I have a, mixed, love-hate relationship with western medicine.  In the span of 100 years it has significantly extended our lifespan and changed the things that most often kill us from things in the environment (malaria and pneumonia), to ourselves (i.e. excessive French fries and smoking).  Medicine, built on the cold-mechanistic shoulders of science, views us, in large degree as machines.  We can replace, tighten and modify most all of our parts, in the same way that we can soup up a muscle car or renovate an old Chevy.  Doctors all too often lack bedside manner, seemingly oblivious to the importance of connection or relationship in healing.  This reductionist and mechanical view of life is amplified in the conventional view of non-human animals in medicine.  Animals are also machines- but they are viewed as less important machines that can be practiced and experimented on so as to serve and protect the implicitly important stuff of the universe (us).  

Within this backdrop, I will say that Aysha Akhtar’s book Our Symphony with Animals is a clear refutation of this notion.  Akhtar, a medical doctor, writes a book that aims to explain how our empathy, whether in excess or in deficiency, influences our health.  The story reflects this story from many different walks of life. It moves from the emotionally barren mind of a serial killer, the emotionally scarred mind of PTSD, to the robustly innocent minds of children learning how to live and take care of their first pets.  

An important implicit message in the writing is that people’s perceptions of  animals/food can be changed by the psychological distance given to it.  For example, the term “food” is less threatening to people than say “pork” which is less threatening than “pig” which is less threatening than “sally.”  People may be less likely to eat “sally” because that psychological distance is necessary for some of the institutional cruelty that we inflict on animals. 

I believe a huge strength of Akhtar’s book is the face that she gives to the issues and the animals that she discusses.  She paints vivid, pictures of various people and the animals who help them live; in some cases who allow them to live.   She drives home the point that non-human animals are important to us; physically and psychologically.  The roots of this connection are both hormonal and biologically hardwired into us, but also existential.  The net result of healthy relationships with other earthlings on us is increased and improved health, well-being and centeredness.   

Akhtar is one of a group of leaders in the movement to raise awareness and consciousness to the issues surrounding how non-human animals are treated and thought of by humans.  It is a wide and growing movement that is raising awareness to the impact of animal agribusiness on the environment and animal meat consumption on health.  The book underscores the importance of relationship with animals for personal health.  It is the type of book that I hope can be read in medical schools to remind other doctors that relationship and connection are just as important as the chemical and surgical tools that extolled in classes.  Empathy is a tool that should be honed, like every other.    

Ultimately, an important message of the book is that Animals have a clear positive role in medicine and in life. The role need not be destructive towards them, because ultimately, we are damaged in the transaction as well. Health is something that lies not only within us, but also between us.  Recognizing our bond with animals has the great capacity to deepen our experience past the material.  It is the thing that will allow us to feel, and perhaps heal our souls. 

© 2019 Michael Sakuma

Michael Sakuma is a Clinical Psychologist and Core faculty in the PsyD program at Antioch University-Seattle.