Emperor's Embrace

Description

With fascinating insight, impeccable research, and captivating writing, controversial psychoanalyst Jeffrey Masson, a new father himself, showcases the extraordinary behaviour of outstanding fathers in the animal kingdom. From the emperor penguin, who incubates the eggs of his young by carrying them around on his feet for two months, to the sea-horse, the only male animal that gives birth to its young. Mason also examines nature's worst fathers; lions, bears, and humans. A book that will forever change our perceptions of parenthood and love.

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.

A valuable and fascinating contribution to the debate on man's relation to nature. Even for those who disagree, the wit of Jeffrey Masson's argument and the thousand little facts and anecdotes he serves with it make this book a pleasure. -- Mark Kurlansky, Author of Cod Lessons in fatherhood, challengingly and devastatingly told * Kirkus Reviews *