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Textbook Cultural Zoo Animals in The Human Mind and Its Sublimation 1St Edition Salman Akhtar Ebook All Chapter PDF
Textbook Cultural Zoo Animals in The Human Mind and Its Sublimation 1St Edition Salman Akhtar Ebook All Chapter PDF
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CULTURAL ZOO
CULTURAL ZOO
Animals in the Human Mind
and Its Sublimations
Edited by
KARNAC
First published in 2005 by International Universities Press
Copyright © 2005 to Salman Akhtar and Vamık D. Volkan for the edited
collection, and to the individual authors for their contributions.
ISBN: 978-1-78220-166-3
To
the memories of
my grandfather's nameless donkeys,
true beasts of burden and important childhood friends;
and
to the continuing companionship of Al,
my feline writing companion
v.v.
Table of Contents
Contributors IX
Acknowledgments Xl
Introduction Xlll
Index 273
vii
Contributors
ix
X CONTRIBUTORS
This book is an expression of our love for animals and for psycho-
analysis. Both have taught us about the external and the internal
worlds. To both, we are profoundly indebted. We are also thank-
ful to the colleagues who have contributed to this volume. We
sincerely appreciate their efforts, their sacrifice of time, and,
above all, their patience with our rigorous requirements, relent-
less reminders, and repeated requests for revisions. Drs. John
Kafka and Eric Lager and Ms. Nishat Akhtar have drawn the pic-
tures of the rat, the wolf, and the horse, respectively, for the jacket
of the book and we wish to thank them here. Finally, we are
grateful to Maryann Nevin for her outstanding skill and industry
in the preparation of this book's manuscript. Her assistance in
conducting library searches, maintaining correspondence with
various authors, and her stylistic suggestions over the many years
from the book's conception to its publication, deserve our very
fond gratitude.
xi
Introduction
xiii
xiv INTRODUCTION
REFERENCES
Akhtar, S., & Volkan, V. D. (2003), The Mental Zoo: Animals in the Human
Mind and Its Pathology. Madison, CT: International Universities
Press.
Freud, S. (I 9 I 7), A difficulty in the path of psycho-analysis. Standard
Edition, I7:I35-I44. London: Hogarth Press, 1955.
Part I
Animals and the Human Mind
CHAPTER 1
3
4 THE CULTURAL ZOO
CONTRASTING PERSPECTIVES
Is a wolf "The Big Bad Wolf" that wanted to devour Little Red
Riding Hood or the empathic nurturing maternal wolf who suck-
led and cared for Romulus and Remus? Is a coyote a sly pest and
"varmint," or, as many Native American Indians believe, a spunky
(albeit bumbling and imperfect) improviser and creator with an
indomitable spirit who strives to achieve and ultimately succeeds,
becoming a cultural hero (Freeman, 1981)?
Wolves were the first animals to be befriended and domesti-
cated by our ancestors. Dogs, whom we in our culture regard as
our best friends, are descendants of big bad wolves of an earlier
era. Groups of wolves and people often hunted the same game
and were often in contact with one another when wolves scav-
enged from human encampments. Wolves use collaborative strat-
egies in hunting that are similar to those used by humans. They
are social animals that become attached to and share with one
another. Although the alpha wolves that become leaders of wolf
packs are more assertive and aggressive, other wolves are follow-
ers. Some wolves became somewhat less wary and more accli-
mated to people. When adopted by humans at a very young age
as gregarious cuddly puppies, they followed and became loyally
attached to us, were able to relate and communicate with us, and
were sensitive and responsive to our feelings. People started to
realize that we have much in common. We became friends. They
care if we cry, and they come to us for reassurance when they are
frightened by thunder.
Are puppy dogs in fact delightful roly-poly balls of fun and
joy that will grow up with us to be our friends and comfort us
when we are lonely, or are they delectable pieces of meat to be
5
power in many cultures. The eerie sounds, staring eyes, and noc-
turnal habits of owls make them appear to be frightening and
ghostlike for many people. On the other hand, in many instances
different cultures may perceive the same animal from contrasting
perspectives. Sometimes the contrasting fantasies projected onto
an animal resemble the hypothesis of the fabled blind men in
the story of The Blind Men and the Elephant 2-each focusing upon
a different aspect or part of the whole as people grope without
comprehensive understanding. Equestrian hunters of wild buf-
falo, pastoral herders of domesticated cattle, farmers using oxen
to pull plows or carts, bull fighters, and Hindus view bovine mam-
mals from different perspectives. In Biblical times an innocent
lamb or goat, tenderly cared for by the shepherd who raised it,
could suddenly become conceptually transmuted into a "sacrifi-
cial lamb" slain to appease the gods, or a "scapegoat" onto whom
men externalized responsibility for their sins and evil.
In different cultures, the dividing lines or boundaries be-
tween animals and humans and between the animate and the
inanimate may be distinct, blurred, or changeable. Even when
the categories are clearly differentiated, animals may later be sec-
ondarily imagined to be human, or to be transformations or rein-
carnations of humans or of ancestral spirits. Humans, in turn,
may become "possessed" by animal spirits or by animal forces
("becoming" the animal, or feeling themselves to be suffused
with the animal's positive or negative "power"); or they may be-
come possessed or inspired by a supernatural half-animal and
half-human angel or devil. In animalistic fantasies, inanimate enti-
ties or phenomena and forces of nature may be conceived of as
being sensate, animate, and alive. Rocks, mountains, waterfalls,
lightning, and celestial bodies may be conceived as being con-
scious and possessing supernatural power. Inanimate substances
may be sculpted into the shapes of animals or humans to become
idols, puppets, or toys and imaginatively endowed with animal,
human, or supernatural qualities.
When cultures undergo changes, their symbolic use of ani-
mal images can change significantly within a relatively brief pe-
riod of time. For example, when Godzilla (originally called
2
An ancient Indian fable illustrating the many-sidedness of things, popularized in
English in a poem by John Godfrey Saxe (1816--1887).
8 THE CULTURAL ZOO
invests them with meaning and with feelings, and how, in the
course of learning about external reality, he starts to distinguish
beings that are human from those that are animal. Similar funda-
mental biological mechanisms underlie cognitive and emotional
functioning in all infants, and a similar sequence of early develop-
mental issues can be observed in children in all cultures. How-
ever, there is variety from culture to culture in child-rearing
experiences during particular developmental stages; cultural con-
ceptual categories; shared fantasies, and cultural preferences for
the use of particular adaptive mechanisms; the external environ-
mental and social realities to which one must adapt; rates of pro-
gression along various developmental lines; and the organization
of intrapsychic functions at different stages. 3 The resultant effects
on intrapsychic development lead to recognizably different per-
sonality and societal patterns, and different ways of relating to
humans of one's own group, humans perceived to be alien, and
to animals.
An important factor in shaping our relationships with all
beings is the degree to which we develop a comfortable sense of
trust and safe interdependence in childhood, as opposed to an
alert, anxious need to scrutinize and be on guard for imaginary
or real potential dangers. From within experiences of safety while
being held in protective arms, the baby starts to learn about exter-
nal percepts. How does a child come to conclusions about and
establish a classification delineating what is "animate" as op-
posed to "inanimate," and then separate what is "human" from
what is "animal"? How does an infant distinguish those that are
beneficent from those that are harmful? Does the child move
from primarily depending upon and evoking responses from oth-
ers toward an enjoyment of personal autonomy, control, and mas-
tery? As he matures, does he develop an enjoyment of sharing
and of mutual giving and receiving? In what ways are primary
process creative fantasy and illusion and/ or secondary process
3
In every culture, derivatives of early intrapsychic and emotional mechanisms persist
in modified form into adulthood or may be revived in adulthood. They are culturally
valued if they contribute to creative thinking and/ or adaptation in current life circum-
stances. Recognition that a culture values and makes use of derivatives of early ways of
handling feelings or thinking does not imply that either the mechanism or the culture is
immature, less sophisticated, or less well adapted to its environment.
10 THE CULTURAL ZOO
When a newborn infant opens his eyes for the first time he is
fascinated by an intriguing menagerie of animate shapes and im-
ages which have not yet acquired meaning. Intense, moving, and
changing stimuli catch the infant's attention and evoke scrutiny. 4
During periods of relaxed, alert, outwardly directed attentiveness,
the baby is magnetically drawn toward percepts which appear to
be alive and to possess riveting qualities of sound, touch, smell,
and movement.
At first, before an infant has begun to group percepts into
meaningful patterns and before he can recognize things or peo-
ple, everything appears to be a quasi-animate part of one bound-
less bubbling surround. The infant has not yet distinguished
stable, predictable inanimate things from those things that may
suddenly startle and attract attention by acting, moving, chang-
ing, and creating visual, audible or tactile sensations.
As the baby starts to collect sensory impressions, his mother
usually serves an important supportive function in filtering and
moderating the child's exposure to stimulation, protecting the
infant from anxiety-provoking stimulus overload. She selectively
focuses the infant's attention on relevant stimuli (like feeding)
and helps him to recognize patterns. 5
4
Newborns possess inherent cognitive capacities and adaptive potentialities. They
scan the surround, concentrate, focus their gaze, compare, assimilate, organize, and inte-
grate sensory information (Weil, 1970; Greenspan, 1991). They also reach out for and
evoke interaction.
5
If this help is not provided, as is the case in some cultures (Freeman, 1989), the
infant is more on its own in defensively developing filters to select what needs to be
attended to as opposed to what needs to be filtered out. In these circumstances the infant
may develop an increased tendency to startle responses and strangeness anxiety, decreased
confident expectation and trust, and an increased tendency to rely upon primitive dissoci-
ative defense mechanisms.
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Like feendes of hell, the guiltles to betray,
But yee chiefly his kinsmen most vnkinde,
Which gaue consent to make him so away,
That vnto God, with all my heart I pray,
Vengeaunce may light on him that caused all,
Beaufort, I meane, that cursed cardinall.
27.
28.
29.
30.
The spitefull prieste would needes make mee a witch,
As would to God I had beene for his sake,
I would haue claw’d him where hee did not itche,
I would haue playde the lady of the lake,
And as Merline was, cloasde him in a brake,
Ye a meridian to lul him by day light,
And a night mare to ride on him by night.
31.
32.
33.
35.
36.
37.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
Quod G. F.[695]
[“Svrely,” sayd one of the company, “this lady hath done much to
moue the hearers to pitye her, and hath very well knit vp her[696]
tragedy according to the beginning: but I meruayl much where shee
learned all this poetry touched in her tale, for in her dayes learning
was not common, but a rare thing, namely in women.” “Yes,” quod
Maister Ferrers, “that might shee very well learne of the duke her
husband, who was a prince so excellently learned, as the like of his
degree was no where to bee founde. And not only so, but was also a
patron to poets and orators, much like as Mecenas was in the time of
Augustus Cæsar. This duke was founder of the diuinity schole in
Oxford, whereas he caused Aristotle’s workes to bee translated out
of Greeke into Latin, and caused many other thinges to bee done for
aduauncement of learning, hauing alwayes learned men nere about
him, no meruayl therefore though the duchesse brought some pece
away.” “Mee-thinke,” quod another, “shee passeth boundes of a
ladye’s modesty, to inuey so cruelly against the cardinall Beaufort.”
“Not a whit,” quod another, “hauing such cause as shee had, and
somwhat ye must beare with women’s passions. Therefore leaue
wee her to eternall rest, and let vs heare what Maister Ferrers will
say for the duke her husband, whose case was the more lamentable,
in that hee suffered without cause. And surely though the cardinall
against nature was the duke’s mortall foe, yet the chiefe causers of
his confusion was the queene and William Delapoole, earle of
Suffolke, and afterwardes duke, whose counsayle was chiefly
followed in the contriuing of this noble man’s destruction. Shee
through ambition to haue soueraynty and rule, and hee through
flattery to purchase honour and promotion, which as hee in short
time obtayned, so in as short time he lost agayne, and his life withall
by the iust iudgement of God, receiuing such measure as he before
met to this good prince. This drift of his turned to the vtter
ouerthrowe of the king himselfe, the queene his wife, and Edward
theyr son a most goodly prince, and to the subuersion of the whole
house of Lancaster, as you may see at large in the cronicles: but
now let vs heare what the duke will say.”]
Howe Hvmfrey Plantagenet Duke of
Glocester Protector of England,
during the minority of his nephue
King Henry the sixt, (commonly called
the good Duke) by practise of
enemyes was brought to confusion.
1.
2.
3.
In theyr moste weale to beware of vnhap,[699]
And not to sleepe in slumbring sickernes,
Whilst fortune false doth lul them in her lap
Drowned in dreames of brittle blessednesse,
But then to feare her freakes and ficklenesse
Accompting still the higher they ascend,
More nigh to bee to daunger in the end.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
Meaning hereby his rebell children three,
Henry and Richard, [who] bet him on the breast:
(Ieffrey onely from that offence was free)
Henry dyed of England’s crowne possest:
Richard liued his father to molest,
Iohn the yongest pect [still] his father’s eye,
Whose deedes vnkind the sooner made him dye.
15.
16.
17.
19.
20.
21.
22.
23.
24.
25.
26.
27.
28.
29.
30.
31.
32.
33.
I being seene somewhat in ciuill lawe,
The rules thereof reputed much better:[721]
Wherefore to keepe offenders more in awe,
Like as the fault was smaller or greater,
So set I paynes more easier or bitter,
Waying the quality of euery offence,
And so according pronounced sentence.
34.
35.
36.
38.
39.
40.
41.
42.
43.
44.
45.
46.
47.
48.