Description
During the late 1970s Swartley travelled in Europe and was instrumental in setting up centres for Primal Integration in Italy and Britain. Centres also exist in Canada and the USA.
Its theoretical basis emphasizes early trauma in shaping an individual's consciousness. It claims that trauma that takes place before, during and soon after birth have strong influences on how someone interprets and copes with future life. These early preverbal trauma, as well as later difficult childhood experiences, can only be fully recognized by re-living the experience at an emotional level. This emotional expression of deep memory is called a "primal". Its expression begins the process of integration of the experience into the personality of the individual and the re-adjustment of his or her world view. The human mind as a self healing organic process constantly draws the individuals attention to potential situations in which these trauma can be relived and integrated. The individual unconsciously blocks these pathways in order to function in everyday life. The provision of a safe environment is enough to allow the paths to be approached. A safe environment is created through the presence of skilled facilitators and the "Stop I Mean It" rule which allows a participant to bring any activity to an immediate halt at any time.
Primal Integration was developed in parallel to the Primal therapy of Arthur Janov and shares some similarities with it, as well as the name "Primal". There is a difference in the theoretical approach which comes down to the use of a medical model in Janov's work and a holistic or educational model in PI. The early practitioners of Primal Integration founded the International Primal Association (IPA), which had a court struggle with Janov in 1974 when he claimed the word "Primal" as his own and tried to prevent them using it in their name. The court found against Janov but at great financial cost to the IPA.
Since those early years, the IPA and Primal Integration practitioners have facilitated thousands of individuals on their healing path and have brought their theory and philosophy to countries throughout the world. The IPA's journals, website, conventions, retreats and newsletters have been promoting Primal for 35 years.
Read more about this topic: Primal Integration
Famous quotes containing the word description:
“The type of fig leaf which each culture employs to cover its social taboos offers a twofold description of its morality. It reveals that certain unacknowledged behavior exists and it suggests the form that such behavior takes.”
—Freda Adler (b. 1934)
“He hath achieved a maid
That paragons description and wild fame;
One that excels the quirks of blazoning pens.”
—William Shakespeare (1564–1616)
“The next Augustan age will dawn on the other side of the Atlantic. There will, perhaps, be a Thucydides at Boston, a Xenophon at New York, and, in time, a Virgil at Mexico, and a Newton at Peru. At last, some curious traveller from Lima will visit England and give a description of the ruins of St Paul’s, like the editions of Balbec and Palmyra.”
—Horace Walpole (1717–1797)