What of the horse of the soul against whose neck a young boy can cry his loneliness and speak his secret wishes, the horse a young girl curries and combs and loves with more devoted passion than anybody anywhere? (Hillman, 1997, p. 48 dream animals)
Self-psychology, developed by psychoanalyst and scholar Heinz Kohut in the nineteen-fifties and sixties, postulates how humans integrate relational experiences of the outer world into themselves. In the 1990’s, a group of researchers applied self-psychology to the human-animal bond. Intrigued, I wrote a paper exploring this further using The Mustang (Goldman et al., 2019), a popular movie about wild horses and male convicts. Recently, I opened the Pandora’s Box of feelings around a poorly executed euthanasia in 2014 of a beloved cat belonging to my partner and me. The dead ideas in the paper contrasted with our unresolved pain of grief and loss and exemplified the tension between the personal and the theoretical when it comes to matters of heart. Depth psychologist and scholar James Hillman often cautioned his listeners that abstract theorizing perils the animate living essence of the world. In my attempts to balance theory with life, I heard his ghost whispering, remember, “A snake is a snake!” (Hillman, 1997).
The essay below is a revised version of a paper I wrote in 2019 as I began my very short (one quarter!) career as a mental health counsellor. It is an example of writing that tends toward the abstract and theoretical and I post it here in preparation for future writing where I hope to explore more fully the depth psychological implications of the human-animal bond. Kohut’s self-psychology provides a theoretical bridge for me that others interested in this topic may also value. Although the term I maintain the term pet throughout because of its prevalence during the 1990’s when the research that forms the core of this paper was performed.
The Blog is divided into two parts. The first part introduces the ideas of Kohut's self-psychology and shows how they have been applied to the human animal bond. The second part uses The Mustang (Goldman et al., 2019) to explore examples of Kohut's self-psychology expressed in the relationship between a prison inmate and a wild horse.
PART I: Self Psychology and the Human-Animal Bond
Introduction
Although Kohut’s self-psychology was proposed decades ago as a theoretical model that might add clarity and insight into the psychology of the human-animal bond, psychologist, and researcher Sue-Ellen Brown (2004) remains one of only a few scholars to explore it in depth. In this paper, I summarize Brown’s research into the human-animal bond using self-psychology and the self-object functions of mirroring, idealizing, and twinship (1997, 2002, 2004, 2011). Then, I explore horses as potential self-objects for inmates in the movie The Mustang (Goldman & de Clermont-Tonnerre, 2019), a fictionalized story involving the Wild Horse Inmate Program (WHIP) where prisoners care for and domesticate wild horses. Finally, I support Brown’s proposal that self-object psychology provides insight into the human-animal bond, including horses.
History
The Human-Animal Bond
Definition. A decades-old term, the human-animal bond identifies the relationship between domestic animals and the people who care for them (Hines, 2003). Humans used to exchange food and shelter toward species like dogs, cats, and horses for practical uses like protecting farms, killing mice, or pulling ploughs. Today, sharing human lives, homes, and beds as intimate family members meets the physical and emotional needs of these species, commonly known as pets but more appropriately named companion animals. Time, changing roles, and close examination contribute to a growing appreciation for companion animals’ role in the human psyche (Walsh, 2009). Today, mental health therapy incorporating companion animals has proliferated and includes diverse programs and species like equine-assisted psychotherapy (Lee, Dakin, & McClure, 2016), dogs in dyad and group therapy (Glucksman, 2005), and horses, cats, and dogs in institutional settings such as hospitals, residential homes, and prisons (Wells, 2007). However, the underlying theoretical framework of how the complex human-animal bond functions in human psychology remains underdeveloped (Walsh, 2009).
Research. Kidd and Kidd first proposed exploring the human-animal bond using object relations theory in the 1980’s (as cited in Brown, 2004, p. 68). Next, two independent psychologists published papers exploring the child-pet bond using Kohut’s self-psychology (Alper, 1993 & Wolf, 1994, as cited in Brown, 2004, p. 68). Brown (2004) followed, applying self-psychology to her research involving college students and their pets (Brown & Katcher, 1997, 2002). Collectively, this research indicates that companion animals fulfill human self-object needs and self-psychology provides insight into the complex human-animal bond.
Brown and Katcher (1997) designed their initial study using research indicating that the human-animal bond and unstructured time in nature reduce stress. They compared the contented feelings that owners reported while with a pet versus unstructured time spent in nature. They postulated that both pets and the natural world induced trance-like combinations of dissociation which they defined as disrupted normal conscious presence, and absorption, a partial dissociation caused by inner distraction involving imagination and fantasy (Brown & Katcher, 2002, p. 36).
Using validated self-reporting questionnaires, Brown and Katcher (1997) compared college students that expressed strong attachment to their pets with those that did not. As the researchers predicted, attached students had evidence of dissociation, but they were surprised by the high risk associated with the most attached students, who, compared to less attached colleagues, self-reported a clinically significant dissociative disorder three times more often (p. 127). The authors combined established research linking trauma to dissociation with their findings and postulated that some traumatized people rely on strong pet attachments to cope (p. 127). Interestingly, they also associated pet attachment with enhanced imaginal thinking.
Brown and Katcher (2002) next investigated women studying veterinary technology and hypothesized that they would express strong pet attachment due to their career choice. These women were strongly attached to their pets, but unexpectedly, the study also revealed an even greater correlation between attachment and dissociation in the veterinary technology students than in previous studies involving general college students. In conclusion, dissociation was the only personality trait they identified that predicted strong pet attachment (p. 36). The authors also speculated the presence of unreported trauma in women drawn to veterinary medicine and advocated further attention be paid to this finding.
(Part II continues to further explain Kohut's theory and then to use the movie The Mustang (Goldman et al., 2019) to exemplify Kohut's self-psychology expressed in the equine-human bond. Part II also introduces the current American situation between prisons, prisoners and wild horses and then discusses some of the psychological implications regarding horses' capacity to act as self objects and finishes with a few thoughts on equine assisted therapy used in support of human mental health.)
References
Alper, L. S. (1993). The child-pet bond. In A. Goldberg (Ed.), The widening scope of self psychology: Progress in self psychology (Vol. 9, pp. 257-270). Hillsdale, NJ: The Analytic Press.
Brown, S.-E. (2004). The human-animal bond and self psychology: Toward a new understanding. Society & Animals, 12:1, 67–86.
Brown, S.-E. (2011). Self-psychology and the human animal bond: An overview. In C. Blazina, G. Boyraz, & D. Shen-Miller (Eds.), The Psychology of the human-animal bond (pp. 137-149). Retrieved from https://www.researchgate.net/publication/299533956
Brown, S.-E., & Katcher, A. H. (1997). The contribution of attachment to pets and attachment to nature to dissociation and absorption. Dissociation: Progress in the Dissociative Disorders, 10(2), 125–129.
Brown, S.-E., & Katcher, A. (2002). Pet Attachment and Dissociation. Society & Animals, 9(1), 25–41.
Glucksman, M. L. (2005). The dog’s role in the analyst’s consulting room, 33(4), 611–618.
Goldman, A. (Producer), & de Clermont-Tonnerre, L. (Director). (2019). The mustang [Motion picture]. United States, France, Beligium: Focus Features.
Hillman, J & McClean. M. (1997). Dream Animals. San Francisco, CA: Chronicle Books.
Hines, L. M. (2003). Historical perspectives on the human-animal bond. American Behavioral Scientist, 47(1), 7–15.
Kohut, H., & Wolf, E. S. (1978). The disorders of the self and their treatment: An outline. International Journal of Psycho-Analysis, 59, 413–425.
Walsh, F. (2009). Human-animal bonds I: The relational significance of companion animals. Family Process, 48(4), 462–480.
Comments