When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals

Description

Arguments that animals possess an emotional life are often dismissed as sentimental anthropomorphism. This book challenges that notion by proposing that the objective scientific evidence for human emotions is all but non-existent. Thus, if the whole of our human psychological understanding rests on reflective inferences, why are the same criteria considered invalid for animals?

Jeffrey Masson graduated from the Toronto Psychoanalytic Institute and was briefly Projects Director of the Sigmund Freud Archives. The book he wrote with Susan McCarthy on animal emotions, When Elephants Weep (1994), became a bestseller in the United States. Since then he has published nine books on animals and their emotions, including Dogs Never Lie About Love, The Nine Emotional Lives of Cats and most recently, The Dog Who Couldn't Stop Loving. He lives with his family in Auckland, New Zealand.

"Powerful stuff... Accessible and entertaining" Guardian "A masterpiece... The most comprehensive and compelling argument for animal sensibility that I've yet seen" -- Elizabeth Marshall Thomas "A powerful case for re-examining our entire relationship with the animal world" -- Brian Jackman The Times "Among animal experts, When Elephants Weep is being hailed as a milestone in the battle to make man understand he is only one member of an enormous family" -- George Gordon Daily Mail