| Synopsis: |
'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, UCLA'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, Emory College |