbled up and he killed. He for the moment was a complete crocodile with no cortex or limbic system to help out. When he was enveloped in the crocodile brain there was no longer the adult human brain to control and think things out. He was no longer human; no longer part of us. He was a different species. A primitive species with no human thought or compassion. When he was no longer triggered he will be overcome with what he did and want to kill himself but that comes later when he can think and feel without being overwhelmed by first line.

I remember when my father got mad we knew to stay away because his eyes began to water and turn red; we knew something deep and terrible was lurking down below. We did not know what to call it but now we do. His first line, Lizard brain was on the march. Watch out! Because that brain has no control. The reason is that when adverse things happen while we are in the womb it literally diminishes the development of the neocortex, controlling, thinking/reasoning brain. There is damage to these developing cells, particularly during birth where there may be a serious lack of oxygen.


So now we grow up without all our cortical marbles and with serious imprints on the brainstem/limbic/feeling areas. And we begin to eat like there is no tomorrow; and literally for the first liner there is no more tomorrow. Eating becomes life and death; urgent! Because the drive behind it is so urgent. There may have been starvation during womblife. Or some other serious trauma. The same with violent act-outs. Here the idea of anger management is ridiculous, unless we expect the person to grow new cortical cells. What they do offer is a cortical/third line buffer against upcoming pain. It will hold only for a short while; better to let it all out in a safe environment with slow emotional steps in a methodical way.


Any extreme behavior is usually first line derived; suicide, overeating, oversexed, addiction, and so on. Certainly, we can include psychosis in all this. And we know now what it takes to treat all these symptoms and behavior.


Now suppose there comes along a therapy that deals with first line? Modestly, I say it is mine. What will that do? It will make a world without uncontrolled rage. A world without serious alcoholics and drug addicts, a world without suicides. Don’t forget that all of what I am describing is at base emanating from first line. I have seen it and my staff have treated it successfully. It ain’t easy but it can be done; slowly, methodically and carefully. But we can make a decent world we can safely live in. And we can do it now! It is no longer a mystery except to those who have no access, which is most of us. So now children, before you fall off to sleep let me assure you, we have it in our power to make a much better world right away.

Jan Johnssons comments on : What a World it Could Be

As always, I have read your article a number of times to be sure that I have understood it all. "Mas o menos".

The traumatic pain, which bubbled up, in ”mister jealous”, is an element of the brain's construction, and, of course, because nobody has been able to help him release or to live it (to use your own, even better, expression).

Why is that? As You say there are therapies around, which deals with the first line. I’m a living example what it means to have lived a horror filled trauma, as close to death, that anyting/anybody can get you. When I had lived that pain a few times, I became a ”different specie”. I understand the killer in your article, when pain of that magnitude leaks out, you are a threat to others and to yourself.

How do we find and identify these potential killers? It sounds so easy when You describe it; ”a few of your books, to study the construction of the brain and the interaction between the right and left side and the vital signs and with the help of a talented catalyst you will change into a new specie....”

Most of us love what You are telling us about Primal Therapy in theory. How come that it in practice does not spread rapidly around a world which needs it? When I read EMDR (whether it is Francine Shapiro, Laurell Parnell or Bessel van der Kolk) I see a number of similarities with P.T. They also reject cognitive talk therapies as a way to eliminate traumas. These traumas have to be experienced. 

On behalf of P.T. I feel jealous when I read ”A Therapist Guide to EMRD” by Laurel Parnell. No surprise that they are conquering the world in a short time and that governments, authorities and science support them and show appreciation for their efforts. They do not talk a lot about birth traumas: however, they are not surprised if they appear during treatments. In contrast to the talk therapies, they do not seem to be particularly dependent on the pharmaceutical industry.

I admire your courage to post a couple of the critical comments, like, for example, the email which talked about mental masturbation. That remembers me of when I was working in a Biotec company during a few years. The business idea of the company was to develop and market instruments to measure protein in the Food and Feed segment. In the research and development department, we had two constellations of stars/brains; 1. Those, whith left brain dominance, who understood and lectured about the theoretical parameters 2. Those, with right brain dominace, who turned their conceptual understanding into instruments (using either chemical or infrared techniques), which we could sell and conquer the world market and make a living. The people in 2. were often considered being ”difficult”. They knew and ”saw” connections they were not so talented at explaining. We needed both kinds of R&D-people to survive and put it all together, however, the intellectual stars seldom made things happen.

I am pleased that I of individual, psychological reasons, embossed my therapist confidence in Your person. This fact took me trough my all to long, wobbly, unorthodox treatment. (Mrs. Parmell, in her book, considers the importance of a total thrust in the therapist, to be crucial for a positive result in any trauma treatment.) Often in my life, I have understood a concept better than I have been able to explain it. The Primal Therapy is one of these experiences.

Jan Johnsson