"As In A Mirror"

"As In A Mirror"

“Funny” enough, reading about Act-outs in Art’s Reflections I got a feeling that my life raced past. The memory process is fascinating in the sense that many interpretations that I had, during decades, of old memories, I now revise. I’m able to do that because I have re-lived much of the imprint that propelled my neurotic behavior and values.

During the first half, I was often quick to distort and create erroneous interpretations of symptoms, events and situations (both of my own and other’s). My need to “confidently” impress those around me, was was an unconsciously propelled process, which was deeply confusing for myself because of its lack of harmony with reality.

During the second half, having lived the Evolution in Reverse / the Primal Principle and demystified my repressed pain = epilepsy, my understanding of act-outs and act-ins has improved and continue to do so. (In this connection it is worth mentioning the unique fact that I spontaneously got liberating and dramatic confessions from both my parents about my two devastating childhood traumas.)

Having read the act-out-Reflections a couple of times, I got a feeling that I saw my life in a mirror. Inside the mirror were additional mirrors reflecting episodes from my life. Suddenly I remembered a film of Ingmar Bergman, “Through a Glass Darkly”, which 1961 received an Oscar. The Swedish title of the film was “Såsom i en spegel” which, in a straight translation, means “As in a mirror”!!!! The film left a deep impression, like all Ingmar Bergman’s movies. The fact that Max von Sydow, who plays the husband Martin in this family drama, came from the same school, and it’s theater, which I belonged to, added another dimension to my experience. 

Ingmar Bergman's film 1961, had the same motif as Art Janov's Reflection, 2015, concerning act-outs and act-ins. The theme elaborates the consequences of what happens when our parents deny us love, attention, and touch during the first and most critical stages of life. Bergman understood, intuitively, to visualize our unconscious pains and hold up a mirror for us. (The film ends with the following, tragically revealing, words from Martins 17-year-old son Minus: “Papa spoke to me!” ).

Janov has, through his development of The Primal Principle, taken us a step further and guides us, by re-living our pain, into the unconscious. For me, it feels like magic, to read Art's brilliant description of his own and everyone's tendency to act-out our unconscious. I can feel how I got it all together, 55 years after I developed epilepsy and saw “Through a Glass Darkly”.

Fascinating and satisfying to follow how Art, after the age of 90, just like another of my favorites, Picasso, did, continues to be productive and inspire the world.

Jan Johnsson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIKZ5dpA5KU

Replies

Arthur JanovMarch 18, 2015 at 2:01 PM
Jan: Ingmar Bergman was one of the great people I knew. He brought me to Sweden to see one of his films. I got there in this dark room and I said to him, Hey I do not speak Swedish. He said not to worry. The room goes dark and suddenly a man appears behind me and starts whispering the dialogue in my ear. Within minutes it was as if I was watching the film in English. He visited me at the clinic and afterwards said, with all this chaos there must be a lot of creativity going on.
Thanks Jan for the kind words. I think your case is important because there is something we can do with some epilepsies. art