Cultural Zoo: Animals in the Human Mind and its Sublimation

This book traces the historical and cross-cultural aspects of the psychic bond between man and animals, and elucidates the role of animals in the normal development of the human mind. It discusses the phenomenology and dynamics of the appearance of animals in human dreams. Read more Continue reading Read less REVIEW
"This book is a major contribution to culture and to the psychoanalytic literature. The authors explore how animals, both wild and domesticated, have powerful symbolic meanings in our psyches, mythology, religion, literature, art, music, and popular culture. From the prehistoric art of Lascaux to Picasso, from The Fly to the American eagle, the psychoanalytic perceptions are subtle and suggestive, the aesthetic, film, and national insights are a delight." (Peter Loewenberg, Dean, Southern California Psychoanalytic Institute, Professor of History and Political Psychology)

"Our cousins - the animals - swarm, creep, fly, swim, and crawl all about us, even sharing our houses and infesting our bodies. We hunt them, breed, them, clothe ourselves with them, and eat them for dinner (as they sometimes do to us) . They populate our literature, myths, religions, arts, our language and its metaphors, and they haunt our unconscious fantasies and our dreams. The profoundest, fiercest, and most intimate urges and feelings within us are our animal passions and instincts. The parade of animals that accompany us through this life is held up for review and appreciation in these delightful essays, all of which share a dedication to the understanding of human life and culture through the lens of psychoanalytic theory in its manifold diversity." (Robert A. Paul, PhD, Candler Professor of Anthropology and Dean) --This text refers to the paperback edition. BOOK DESCRIPTION
In this book, North American psychiatrists explore the psychic bond between humans and animals and its importance in the normal development of the human mind, animals in human dreams, transformations of humans to animals in literature, animals generally in adult and children's literature and art, animals in religion, and how animals relate to immigration and national identity. --This text refers to the paperback edition. ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Salman Akhtar was born in India and completed his medical and psychiatric education there. Upon arriving in the USA in 1973, he repeated his psychiatric training at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, and then obtained psychoanalytic training from the Philadelphia Psychoanalytic Institute. Currently, he is Professor of Psychiatry at Jefferson Medical College and a training and supervising analyst at the Psychoanalytic Center of Philadelphia. He has authored, edited or co-edited more than 300 publications including books on psychiatry and psychoanalysis and several collections of poetry. He is also a Scholar-in-Residence at the InterAct Theatre Company in Philadelphia. Salman Akhtar received the Sigourney Award in 2012.

Vamik D. Volkan is Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry at the University of Virginia School of Medicine, an Emeritus Training and Supervising Analyst at the Washington Psychoanalytic Institute and the Senior Erik Erikson Scholar at the Austen Riggs Center in Stockbridge, Massachusetts. He was the Medical Director of the University of Virginia's Blue Ridge Hospital and director of the University of Virginia's Center for the Study of Mind and Human Interaction. He is a past president of the International Society of Political Psychology, the Virginia Psychoanalytic Society, the Turkish-American Neuropsychiatric Association, and the American College of Psychoanalysts. He is also the author or co-author of forty books and the editor or co-editor of ten more. He has served on the editorial boards of sixteen professional journals including the Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association, and has published more than four hundred scientific papers or book chapters. --This text refers to the paperback edition. Read more Continue reading Read less