Research Catalog

Title

Animal madness : how anxious dogs, compulsive parrots, and elephants in recovery help us understand ourselves / Laurel Braitman.

Author

Braitman, Laurel

Publication

• New York, NY : Simon & Schuster, [2014]
• ©2014

Items in the Library & Off-site

Holdings

Details

Description

373 pages; 24 cm

Summary

"For the first time, a historian of science draws evidence from across the world to show how humans and other animals are astonishingly similar when it comes to their feelings and the ways in which they lose their minds. Charles Darwin developed his evolutionary theories by looking at physical differences in Galapagos finches and fancy pigeons. Alfred Russell Wallace investigated a range of creatures in the Malay Archipelago. Laurel Braitman got her lessons closer to home--by watching her dog. Oliver snapped at flies that only he could see, ate Ziploc bags, towels, and cartons of eggs. He suffered debilitating separation anxiety, was prone to aggression, and may even have attempted suicide. Her experience with Oliver forced Laurel to acknowledge a form of continuity between humans and other animals that, first as a biology major and later as a PhD student at MIT, she'd never been taught in school. Nonhuman animals can lose their minds. And when they do, it often looks a lot like human mental illness. Thankfully, all of us can heal. As Laurel spent three years traveling the world in search of emotionally disturbed animals and the people who care for them, she discovered numerous stories of recovery: parrots that learn how to stop plucking their feathers, dogs that cease licking their tails raw, polar bears that stop swimming in compulsive circles, and great apes that benefit from the help of human psychiatrists. How do these animals recover? The same way we do: with love, with medicine, and above all, with the knowledge that someone understands why we suffer and what can make us feel better. After all of the digging in the archives of museums and zoos, the years synthesizing scientific literature, and the hours observing dog parks, wildlife encounters, and amusement parks, Laurel found that understanding the emotional distress of animals can help us better understand ourselves"--

Subjects

• SCIENCE / Life Sciences / Evolution
• PSYCHOLOGY / General
• Emotions in animals
• Animal behavior
• NATURE / Animals / General
• Animal psychology
• Animal psychopathology

Note

• "First Simon & Schuster hardcover edition June 2014"--Title page verso.

Bibliography (note)

• Includes bibliographical references (pages 289-360) and index.

Contents

The tail tip of the iceberg -- Proxies and mirrors -- Diagnosing the elephant -- If Juliet were a parrot -- Animal pharm -- Family therapy -- When the devil fish forgive.

ISBN

• 9781451627008 (hardback)
• 1451627009 (hardback)
• 9781451627022 (ebook) (canceled/invalid)

LCCN

• 2014000791
• 40023732365

OCLC

• 868000590
• ocn868000590
• SCSB-5753139

Owning Institutions

Columbia University Libraries