I believe emotional breakthroughs in psychotherapy/dream work/or meditation help us live longer and prosper. Working through emotional blockages help us become Super-Agers and release fears and tensions that can cause chronic illness.
During the late 60’s and early 70’s there was a rash of new psychotherapies that were created or acknowledged as separate modalities that had probably been a part of formal psychotherapy. I was an avid reader, attendee at lectures and workshops by psychotherapists introducing their new modalities.
In 1969, I moved to New York to study Gestalt Therapy with Laurie Perls. I joined her professional training group that met on Friday evenings on the Upper West Side overlooking Central Park. That was very “romantic” for an Indiana farm girl. I was the youngest and the least educated in the group. Most people had or were working on their PH.D.’s in psychology.
During a Gestalt Therapy Training Class with Laura Perls, I remember someone going into what I later would call a primal regression. Laura worked him through it. He screamed in terror of being held captive at age 4 by a normally restrictive father. The client said what he needed to say to his father and to himself at age 4—both at a 4 year old perspective and at a 36 year old perspective. He came out with a new resolve of self-acceptance and strength and the inner terror screamed away.
As we processed/discussed the session, someone asked, “What just happened?” Laura proclaimed that the person had had a psychotic breakdown. And all the way home I thought (and this was before I was a “spiritual guide”), “Hell that was not a breakdown. That was a break through!”
A year later the book referenced below was published about the work Janov had been doing in California. I was fascinated by Laura’s session and by Janov’s work. Janov’s work enhanced my life and primal sessions created more vitality and joy in my life. Vitality and joy aid Super-Aging.
https://en.wikipedia.org › wiki › The_Primal_Scream
The Primal Scream. Primal Therapy: The Cure for Neurosis (1970; second edition 1999) is a book by the psychologist Arthur Janov, in which the author describes his experiences with patients during the months he developed primal therapy.