Janov claims that neurosis is caused by repressed emotional pain from childhood trauma, and can be cured by reliving and expressing.

[1] It reportedly sold more than one million copies internationally,[2] and was read by tens of thousands of people in the United States.

[4] According to The New York Times, The Primal Scream "attracted wide attention in newspapers and magazines" and made Janov a celebrity.

The book critic Robert Kirsch cautioned about Janov's "hyperbole" and "evangelic certainty" in the Los Angeles Times, but nevertheless called him an impressive writer and thinker and concluded that The Primal Scream was "worth reading and considering.

[6] However, psychologists immediately questioned the assertions Janov made in the book, pointing out the "unverifiability of its central claim of the existence of primal pain and the lack of independent, controlled studies demonstrating the therapy’s effectiveness".