Thursday, April 15, 2021

Who Is Arthur Janov? And What Does He Have to Do With 'Plastic Ono Band'?


For GQ, I wrote about a man who's always fascinated me. In the late 1960s, a psychologist named Arthur Janov came up with what he called primal therapy, which involved patients accessing painful childhood memories. Now commonly referred to as primal scream therapy, the treatment appealed to John Lennon, who used it as inspiration for his first solo album, Plastic Ono Band. Here's that story.