Founding
The Center for Feeling Therapy was founded in 1971 by two defectors from primal therapy, Joe Hart and Richard "Riggs" Corriere, who had been in the therapist training program at Janov's Primal Institute, along with seven other people, two of whom had been certified as primal therapists. Corriere had contributed to a scientific study reprinted in Janov's second book.
According to Mithers,
- "Joe and Riggs would claim that the group had confronted Arthur Janov with their unhappiness and told him they believed patients needed to move beyond their past pain to change their present lives. Janov would deny that, comparing any attempt by Joe and Riggs to improve his ideas with interns correcting a senior surgeon's technique. Interns morover, who were really only interested in power who he'd pegged as 'abreactors' - people who had emotional outbursts without truly feeling anything - and who were about to be fired anyway."
According to Mithers description of the founding therapists' initial mind set,
- ""...although they'd be following Janov's program, they would keep exploring ways to go beyond it. They already knew two things for sure: They would avoid the narcissism that had claimed Janov, by sharing the therapy's leadership. All decisions would be made collectively; that way, no one person's theories or ego would dominate. Even more important, all therapists would continue to get treatment from their peers. That way the therapy would grow as they did."
The Center for Feeling Therapy initially followed Janov's method described in The Primal Scream by having the patient isolate him or herself for 24 hours prior to the initial three week intensive therapy. Joe and Riggs also extended primal theory using their own ideas.
Going Sane, the book published a few years later describing their "Feeling Therapy", was given very favorable reviews by some, notably:
- "A group of very honest young therapists tell, with great candor and openness, about the new kind of therapy they are developing and the mutuality of relationship it involves." - Carl Rogers
Read more about this topic: Center For Feeling Therapy
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