Animal Madness

March 3, 2014
In this illuminating contribution to the burgeoning field of animal studies, senior TED fellow Braitman suggests that the key to understanding mental illness might lie in our pets. Humans, she reveals, are not the only ones who experience emotional turbulence or mental problems that break daily routine. Bears can endure heartbreak, elephants can form intense social attachments, and gorillas can die from homesickness. Few species escape her discussion. Braitman’s delightful balance of humor and poignancy brings each case to life as she draws on her own experience, research, and the theories of Darwin, Descartes, and others. We have always described animal behavior using human terminology, and analyzing these accounts in historical context leads to revelations about the human species and larger issues of language and communication. Yet emotion is in part contingent upon the ability to express it, so the varied capacities for self-awareness and language within the animal world are perhaps the only possible loopholes to Braitman’s logic. But analytical scrutiny would not be the way to approach this book, whose continuous dose of hope should prove medicinal for humans and animals alike. Agent: Barney M. Karpfinger, Karpfinger Agency.

April 1, 2014

Eschewing statistics and experimental data in favor of her own stories and historical anecdotes, Braitman, a trained historian of science, appeals directly to her readers' emotions with tales of anguished elephants and heartsick gorillas. The writing, informed by the author's academic background, relies heavily on the views of 19th-century naturalists, e.g., Charles Darwin and William Lauder Lindsay, although Braitman does cite such modern ethologists and psychologists as Mark Bekoff and Jaak Panskepp. Braitman highlights the similarities between human and nonhuman emotion but seems focused on proving that nonhuman animals can feel. The author's book is more overtly evangelical than Virginia Morell's Animal Wise: The Thoughts and Emotions of Our Fellow Creatures, but both titles make similar arguments: that the time has come to rethink our ban on anthropomorphism, that beasts can indeed think and experience other senses, and that we ought to do more for (and less to) our furry and feathered cousins. VERDICT This engaging, compassionate read will touch the hearts of animal lovers but is unlikely to convert skeptics. Readers in search of a straightforward review of current animal-cognition literature may be put off by Braitman's inclusion of details from her personal life and should turn to Morell's book, mentioned above, instead.--Kate Horowitz, Washington, DC

Copyright 2014 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2014
Humans aren't the only animals that suffer from emotional thunderstorms, and author Braitman came to the same conclusion that Charles Darwin arrived at: that nonhuman animals can suffer from mental illnesses that mirror those that humans endure. Starting her fascinating account of animal neuroses with her own dog, who snapped at nonexistent flies and jumped out of a fourth-floor window, Braitman began to read scientific papers and historical literature, eventually traveling to many countries in search of troubled animals and to observe what people did to help them. She found parrots that plucked out their feathers and primates who pulled out their hair, elephants that were so aggressive that their mahouts feared for their lives, tigers with facial tics, and a neurotic donkey who loves massages. The wonderful thing she discovered is that it is possible for these animals to heal, a message crystallized by her encounters with friendly gray whales who sought out human contact, even though they still bore harpoon scars from the whaling days. Acknowledging mental illness in other animals, and helping them recover, obviously can be a comforting experience.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)

May 15, 2014
Through experiential and anecdotal evidence, science historian and senior TED fellow Braitman takes measure of the emotional thunderstorms that cramp or even curtail the normal lives of animals."Every animal with a mind has the capacity to lose hold of it from time to time," writes the author in this investigation into the literature of abnormal animal behavior, both the scientific and the observational. There is much here that will remind readers of Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson-a gift for storytelling, strong observational talents, an easy familiarity with the background material and a warm level of empathy-and Braitman emphasizes that it doesn't require an enormous leap of faith to feel our kinship with these beasts, particularly the suffering ones. Her recital of the historical tales of animal mental disorders is engaging, and into it she threads the experiments of cognitive ethologists, neurologists and behavioral biologists, as well as the troubling story of Oliver, her Bernese mountain dog who exhibited considerable signs of madness. What was at play in her dog's behavior-a constricted gene pool, the neurological misfirings of breeding? Braitman infuses her narrative with humorous ruminations-"we felt like perverts at the dog park-dogless people who came to look at dogs, luring other people's pets over to be petted with clandestine pockets of treats"-and she takes anthropomorphism just so far while casting a wary eye on "Pet Pharm" and the long, ignoble past of doping our pets. The author may gesture toward what "animals might tell us about ourselves," but she is thankfully willing to allow them their mystery, "that other animals have many special abilities that we don't have and this may extend to emotional states."Braitman's gradual accretion of reasons to believe in animal emotional states that we can relate to, including the loopy ones, gives pause and sparks curiosity.

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