Arthur Janov's Primal Therapy

In January 1967, after 17 years of conventional therapeutic work, Dr. Arthur Janov had an incident with a patient (Ray) that led to a crucial psycho-therapeutic breakthrough. Ray told Janov about an absurd theater performance in London 1966 in which the artist Raphael Montañez Ortiz, dressed in large diapers, screaming "Mommy" and "Daddy", and vomiting in a plastic bag, asked the audience to do the same. Dr. Arthur Janov suggested that Ray should try to cry out for his parents. Ray refused at first, but later gave in and was soon writhing on the floor in agony and making a piercing, deathlike scream. Janov repeated the sequence with other patients and began to develop his primal theory and primal therapy. The basic tenants of this new approach were discussed in his book, "The Primal Scream," published in 1970.