Anyone who googles about primal therapy may encounter two books (here) written by a dissatisfied former client of Janov’s primal center. The author of those books (henceforth “the debunker”) alleges horrible cult abuse while he was a client there.
I was also a client at Janov’s center, overlapping when the debunker was there. I did not observe the cult abuse which he describes. I’m presenting this article as a counterpoint and another perspective about Janov’s primal center.
The following is what I observed at Janov’s center:
No time was spent venerating Arthur Janov. Janov was almost never mentioned during group or individual therapy.
The therapists were not worshipped or idolized. The therapists were presented as regular people who sometimes make mistakes. I never saw anything like what the debunkers described, where therapists were idolized.
The therapists were very compassionate, kind, and respectful. I had three separate therapists and they were always kind and respectful. I never once saw anything abusive from any therapist to any client.
There was absolutely no abuse from any therapist to any client, ever. The therapists were consistently professional and kind at all times, to all clients. In fact, most of the therapists were very mild-mannered and quiet. Most of the time, their role was fairly passive during therapy.
The center was not organized as a commune and did not control the details of patients’ lives. The patients lived separate, independent lives, scattered throughout Los Angeles.
No attempt was made to prevent anyone from leaving. People came and went. Many people came to do primal therapy for six months, only to leave, then come back many years later for another few months. Some people arrived with a “hard limit” of when they had to leave. I did not observe anything like what the debunkers described, where people were strongly advised against ever leaving. When I left, my therapist wished me well.
I was never encouraged to socialize only with primal clients. Most of my friends in Los Angeles had nothing to do with primal therapy. I had only one friend in primal therapy.
I never saw any patients cleaning the center, or otherwise providing uncompensated labor. I would have strenuously objected if I’d ever seen anything like that, but it just never occurred.
No recruitment was occurring. I was never encouraged to recruit others. I never saw the therapists encourage anyone to recruit others. I never met anyone who had been recruited; the people there had arrived because they had read Janov's books (usually the first one) and had already felt their earlier lives were affecting them.
No financial abuse was occurring. The debunker’s website and book were filled with allegations of financial abuse, high or exorbitant profit margins, “lucre at the top”, exorbitant financial benefits for the leaders, and so on. However, the prices charged for group and individual therapy ($100/hr and $60/hr, at the time) were the standard market prices for psychotherapy in general. I had used psychotherapy services before extensively, and the price was similar elsewhere to what I had paid at Janov’s center. No additional money was ever solicited. The initial three-week intensive was more expensive, but after that, the prices were the standard prices which prevailed in the market as a whole.
Many of the anonymous stories published by the debunker complain about Janov’s wealth, the car he drives, where he lives, and so on. Indeed, Janov appeared to be a member of the “lesser rich”, meaning he had a net worth of around $3 million, I would guess. However, that money was obtained from book sales in the early 1970s (Janov was a bestselling author) and from songwriting, not from the clients at the center now. It's a crucial distinction.
There was no explicit ranking of patients. The debunker speaks repeatedly of “high-ranking” patients, however I saw no ranking whatsoever. Presumably, the debunker is referring to some kind of implicit social ranking which he detected. If there was an implicit ranking, then presumably I was near the bottom of it, however I was unaware of it, and nobody ever told me. Primal therapy was not a competition.
In my opinion, there was only one thing at Janov’s center which resembled a cult. Many people there treated primal therapy like it was “the only way” or something similar. They had a very enthusiastic opinion about it, and were very exclusive also, like primal therapy is the only solution to your mental problems. Perhaps that resembled a cult. However, that was the only feature I observed which resembled a cult. In all other ways, the primal center did not resemble a cult at all.
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