Primal scream therapy
From RationalWiki
This topic is a pseudoscience, and is not accepted by the scientific community as a valid discipline.
Although it may use scientific terminology, it does not use scientific methodology.
Remember: just because it sounds right doesn't mean it's actually right.
Primal scream therapy, or simply primal therapy, was an odd bit of woo popularized by Arthur Janov in his 1970 book, The Primal Scream. His theory was that psychological problems are caused by early childhood trauma, such as during birth. These traumatic incidents could be re-experienced and then emotionally discharged by expressing them during therapy by screaming. John Lennon was a brief adherent of the movement.
Although Janov was then a respected psychologist and did not (as far as is known) derive his theory from superficially similar theories which were already then regarded as quackery, his theory is somewhat similar to the Dianetics (Scientology) theory of removing "engrams" by re-experiencing traumatic incidents and emotionally discharging them, and to the quack therapy of re-experiencing birth traumas through rebirthing. No empirical studies ever found the therapy useful or sound, however, and nothing eventually came of his theory except yet another quack movement. Today Primal Therapy is lumped in with other fringe therapies which emerged as part of the Human Potential Movement.
Having said all that, Screamadelica is a fantastic album.
