Laurel Braitman explores animal psychology and behavior problems in this survey of existing knowledge and theory combined with her personal story and the history of the human use of animals. She starts off describing the day that Oliver, her Bernese Mountain Dog, was left alone in their apartment, and pushed out an air conditioner and jumped out of the window dropping 50 feet.  She goes on to discuss separation anxiety in dogs, and various approaches to understanding it. She compares work on animals with work on humans, arguing that often there are powerful connections between the two. The fundamental nature of states like anxiety, fear, and depression can be shared between humans and other animals, although Braitman is also sensitive to the fact that there are major differences and we cannot assume that our own experience is the same as that of animals. She uses famous experiments such as Harlow’s work on monkeys, and some lesser known empirical work, to explain some of the psychology of animals. She discusses pets, farm animals, circus animals, and zoo animals. On the whole, she argues that animals have long been mistreated because they are misunderstood, and it may be difficult or even impossible to find acceptable uses of animals for the entertainment or nutrition of humans. She argues that often people are not in a position to give satisfactory life to companion animals, especially dogs who need a lot of attention and exercise. Animal Madness is written well and has lots of engaging stories, and gives a good survey of animal abnormal psychology.

© 2017 Christian Perring

Christian Perring teaches in NYC.