In his latest book, The Biology of Love, Arthur Janov, famed psychotherapist and author of the revolutionary psychology book, The Primal Scream, presents the first unified theory of psychology and neurology.

Drawing on years of experience with thousands of patients and a growing body of evidence in neurophysiology, human biology and psychology, Dr. Janov shows how love or the lack of it affects not only our sense of psychological well-being but our physical health and our personalities as well. The developing brain and its chemistry are affected for a lifetime by what happens to the developing fetus and the growing child.

Janov’s central thesis is that pre-birth experience and a traumatic birth are imprinted into our nervous systems, resulting in the psychological and psychosomatic diseases of later life. After birth, when the infant needs to feel loving caresses, lack of love can be as injurious as lack of oxygen at birth. Dr. Janov brings together scientific evidence from a number of disciplines to show how the presence or absence of a loving, nurturing environment in the womb and out of it can affect the complex neural connections of the brain in the forming nervous system.

This provocative, original work synthesizes the latest neurological research with psychological theory and Dr. Janov’s long experience of successfully treating patients in therapy. He makes everything understandable to the educated lay person, yet maintains the interest of professionals in psychology, medicine and biology.

The Biology of Love is also a book about cure and prevention. Through Dr. Janov’s unique therapy, patients are able to relive those critical events that are at the root of their present-day problems. The patients, in their own words, provide remarkable testimony to the changes possible when they reverse history, undoing the traumas that crippled their lives for decades. Through their experiences, there is a clear picture of how best to ensure a good start to life, even in the womb and how to change the way we raise our children once they come out.

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ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOKS EVER WRITTEN IN PSYCHOLOGY.

The Biology of Love presents a unified theory of psychology and brain chemistry. It provides a great deal of evidence from psychology and neurology. Dr. Janov explains how love significantly affects not only psychological well-being but physical health and personality traits as well. Its long-lasting biological effects critically influence the structure and chemistry of the brain in both the developing fetus and the growing child.

This original and provocative work synthesizes the latest neurological research and psychological theory with Dr. Janov's long experience of successfully treating patients. It is very understandable and is written for the layperson who wishes to learn how feelings and emotions direct our lives.

Dr. Janov takes facts culled from up-to-date research and places them into a frame of reference that cohesively brings together widely disparate results.

Dr. Janov maintains that prenatal experience and birth trauma are imprinted on our nervous systems, and if this crucial period of life is beset by trouble and stress, whether mental or physical, the deep-seated effects can result in psychological problems or psychosomatic diseases later in life. By the same token, lack of love after birth, when the infant needs the touch of loving caresses, can be as injurious to the healthy development of intelligence and personality as lack of food.

Dr. Janov cites scientific evidence to demonstrate how the formation of the nervous system, especially the complex neural connections of the brain and the hormones that enhance them, can be influenced by the presence or absence of a loving, nurturing environment, both before and after birth.

However, beyond analyzing mental and physical ailments, The Biology of Love is also a book about cure. Through Dr. Janov's unique therapeutic techniques, he enables patients to relive those critical periods of love deprivation that are at the root of their problems. Using testimonials of patients who have experienced remarkable change, he shows how he helped them to 'reverse history' by releasing the underlying psychological tensions that had crippled their lives for decades.

THIS BOOK OPENS A NEW WINDOW INTO THE MENTAL MYSTERIES OF HUMAN BEINGS AND WILL HELP LAY THE FOUNDATIONS FOR A REASSESSMENT OF HOW WE TREAT MENTAL ILLNESS.

Witness research like:

"A MOTHER'S LOOK AT A CHILD CAN REGULATE BLOOD FLOW TO HIS BRAIN (CORTEX) AND IMPACT THE DEVELOPMENT OF THAT BRAIN."

"TOUCHING A CHILD ALLOWS FOR GREATER DENSITY OF SYNAPSES IN THE DEVELOPING BRAIN: THE MORE DENSE THE SYNAPSES THE MORE INFORMATION THE BRAIN CAN HANDLE."

"EARLY TOUCH AND A MOTHER'S LOVE PRODUCE ENDOGENOUS PAIN KILLERS THAT STAY FOR THE REST OF OUR LIVES AND HELP KEEP US COMFORTABLE AND FREE OF ANXIETY."

"STRESS AND ABUSE ALTER THE STRUCTURE OF A CHILD'S BRAIN (IMPAIRS CELLS IN THE HIPPOCAMPUS (WHICH REGISTERS EMOTIONAL FACTS)."

"A FETUS REGISTERS PAIN AND MAKES CRYING MOTIONS IN THE WOMB"

"STRESS IN A CARRYING MOTHER CAN ALTER THE SEXUAL HORMONES OF THE OFFSPRING AND THEREBY ALTER LATER SEXUAL PROCLIVITIES"

 

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Reviews of The Biology of Love

THE MOST IMPORTANT BOOK OF THE CENTURY ?

I think so. First, because I could not put it down. Dr. Janov has written a sophisticated and scientific book about the human psyche, how the brain can change as the result of lack of love.

Sophisticated and yet accessible to the lay person of which I am.

I was fascinated to read the latest available research in neurology; and how we treat our children affects their brain and who they are forever. So much of it makes total sense, it is brilliant to be able to understand how it all works. Of course, a child treated with respect and love through gestation, birth and childhood.

Dr. Janov says loving a child is making sure it doesn't suffer anorexia at birth (a common occurrence in the way our children are born these days), making sure mothers treat themselves- their future baby- with respect, that they don't smoke, take care of themselves... while creating a new human being in this world.

Dr. Janov's book is all about love and how to love our children. I read with amazement a professional review accusing The Biology of Love of laying guilt on poor mothers...). What a pathetic way to read this book. But to deprive future children of the incredible data this book provides is doing great harm. Dr. Janov has put together in a powerful framework the first unifying theory that at last makes sense of the human sciences, neurology, biology and psychology.

Isn't it crucial to know how to become a fully integrated human being that won't be plagued by psychosomatic illness, will have no need to drink and take drugs? And of course the right definition of love for a child is to give them with what they need, physiologically, as well as psychologically so that they don't suffer traumas at all stages of their development .

Dr. Janov is giving us the formidable tool to understand through research what we can do to make sure our children have all the chances for a life free of neurosis later on.