Primal Familiarity

Abstract

This article proposes a concept of primal familiarity, which gives increased importance to a fusion of basic life energy and the everyday happenings in our lives. It expands attention to the vital role that this accentuation of familiarity plays not only in our everyday lives but also in the psychotherapy process and its communal possibilities. It also highlights the concept of ordinary familiarity as a guiding force that illuminates the geography of a lifetime. It expands these principles to create a communal relevance in the form of Life Focus Groups. These groups represent the expansion of ordinary therapeutic practice into the development of lifelong congregations, bringing attention to the nature of living in community, as contrasted with the more personal individual benefits of ordinary psychotherapy. It represents psychotherapy as an heir to religion, and as a force in the communal exploration of the lives people live.