primal therapy or songs from the big chair (10. 034)

Via our faithful chronicler not only do we learn that on this day in 1985, Tears for Fears attained the top of US charts for a second time with Shout, moreover we discover that the title squares with the duo’s affinity for psychologist Arthur Janov (though also meant as a statement in support of protests during the Cold War) and his school of thought that posits that repressed pain of childhood trauma results in neuroses and can be exorcised by re-experiencing them in a fashion less cerebral and re-packaged and rather more immediate than in traditional talking sessions. Originally billed as the History of Headaches, the band learned about this form of psychotherapy which gained public attention when John Lennon endorsed it and renamed themselves after a dictum elaborated on in Janov’s book Prisoners of Pain.