Primal Scream Therapy

I was reading Steve Jobs’ biography by Walter Isaacson and one thing about Jobs’ early years and his personality caught my attention.

Walter writes: “Jobs’ compulsive search for self-awareness also led him to undergo primal scream therapy, which had recently been developed and popularised by a Los Angeles psychotherapist named Arthur Janov. It was based on Freudian theory that psychological problems are caused by the repressed pains of childhood; Janov argued that they could be resolved by re-suffering these primal moments while fully expressing the pain — sometimes in screams.”

A little later Walter writes: “Jobs confided to close friends that he was driven by the pain he was feeling about being put up for adoption and not knowing about his birth parents. Steve had a profound desire to know his physical parents so he could better know himself”.

It’s fascinating to read about how and what shaped Steve Jobs’ personality and what impact it had on his work.

Walter Isaacson is a great biography writer because he brings out nuances of the subject in ways that nobody else can. I get bored with biographies which are just compilation of what person did (or didn’t do) and nothing beyond that.

I’m eager to read Walter’s latest biography of Elon Musk because he is such a complex person that he’s ideal subject for Walter to study and write about.

Do read his biography of Steve Jobs! It’s awesome!