Love and Horror in Grief: An Autopsychography on the Loss of a Beloved Animal Companion

2020 ◽  
pp. 002216782095089
Author(s):  
Bethany Morris
Keyword(s):  
Companion Animal ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
Animal Companion ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Humanistic Tradition

Using an autopsychographic approach as advocated by Yuan and Hickman, this article demonstrates the ways in which love and horror are implicated in one another during the experience of grief at the loss of a companion animal. The relationship between the human and the companion animal is explored through Lacan’s understanding of love premised on lack and an ethical relationship to the lack in the other. When that other dies, horror may be an intrusive emotion premised on a feeling of the uncanny with the familiar becoming unfamiliar. These experiences are then rearticulated in the context of the human–animal relationship through psychoanalytic and existential themes, arguing that the loss of such a relationship needs to be appreciated in theorizations about grief and meaning within the humanistic tradition.

scholarly journals Capturing The Ancient Animal: Human/Animal Studies and the Classics

2017 ◽  
Vol 137 ◽  
pp. 213-225 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Kindt
Keyword(s):  
Animal Studies ◽  
Significant Contribution ◽  
The Other ◽  
Turn Of The Millennium ◽  
Ancient Greek ◽  
Classical Scholarship ◽  
Classical Studies ◽  
Roman Culture ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
The Relationship

AbstractThis article reviews several books published since the turn of the millennium that explore the role and representation of animals in different areas of ancient Greek and Roman culture. Despite differences in focus and outlook, these books herald the arrival within classical studies of the questions, concepts and methods of human/animal studies as an emerging field of enquiry. This article takes their publication as an opportunity to take stock and to outline the relationship between these disciplines. I explore how current research on ancient animals resonates both in existing debates in classical scholarship and within the context of the larger interdisciplinary debate. I also suggest how this debate can point to productive avenues for further enquiry in classical studies. More specifically, I argue that the interdisciplinary debate sets an important agenda, which should be embraced more fully by classical studies. Classical scholarship on the role, function and perception of animals in different areas of ancient Greek and Roman life can provide important insights into one aspect of the heritage – Western conceptions of humanity and the place of the animal within it – which has not yet received the attention it deserves. I conclude that classical scholarship can make a significant contribution to the interdisciplinary debate, helping it deliver on its stated goal of examining and challenging Western concepts of self, as well as the ideologies of ‘the other’ underpinning them.

‘You don’t know what Hugo’s capable of’

Dead of Night ◽  
2015 ◽  
pp. 95-110
Author(s):  
Jez Conolly ◽  
David Owain Bates
Keyword(s):  
The Other ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
Love Triangle ◽  
The Relationship

This chapter studies Dead of Night's most potent and well-remembered story, ‘Ventriloquist's Dummy’ directed by Alberto Cavalcanti. The peculiar three-way relationship between the ventriloquist Maxwell Frere (Michael Redgrave), his dummy ‘Hugo’, and rival ventriloquist Sylvester Kee (Hartley Power) raises many fascinating issues concerning masculinity. Indeed, this relationship has come to be regarded as a metaphorical homosexual love triangle. If one reads the ‘courtship’ of Frere by Kee as being indirectly enacted through his interest in Hugo, it is straightforward enough. What makes the theme more compelling is Frere's tortured jealousy of his Hugo persona. The chapter then traces the origins of bestowing animacy upon inanimate objects and the relationship this has to the concept of the Uncanny. It also considers the ‘fourth man’ in this story, the ‘doubting Thomas’ psychiatrist Doctor Van Straaten (Frederick Valk), responsible for the telling of the tale and the rational foil to Walter Craig and the other guests throughout the film as they share their respective supernatural experiences.

scholarly journals Tropical Malady: Film & the Question of the Uncanny Human-Animal

2016 ◽  
Vol 10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Creed
Keyword(s):  
Silent Period ◽  
The Other ◽  
Love Story ◽  
The Uncanny ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
The Tropics

The acclaimed Thai film, Tropical Malady (2004), represents the tropics as a surreal place where conscious and unconscious are as inextricably entwined. Directed by Apichatpong Weerasethakul, Tropical Malady presents two interconnected stories: one a quirky gay love story; the other a strange disconnected narrative about a shape-shifting shaman, a man-beast and a ghostly tiger. This paper will argue that from it beginnings in the silent period, the cinema has created an uncanny zone of tropicality where human and<br />animal merge.

Emotion Work of Coping with the Death of a Companion Animal

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (1) ◽  
pp. 109-125 ◽  
Author(s):  
Karyn McKinney
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Data ◽  
Companion Animal ◽  
Emotion Work ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
Animal Companion ◽  
The Right ◽  
Key Aspects

AbstractThis study uses qualitative data to explore how guardians cope with the death of animal companions. Respondents struggle with the expectations of a speciesist emotion culture that mediates bereavement following the death of a non-human animal. This struggle reveals four key aspects of emotion work: 1) justifying grief to themselves and others; 2) accepting that the companion animal has died at the “right time”; 3) using rituals, religion, or spirituality to cope; and 4) adopting a new animal companion.

Companion Animal Death

2017 ◽  
Vol 75 (2) ◽  
pp. 124-150 ◽  
Author(s):  
Allison M. J. Reisbig ◽  
McArthur Hafen ◽  
Adryanna A. Siqueira Drake ◽  
Destiny Girard ◽  
Zachary B. Breunig
Keyword(s):  
Companion Animals ◽  
Companion Animal ◽  
Helping Professionals ◽  
Human Relationships ◽  
Practical Applications ◽  
Loss And Grief ◽  
Subsequent Loss ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
And Coping ◽  
The Relationship

Human–animal relationships are increasingly incorporated into families as a normal part of family life. Despite this, relationships with animals are often viewed as inferior to human relationships. This becomes problematic during times of loss and grief when members of a grieving companion animal owner's support system do not understand the salience of the relationship with the animal. Veterinary and other helping professionals need basic information about the experience of companion animal loss in order to help support and normalize the experiences of grieving companion animal owners. The present study qualitatively describes human–animal relationships and the subsequent loss and coping experienced by owners of beloved companion animals. Comparison with human and other types of loss and factors unique to companion animal loss are discussed, and practical applications for veterinary and other helping professionals are provided.

scholarly journals Night Animals

PhaenEx ◽  
2007 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 309
Author(s):  
MARIIANNE MAYS
Keyword(s):  
Companion Animal ◽  
Point Of No Return ◽  
The Future ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
The Relationship

"Night Animals" is part of a larger investigation into the relationship between humans and animals. Traditionally humans have distinguished themselves from other animals and from their own animality; the question of the animal, however repressed or uncanny, nonetheless encroaches upon our symbolic spheres and our very psyches. We might ask about the possibilities for human-animal interrelation, and what these possibilities indicate about the future: what promise is held there? This poem forwards the possibility of a companion animal that might be followed, or mounted and ridden--perhaps in a dream--and with which one could communicate in some fashion, perhaps even telepathically. As with all dreams, one wonders whether there is a point of no return, and what going beyond might mean.

The Companion Animal Bonding Scale: Internal Reliability and Construct Validity

1987 ◽  
Vol 60 (3) ◽  
pp. 743-746 ◽  
Author(s):  
Robert H. Poresky ◽  
Charles Hendrix ◽  
Jacob E. Mosier ◽  
Marvin L. Samuelson
Keyword(s):  
Construct Validity ◽  
Companion Animals ◽  
Companion Animal ◽  
Attitude Scale ◽  
Weak Effect ◽  
Pet Ownership ◽  
Internal Reliability ◽  
Human Animal ◽  
Relationship Of ◽  
The Relationship

The literature on the relationship of companion animals and children shows only a weak effect of human-animal bonding on child development. The use of “pet ownership” or cohabitation rather than the relationship or interaction between the child and the animal as a measure of bonding appears to be a serious and limiting deficiency, which impaired the empirical evidence concerning the development and effects of human-animal bonding. The Companion Animal Bonding Scale is an 8-item behavioral scale describing the extent of child-animal activities. The scale was administered by questionnaire with a childhood focus and a contemporary focus to 121 high school and college students. The Cronbach alpha estimates of internal reliability were 0.82 and 0.77, respectively. Construct validity was indicated by significant correlations between scores on the Pet Attitude Scale and the childhood and contemporary bonding scale of .39 and .40, respectively.

The Relationship Between Suicidal Thinking and Dating Violence in a Sample of Adolescent Abortion Patients

Crisis ◽  
2011 ◽  
Vol 32 (5) ◽  
pp. 246-253 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gretchen E. Ely ◽  
William R. Nugent ◽  
Julie Cerel ◽  
Mholi Vimbba
Keyword(s):  
Unintended Pregnancy ◽  
Dating Violence ◽  
Young Women ◽  
Psychosocial Problems ◽  
The Other ◽  
Assessment Scale ◽  
Adolescent Dating Violence ◽  
Adolescent Relationships ◽  
Suicidal Thinking ◽  
The Relationship

Background: The relationship between suicidal thinking and adolescent dating violence has not been previously explored in a sample of adolescent abortion patients. Aims: This paper highlights a study where the relationship between dating violence and severity of suicidal thinking was examined in a sample of 120 young women ages 14–21 seeking to terminate an unintended pregnancy. Methods: The Multidimensional Adolescent Assessment Scale and the Conflict in Adolescent Relationships Scale was used to gather information about psychosocial problems and dating violence so that the relationship between the two problems could be examined, while controlling for the other psychosocial problems. Results: The results suggest that dating violence was related to severity of suicidal thinking, and that the magnitude of this relationship was moderated by the severity of problems with aggression. Conclusions: Specifically, as the severity of participant’s general problems with aggression increased, the magnitude of the relationship between dating violence and severity of suicidal thinking increased. Limitations of the study and implications for practice are discussed.

Emotional Impact Feedback Changes How We Remember Negative Autobiographical Experiences

2010 ◽  
Vol 57 (5) ◽  
pp. 354-359 ◽  
Author(s):  
Melanie K. T. Takarangi ◽  
Deryn Strange
Keyword(s):  
Well Being ◽  
The Other ◽  
Personal Perspective ◽  
Emotional Impact ◽  
Potential Mechanism ◽  
Negative Experiences ◽  
Negative Memory ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
Negative Memories ◽  
Over Time

When people are told that their negative memories are worse than other people’s, do they later remember those events differently? We asked participants to recall a recent negative memory then, 24 h later, we gave some participants feedback about the emotional impact of their event – stating it was more or less negative compared to other people’s experiences. One week later, participants recalled the event again. We predicted that if feedback affected how participants remembered their negative experiences, their ratings of the memory’s characteristics should change over time. That is, when participants are told that their negative event is extremely negative, their memories should be more vivid, recollected strongly, and remembered from a personal perspective, compared to participants in the other conditions. Our results provide support for this hypothesis. We suggest that external feedback might be a potential mechanism in the relationship between negative memories and psychological well-being.

Haematocrit: Relationships with Blood Lipids, Blood Pressure and other Cardiovascular Risk Factors

1994 ◽  
Vol 72 (01) ◽  
pp. 058-064 ◽  
Author(s):  
Goya Wannamethee ◽  
A Gerald Shaper
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Risk Factors ◽  
Blood Pressure ◽  
Body Mass Index ◽  
Cardiovascular Risk ◽  
Cardiovascular Risk Factors ◽  
Alcohol Intake ◽  
Blood Lipids ◽  
The Other ◽  
The Relationship

SummaryThe relationship between haematocrit and cardiovascular risk factors, particularly blood pressure and blood lipids, has been examined in detail in a large prospective study of 7735 middle-aged men drawn from general practices in 24 British towns. The analyses are restricted to the 5494 men free of any evidence of ischaemic heart disease at screening.Smoking, body mass index, physical activity, alcohol intake and lung function (FEV1) were factors strongly associated with haematocrit levels independent of each other. Age showed a significant but small independent association with haematocrit. Non-manual workers had slightly higher haematocrit levels than manual workers; this difference increased considerably and became significant after adjustment for the other risk factors. Diabetics showed significantly lower levels of haematocrit than non-diabetics. In the univariate analysis, haematocrit was significantly associated with total serum protein (r = 0*18), cholesterol (r = 0.16), triglyceride (r = 0.15), diastolic blood pressure (r = 0.17) and heart rate (r = 0.14); all at p <0.0001. A weaker but significant association was seen with systolic blood pressure (r = 0.09, p <0.001). These relationships remained significant even after adjustment for age, smoking, body mass index, physical activity, alcohol intake, lung function, presence of diabetes, social class and for each of the other biological variables; the relationship with systolic blood pressure was considerably weakened. No association was seen with blood glucose and HDL-cholesterol. This study has shown significant associations between several lifestyle characteristics and the haematocrit and supports the findings of a significant relationship between the haematocrit and blood lipids and blood pressure. It emphasises the role of the haematocrit in assessing the risk of ischaemic heart disease and stroke in individuals, and the need to take haematocrit levels into account in determining the importance of other cardiovascular risk factors.

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