It's funny how one thing leads to another, I read part of this book (I only read parts of books).
It was after I saw John Lennon on TV talking about the illness of the worlds population etc...
He mentioned Arthur Janov, so I took it upon myself to read a bit about it.
It's about the 'primal scream' theory and the 'split'.
According to the theory an infant (baby) at some point will experience an unmet need for the first time, either it's parent(s) are too busy or they think it needs to learn that they won't always come when it cries.
So that feeling of 'neglect' for the infant needs to be dealt with, it stops crying and feels a bit depressed.
A new layer of consciousness is then created by this new experience, and the infants consciousness experiences a split like this Y.
The problems start later in life when traumatic feelings that get placed down in the unwanted layer, begin to surface in the wanted layer, as different symptoms.
Like neurosis, or it could be rituals, hobbies ,etc...
Like the guy who spends hours alone in his roof conversion making a model railway/village scene, he knows not his motives, according to the theory this behaviour is a manifestation (symptom) of the split, it's a distraction.
Apparently according to Janov, he can induce over time with therapy a 'primal scream' from a patient, who has been stimulated to recall emotions/memories of childhood trauma, often when this is dealt with via a primal scream from the patient the Y begins to go back into a one.
I don't know why but I always think of this when I recall this part of Janov's book
"Jesus saw some babies nursing. He said to his disciples: "These babies nursing are like those Who enter the kingdom.' His disciples said to him: "Shall we then enter the kingdom as babies? " Jesus answered them and said: 'When you make the two into one, "And when you make the inner like the outer, 'And the outer like the inner, 'And the upper like the lower, 'And when you make male and female Into a single one, "So that the male will not be male 'And the female not be female … "Then you shall enter the kingdom."
The problem with subconscious trauma is that if it is based on a foundation of the memory from an infant, it's always going to be supressed, because the infant itself becomes supressed when the adult emerges.
Obviously if someone is exposed to awful acts, then that's another story, but for most who just go through life with this trauma they don't even know they have it, nor do they know it's symptoms are apparent in hobbies, interests and ritualistic quirks.
I'm quite interested in rituals and can't help but wonder if a lot of rituals, customs, cultural practices, and routines are based on a shared need to create distractions.