Marking Territory

Marking Territory 

In an article in my blog, “The Egg or the Chicken?”, in the second last paragraph, I was complaining (as usual) about why PT and Rolfing have not kept the same pace of development or been working together, having a common, curative ambition and potential. Hence I asked: “Could the reason be a domain limited genius?” A limited number of my few readers asked for an explanation / translation. And I was not surprised because when I wrote it, I didn’t have the feeling of being head-on. I should not have asked but stated: “Art Janov instinctively protects his ingenious discovery and allows no intrusion on his territory.” He is blind to the obvious advantages that other natural, curative, methods could bring to a partnership.

Animals in the wild, inventors of Apple-computers and of therapeutical principals are all a lot like Gold Rush miners - they lay claim to their territory. The Gold Rush was of such a magnitude that, after i.e. San Fransisco grew to a boomtown in the 1850ies the US claimed the territory and California became a state Sept. 9, 1850, after the Gold-rush had started under Mexican rules. It was the start of the American Dream, both literally and metaphorically.

Primal Therapy originated in a peculiar way from a New York artist. His experiment turned, later, in front of the eyes of Art Janov into a unique discovery of how evolution inside the different levels of the triune brain has the capacity to repress unbearable pain. This discovery became Art Janov’s private Gold Rush and over a number of decades he claimed his territory by writing excellent books and Reflections, building myths and pursuing those he defined as mock-therapists.

However, difficult to compare, more parallels between "The Gold Rush of Gold" and the “Gold Rush of Primal Therapy" can be made. In skilled PR hands, reality has, during the epoch of the real Gold Rush, changed from crime, prostitution, gambling and drugs to a neurotic myth about the land of dreams. 

In Primal Therapy reputation and public relationship first became greater than the extent of the therapy. This despite the fact that the number of Americans dependent on psychiatric medication have grown to a number that makes the Gold Rush appear an experiment by the destruction artist Raphael Ortiz. In stead of a curing therapy, tens of millions of Americans are now in the mercy of the pharmaceutical industry’s (experts in marking territory) patented, psychiatric protected long-term degenerative painkillers. 

Jan Johnsson