So ‘could you please explain the hurting?’
As MTV explains: The name “Tears for Fears” refers to psychologist Arthur Janov’s 1980 book, “Prisoners of Pain,” which describes “tears as a replacement for fears.” And The Hurting, which kicked off the band’s career, was Tears for Fears’ most personal album. The background to the album, described by Roland Orzabal, in the Quietus, as ‘pure Janov’, is explained best in the band’s own words:[1] RO: I was one of those people in school who used to work hard and then, when I was about 17, 18, I had a mental Copernican inversion, so instead of just following what I was being told and doing really well and getting ‘A’s, I just started questioning everything. We were reading a lot of existentialism, both in French and in English, so that kind of set me off. CS: Those teenage years when you’re looking for all the answers… RO: I had a guitar teacher, and she introduced me to a book called The Primal Scream (by Arthur Janov). And I read it, and it became my bible. The theory is called The Tabula Rasa theory, or the ‘Blank Slate’ theory. A child is born a blank slate, and then all the terrible things that happen to it – the childhood trauma and the rejection, not enough love – become suppressed and then turn up as neuroses in later life. The therapist would try to lead you to recall something that happened to you, and your way of mourning – and it’s a deep way of mourning – is that you actually cry. Not as an adult, but actually in a sense you’re going really, really deep. CS: It’s not a novel idea. I just think Janov explained it in better terms than most people. [1] as cited in The Quietus.
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