primal therapy

American  

noun

Psychiatry.

1. a form of psychotherapy in which the patient is encouraged to relive traumatic events, often screaming or crying, in order to achieve catharsis and a breakdown of psychological defenses.

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primal therapy British  

noun

1. Also called: primal scream therapy.   scream therapy.  psychol a form of psychotherapy in which patients are encouraged to scream abusively about their parents and agonizingly about their own suffering in infancy

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Etymology

Origin of primal therapy

An Americanism dating back to 1970–75

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

primal therapy

In 1971, Janov told reporters, “In the future, there will be no need for a field called psychology,” because primal therapy would cure “80 per cent of all ailments.”

From The New Yorker ● Jul. 31, 2019

Jones, the actor, told Newsweek that primal therapy had resolved his hemorrhoids and helped him to stop smoking.

From Washington Post ● Oct. 4, 2017

As with many other emotional-release therapies of its time, primal therapy is today widely rejected by mental health professionals as unscientific and ineffectual.

From The Guardian ● Oct. 3, 2017

But the rhapsodic public endorsement of Mr. Lennon, who, with his wife, Ms. Ono, underwent primal therapy with Dr. Janov in 1970, caused “The Primal Scream” to be heard round the world.

From New York Times ● Oct. 2, 2017

It was primal therapy on the 12-inch screen, stripping bare a volatile marriage in all its grotesque intimacy--a bizarre comic display of love and resentment.

From Time Magazine Archive