We can only heal where we are wounded. If the wounds are preverbal, then that is what must be addressed – such as reliving strangling on the umbilical cord and being stuck in the birth canal. Although it may seem odd to the reader, in order to liberate the body it must writhe, shake, and roll, perhaps, to the early lack of oxygen, or love; traumas that will then free us from their lifelong effects. We need to get down into our bodies. We must again undergo an almost seizure-like response to the birth trauma, which then will liberate seizure-like sexual orgasmic response.
To see a reliving of oxygen deprivation at birth or other early trauma, a reliving that can go on for 2 hours a day for months, is to realize the amount of compressed force that must be diverted elsewhere. It makes the development of "sexual problems" less of a mystery. It explains why people become obsessed with sex, or twist sex into something deviated. The spread of the energy of the pain on the first line can go in several directions – first, to vital functions, the heart and lungs, and also to sex. The pain can seep into sexual thoughts and be channeled into sexual rituals. It makes the ritual an urgent undertaking. The obsession is the end product of the pain, now transformed as it wends its way upward through the limbic system to the cortical thought processes. When we deal only with that transformation, we are on the wrong track, or at least on a very narrow track. As the old saying goes, to get on the wrong train means that every stop one makes is the wrong one. We must take care to board the right train that will take us to our destination. The tracks are nerve tracks with a specific destination. It is a strange track system leading backwards to early memories before chugging forward in time. Then it allows us to return to the frontal cortex and current life.
Sex is the vehicle in the search for relief. It can finally discharge the energy of suffering over and over again. It is a lifetime affair since the imprint is a lifetime affair. Sexual ritual provides relief on the second-line (limbic system), and the first (brainstem). It drives the person to spank or beat his partner while ejaculating or exhibiting himself while masturbating; and it never ceases.
Why is showing oneself naked sexually exciting? It is not intrinsic to the act, except for the inherent meaning it has to the person. We must think of it this way. What would happen if he showed himself naked as a child, without the masturbation? The parents would have seen him and responded to him instead of ignoring him. This is the dynamic in so many of our exhibitionist patients. Of course there are other complicating factors, but the central motivation is often as simple as that. The excitement of being seen and responded to – even with shock – is what excites. He is excited by his need and the hope of fulfillment and relief. The compulsivity of a ritual may be given its impelling strength by the pain at birth, which is a measurable event.
For an exhibitionist, "look at me, momma," can become showing the penis to female strangers so that they will look at him and pay attention to him; and of course, react emotionally. He is getting what he needed as a child, symbolically, not what he needs as an adult. So long as we treat it as an adult problem we are on the wrong track. It is a condensed symbolic act reflecting a lifetime of early experiences. We take the symbolic act out, showing the penis, in group therapy, and turn it back into the need – look at me, momma!
Grown men can’t suck on their mother’s breast, so they suck on their partner’s. The excitement is the same for the baby and the adult who never had enough as an infant. The excitement for the adult is the baby need, except that it takes a sexual turn. The need to suck never leaves. It is very true in my homosexual patients; I mention elsewhere that one man called his partner’s ejaculation into his mouth, "mother’ milk."
Posted by Arthur Janov at 12:23 AM
Jan Johnsson’s Comment to a reflection re. “Sex and Healing” by Art Janov.
Interesting that you are reflecting on sex. After having written 30-40 articles about my epilepsy and how it has influenced my private life and my career, I have hardly touched on the subject which has been on my mind more than anything else, including epilepsy, since before puberty, if I have been awake or asleep. “I have really been down into my body and undergone seizure-like responses, daily during months, due to the birth trauma, which has liberated seizure-like sexual orgasmic responses.” As you say, sex has been a lifetime affair.
After my horrendous, pain filled birth caused by religious, biblical reasons, I was breast fed during more than two years, and, even if I like beautiful natural breasts, they have never been an obsession for me.
My sex life can be divided into three different phases.
1. The period of sexual obsession from puberty until I developed epilepsy at age 19.
My sexual debut was not extremely early from todays point of view. At age 15-16 masturbation/petting was the preferred sexual release performed by myself or my girlfriends when there was a need for it and that was often. When I think of these years today it is amazing the amount of energy / pain, which went through my penis. I don’t see a big difference after that intercourse was part of the game. It was the same pain driven sex, whether it was sport sex or onanism. Up until I got epilepsy and antiepileptic medication, I was a pushy obsessed sexual screwball. However, I was ensecure and smart enough to understand when sex was possible to access and during these years I developed simultaneously a seductive and enchanting style to create sexual arousal in both, myself and the other party.
2. 20 years of transition between when I developed epilepsy and went to Primal Therapy.
During this period, my painkilling sexual obsession was substituted to a great deal with epileptic medication. During these years, most of my energy went into a combination of studies, work and establishment of families. During these years I was still very sexual active but mainly due to my two marriages to attractive women who both very much liked sex, and they kept me busy, even if my obsession was gone. I had during these years, less need for my seductive style to create sexual arousal, although it was always latent and present.
3. The latest 30 years after having lived primal pain from my birth process.
After 40 a lot of my sexual drive went into my career. However, I still looked for sexual arousal but my need for sexual release was decreasing drastically, caused by the feeling of and the fear for the connection between a seizure and an orgasm. Up til a point that my seductive style and my indifference practically to implement my sexual challenges have caused problems and criticism. The more pain from my birth process I have lived the less I have sex on my mind. Which of course also might have to do with my advancing age.
Another turning point in how I channeled my seductive/sexual behavior was when I lived the pain in Primal Therapy of how my sister and father dethroned me at the age of 5. This primal brought up how I during 20 years had been obsessed by good looking, blond, curly girls (reminding of my sister when she dethroned me) which I could bring home to impress my father to get his attention.
My instinct to arouse myself by being seductive and enchanting is still available, indicating that there is more pain in the “septic tank of imprints”. The other day when I visited a neighbour city, a beautiful woman, who went in front of me on my way to my car, suddenly turned around and smiled at me and said: “Hi, Jan, do you not recognize me?” No, I did not. In stead, I thought it was a pleasant mistake because the good looking woman was half my age. She continued: “But Jan, I’m the girl from Cordoba! Have you forgotten me, we went to the mountains together?”. Suddenly I could recognize her from our Hiking Club, which I joined last year and how we during a few hours walk had en enchanting talk together.
I had to move my car, so I kissed her goodbye and went home and told the story to my daughter. She was not surprised. “You are such a charmer when you want, dad!”....
Jan Johnsson
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