Depressed dogs, cats with OCD — what animal madness means for us humans
-
0:01 - 0:05Oliver was an extremely dashing,
-
0:05 - 0:10handsome, charming and largely unstable male
-
0:10 - 0:13that I completely lost my heart to.
-
0:13 - 0:16(Laughter)
-
0:16 - 0:18He was a Bernese mountain dog,
-
0:18 - 0:21and my ex-husband and I adopted him,
-
0:21 - 0:23and about six months in,
-
0:23 - 0:25we realized that he was a mess.
-
0:25 - 0:28He had such paralyzing separation anxiety
-
0:28 - 0:29that we couldn't leave him alone.
-
0:29 - 0:33Once, he jumped out of our third floor apartment.
-
0:33 - 0:37He ate fabric. He ate things, recyclables.
-
0:37 - 0:39He hunted flies that didn't exist.
-
0:39 - 0:41He suffered from hallucinations.
-
0:41 - 0:44He was diagnosed with a canine compulsive disorder
-
0:44 - 0:47and that's really just the tip of the iceberg.
-
0:47 - 0:51But like with humans,
-
0:51 - 0:55sometimes it's six months in
-
0:55 - 0:57before you realize that
-
0:57 - 1:00the person that you love has some issues.
-
1:00 - 1:01(Laughter)
-
1:01 - 1:05And most of us do not take the person we're dating
-
1:05 - 1:07back to the bar where we met them
-
1:07 - 1:11or give them back to the friend that introduced us,
-
1:11 - 1:14or sign them back up on Match.com.
-
1:14 - 1:17(Laughter)
-
1:17 - 1:19We love them anyway,
-
1:19 - 1:21and we stick to it,
-
1:21 - 1:25and that is what I did with my dog.
-
1:25 - 1:29And I was a — I'd studied biology.
-
1:29 - 1:31I have a Ph.D. in history of science
-
1:31 - 1:33from MIT,
-
1:33 - 1:35and had you asked me 10 years ago
-
1:35 - 1:37if a dog I loved, or just dogs generally,
-
1:37 - 1:39had emotions, I would have said yes,
-
1:39 - 1:40but I'm not sure that I would have told you
-
1:40 - 1:43that they can also wind up with an anxiety disorder,
-
1:43 - 1:47a Prozac prescription and a therapist.
-
1:47 - 1:51But then, I fell in love, and I realized that they can,
-
1:51 - 1:53and actually trying to help my own dog
-
1:53 - 1:56overcome his panic and his anxiety,
-
1:56 - 1:58it just changed my life.
-
1:58 - 2:01It cracked open my world.
-
2:01 - 2:03And I spent the last seven years, actually,
-
2:03 - 2:06looking into this topic of
mental illness in other animals. -
2:06 - 2:07Can they be mentally ill like people,
-
2:07 - 2:10and if so, what does it mean about us?
-
2:10 - 2:13And what I discovered is that I do believe
-
2:13 - 2:15they can suffer from mental illness,
-
2:15 - 2:19and actually looking and trying
to identify mental illness in them -
2:19 - 2:21often helps us be better friends to them
-
2:21 - 2:25and also can help us better understand ourselves.
-
2:25 - 2:29So let's talk about diagnosis for a minute.
-
2:29 - 2:32Many of us think that we can't know
-
2:32 - 2:34what another animal is thinking,
-
2:34 - 2:35and that is true,
-
2:35 - 2:38but any of you in relationships —
-
2:38 - 2:40at least this is my case —
-
2:40 - 2:42just because you ask someone that you're with
-
2:42 - 2:44or your parent or your child how they feel
-
2:44 - 2:46doesn't mean that they can tell you.
-
2:46 - 2:48They may not have words to explain
-
2:48 - 2:49what it is that they're feeling,
-
2:49 - 2:51and they may not know.
-
2:51 - 2:53It's actually a pretty recent phenomenon
-
2:53 - 2:54that we feel that we have to talk to someone
-
2:54 - 2:57to understand their emotional distress.
-
2:57 - 2:59Before the early 20th century,
-
2:59 - 3:02physicians often diagnosed emotional distress
-
3:02 - 3:05in their patients just by observation.
-
3:05 - 3:07It also turns out that thinking about
-
3:07 - 3:09mental illness in other animals
-
3:09 - 3:11isn't actually that much of a stretch.
-
3:11 - 3:13Most mental disorders in the United States
-
3:13 - 3:15are fear and anxiety disorders,
-
3:15 - 3:17and when you think about it, fear and anxiety
-
3:17 - 3:22are actually really extremely
helpful animal emotions. -
3:22 - 3:25Usually we feel fear and anxiety
in situations that are dangerous, -
3:25 - 3:26and once we feel them,
-
3:26 - 3:28we then are motivated to move away
-
3:28 - 3:29from whatever is dangerous.
-
3:29 - 3:34The problem is when we begin to feel fear
and anxiety in situations that don't call for it. -
3:34 - 3:38Mood disorders, too, may actually just be
-
3:38 - 3:41the unfortunate downside of being a feeling animal,
-
3:41 - 3:44and obsessive compulsive disorders also
-
3:44 - 3:48are often manifestations of
a really healthy animal thing -
3:48 - 3:50which is keeping yourself clean and groomed.
-
3:50 - 3:53This tips into the territory of mental illness
-
3:53 - 3:54when you do things like
-
3:54 - 3:56compulsively over-wash your hands or paws,
-
3:56 - 3:58or you develop a ritual that's so extreme
-
3:58 - 4:00that you can't sit down to a bowl of food
-
4:00 - 4:03unless you engage in that ritual.
-
4:03 - 4:08So for humans, we have the
"Diagnostic and Statistical Manual," -
4:08 - 4:10which is basically an atlas
-
4:10 - 4:13of the currently agreed-upon mental disorders.
-
4:13 - 4:16In other animals, we have YouTube.
-
4:16 - 4:17(Laughter)
-
4:17 - 4:20This is just one search I did for "OCD dog"
-
4:20 - 4:22but I encourage all of you
-
4:22 - 4:25to look at "OCD cat."
-
4:25 - 4:28You will be shocked by what you see.
-
4:28 - 4:33I'm going to show you just a couple examples.
-
4:33 - 4:35This is an example of shadow-chasing.
-
4:35 - 4:39I know, and it's funny and in some ways it's cute.
-
4:39 - 4:42The issue, though, is that dogs
can develop compulsions like this -
4:42 - 4:45that they then engage in all day.
-
4:45 - 4:46So they won't go for a walk,
-
4:46 - 4:48they won't hang out with their friends,
-
4:48 - 4:49they won't eat.
-
4:49 - 4:51They'll develop fixations
-
4:51 - 4:54like chasing their tails compulsively.
-
4:54 - 4:58Here's an example of a cat named Gizmo.
-
4:58 - 5:01He looks like he's on a stakeout
-
5:01 - 5:04but he does this for many, many, many hours a day.
-
5:04 - 5:08He just sits there and he will paw and paw and paw
-
5:08 - 5:09at the screen.
-
5:09 - 5:12This is another example of what's considered
-
5:12 - 5:13a stereotypic behavior.
-
5:13 - 5:16This is a sun bear at the
Oakland Zoo named Ting Ting. -
5:16 - 5:18And if you just sort of happened upon this scene,
-
5:18 - 5:19you might think that Ting Ting
-
5:19 - 5:20is just playing with a stick,
-
5:20 - 5:23but Ting Ting does this all day,
-
5:23 - 5:24and if you pay close attention
-
5:24 - 5:28and if I showed you guys
the full half-hour of this clip, -
5:28 - 5:30you'd see that he does the exact same thing
-
5:30 - 5:32in the exact same order, and he spins the stick
-
5:32 - 5:34in the exact same way every time.
-
5:34 - 5:37Other super common behaviors that you may see,
-
5:37 - 5:39particularly in captive animals,
-
5:39 - 5:43are pacing stereotypies or swaying stereotypies,
-
5:43 - 5:45and actually, humans do this too,
-
5:45 - 5:47and in us, we'll sway,
-
5:47 - 5:48we'll move from side to side.
-
5:48 - 5:50Many of us do this, and sometimes
-
5:50 - 5:52it's an effort to soothe ourselves,
-
5:52 - 5:55and I think in other animals
that is often the case too. -
5:55 - 5:56But it's not just stereotypic behaviors
-
5:56 - 5:58that other animals engage in.
-
5:58 - 6:00This is Gigi. She's a gorilla that lives
-
6:00 - 6:02at the Franklin Park Zoo in Boston.
-
6:02 - 6:04She actually has a Harvard psychiatrist,
-
6:04 - 6:06and she's been treated for a mood disorder
-
6:06 - 6:07among other things.
-
6:07 - 6:10Many animals develop mood disorders.
-
6:10 - 6:12Lots of creatures —
-
6:12 - 6:13this horse is just one example —
-
6:13 - 6:15develop self-destructive behaviors.
-
6:15 - 6:16They'll gnaw on things
-
6:16 - 6:19or do other things that may also soothe them,
-
6:19 - 6:20even if they're self-destructive,
-
6:20 - 6:22which could be considered similar
-
6:22 - 6:25to the ways that some humans cut themselves.
-
6:25 - 6:27Plucking.
-
6:27 - 6:30Turns out, if you have fur or feathers or skin,
-
6:30 - 6:32you can pluck yourself compulsively,
-
6:32 - 6:35and some parrots actually have been studied
-
6:35 - 6:38to better understand trichotillomania,
or compulsive plucking in humans, -
6:38 - 6:39something that affects
-
6:39 - 6:4120 million Americans right now.
-
6:41 - 6:44Lab rats pluck themselves too.
-
6:44 - 6:46In them, it's called barbering.
-
6:46 - 6:49Canine veterans of conflicts of Iraq and Afghanistan
-
6:49 - 6:52are coming back with what's
considered canine PTSD, -
6:52 - 6:55and they're having a hard time reentering civilian life
-
6:55 - 6:56when they come back from deployments.
-
6:56 - 6:58They can be too scared to
approach men with beards -
6:58 - 7:01or to hop into cars.
-
7:01 - 7:04I want to be careful and be clear, though.
-
7:04 - 7:07I do not think that canine PTSD
-
7:07 - 7:09is the same as human PTSD.
-
7:09 - 7:12But I also do not think that my PTSD
-
7:12 - 7:13is like your PTSD,
-
7:13 - 7:17or that my anxiety or that my sadness is like yours.
-
7:17 - 7:18We are all different.
-
7:18 - 7:21We also all have very different susceptibilities.
-
7:21 - 7:25So two dogs, raised in the same household,
-
7:25 - 7:27exposed to the very same things,
-
7:27 - 7:31one may develop, say, a
debilitating fear of motorcycles, -
7:31 - 7:34or a phobia of the beep of the microwave,
-
7:34 - 7:36and another one is going to be just fine.
-
7:36 - 7:39So one thing that people ask me pretty frequently:
-
7:39 - 7:41Is this just an instance of humans
-
7:41 - 7:42driving other animals crazy?
-
7:42 - 7:46Or, is animal mental illness just
a result of mistreatment or abuse? -
7:46 - 7:48And it turns out we're actually
-
7:48 - 7:51so much more complicated than that.
-
7:51 - 7:54So one great thing that has happened to me
-
7:54 - 7:57is recently I published a book on this,
-
7:57 - 8:01and every day now that I open my email
-
8:01 - 8:03or when I go to a reading
-
8:03 - 8:05or even when I go to a cocktail party,
-
8:05 - 8:07people tell me their stories
-
8:07 - 8:09of the animals that they have met.
-
8:09 - 8:11And recently, I did a reading in California,
-
8:11 - 8:13and a woman raised her hand
after the talk and she said, -
8:13 - 8:17"Dr. Braitman, I think my cat has PTSD."
-
8:17 - 8:20And I said, "Well, why? Tell me a little bit about it."
-
8:20 - 8:24So, Ping is her cat. She was a rescue,
-
8:24 - 8:27and she used to live with an elderly man,
-
8:27 - 8:29and one day the man was vacuuming
-
8:29 - 8:32and he suffered a heart attack, and he died.
-
8:32 - 8:35A week later, Ping was discovered in the apartment
-
8:35 - 8:37alongside the body of her owner,
-
8:37 - 8:40and the vacuum had been running the entire time.
-
8:40 - 8:45For many months, up to I think
two years after that incident, -
8:45 - 8:48she was so scared she couldn't be in
the house when anyone was cleaning. -
8:48 - 8:50She was quite literally a scaredy cat.
-
8:50 - 8:52She would hide in the closet.
-
8:52 - 8:54She was un-self-confident and shaky,
-
8:54 - 8:56but with the loving support of her family,
-
8:56 - 8:59a lot of a time, and their patience,
-
8:59 - 9:00now, three years later,
-
9:00 - 9:03she's actually a happy, confident cat.
-
9:03 - 9:06Another story of trauma and
recovery that I came across -
9:06 - 9:08was actually a few years ago.
-
9:08 - 9:10I was in Thailand to do some research.
-
9:10 - 9:13I met a monkey named Boonlua,
-
9:13 - 9:15and when Boonlua was a baby,
-
9:15 - 9:17he was attacked by a pack of dogs,
-
9:17 - 9:22and they ripped off both of his legs and one arm,
-
9:22 - 9:25and Boonlua dragged himself to a monastery,
-
9:25 - 9:27where the monks took him in.
-
9:27 - 9:29They called in a veterinarian,
who treated his wounds. -
9:29 - 9:32Eventually, Boonlua wound up
-
9:32 - 9:33at an elephant facility,
-
9:33 - 9:36and the keepers really decided
to take him under their wing, -
9:36 - 9:38and they figured out what he liked,
-
9:38 - 9:40which, it turned out, was mint Mentos
-
9:40 - 9:43and Rhinoceros beetles and eggs.
-
9:43 - 9:46But they worried, because he
was social, that he was lonely, -
9:46 - 9:48and they didn't want to put
him in with another monkey, -
9:48 - 9:49because they thought with just one arm,
-
9:49 - 9:52he wouldn't be able to defend himself or even play.
-
9:52 - 9:55And so they gave him a rabbit,
-
9:55 - 9:58and Boonlua was immediately a different monkey.
-
9:58 - 9:59He was extremely happy to be with this rabbit.
-
9:59 - 10:02They groomed each other,
they become close friends, -
10:02 - 10:04and then the rabbit had bunnies,
-
10:04 - 10:07and Boonlua was even happier than he was before,
-
10:07 - 10:10and it had in a way given him
-
10:10 - 10:11a reason to wake up in the morning,
-
10:11 - 10:13and in fact it gave him such a reason to wake up
-
10:13 - 10:15that he decided not to sleep.
-
10:15 - 10:19He became extremely protective of these bunnies,
-
10:19 - 10:20and he stopped sleeping,
-
10:20 - 10:21and he would sort of nod off
-
10:21 - 10:23while trying to take care of them.
-
10:23 - 10:26In fact, he was so protective and so affectionate
-
10:26 - 10:28with these babies that the sanctuary
-
10:28 - 10:30eventually had to take them away from him
-
10:30 - 10:32because he was so protective, he was worried
-
10:32 - 10:34that their mother might hurt them.
-
10:34 - 10:36So after they were taken away, the sanctuary staff
-
10:36 - 10:37worried that he would fall into a depression,
-
10:37 - 10:38and so to avoid that,
-
10:38 - 10:41they gave him another rabbit friend.
-
10:41 - 10:45(Laughter)
-
10:45 - 10:48My official opinion is that
he does not look depressed. -
10:48 - 10:49(Laughter)
-
10:49 - 10:54So one thing that I would really like people to feel
-
10:54 - 10:57is that you really should feel empowered
-
10:57 - 10:59to make some assumptions
-
10:59 - 11:01about the creatures that you know well.
-
11:01 - 11:03So when it comes to your dog
-
11:03 - 11:05or your cat or maybe your one-armed monkey
-
11:05 - 11:07that you happen to know,
-
11:07 - 11:11if you think that they are traumatized or depressed,
-
11:11 - 11:13you're probably right.
-
11:13 - 11:15This is extremely anthropomorphic,
-
11:15 - 11:18or the assignation of human characteristics
-
11:18 - 11:22onto non-human animals or things.
-
11:22 - 11:24I don't think, though, that that's a problem.
-
11:24 - 11:26I don't think that we can not anthropomorphize.
-
11:26 - 11:29It's not as if you can take your
human brain out of your head -
11:29 - 11:31and put it in a jar and then use it
-
11:31 - 11:34to think about another animal thinking.
-
11:34 - 11:36We will always be one animal wondering
-
11:36 - 11:39about the emotional experience of another animal.
-
11:39 - 11:42So then the choice becomes, how
do you anthropomorphize well? -
11:42 - 11:44Or do you anthropomorphize poorly?
-
11:44 - 11:46And anthropomorphizing poorly
-
11:46 - 11:48is all too common.
-
11:48 - 11:50(Laughter)
-
11:50 - 11:53It may include dressing your corgis
up and throwing them a wedding, -
11:53 - 11:55or getting too close to exotic wildlife because
-
11:55 - 11:57you believe that you had a spiritual connection.
-
11:57 - 11:59There's all manner of things.
-
11:59 - 12:03Anthropomorphizing well, however, I believe is based
-
12:03 - 12:06on accepting our animal
similarities with other species -
12:06 - 12:09and using them to make assumptions
-
12:09 - 12:12that are informed about other
animals' minds and experiences, -
12:12 - 12:15and there's actually an entire industry
-
12:15 - 12:18that is in some ways based
on anthropomorphizing well, -
12:18 - 12:21and that is the psychopharmaceutical industry.
-
12:21 - 12:25One in five Americans is currently
taking a psychopharmaceutical drug, -
12:25 - 12:28from the antidepressants
and antianxiety medications -
12:28 - 12:30to the antipsychotics.
-
12:30 - 12:32It turns out that we owe this
-
12:32 - 12:34entire psychopharmaceutical arsenal
-
12:34 - 12:36to other animals.
-
12:36 - 12:38These drugs were tested in non-human animals first,
-
12:38 - 12:42and not just for toxicity but for behavioral effects.
-
12:42 - 12:46The very popular antipsychotic Thorazine
-
12:46 - 12:49first relaxed rats before it relaxed people.
-
12:49 - 12:51The antianxiety medication Librium
-
12:51 - 12:55was given to cats selected for
their meanness in the 1950s -
12:55 - 12:58and made them into peaceable felines.
-
12:58 - 13:02And even antidepressants
were first tested in rabbits. -
13:02 - 13:05Today, however, we are not just giving these drugs
-
13:05 - 13:07to other animals as test subjects,
-
13:07 - 13:10but they're giving them these drugs as patients,
-
13:10 - 13:14both in ethical and much less ethical ways.
-
13:14 - 13:18SeaWorld gives mother orcas
antianxiety medications -
13:18 - 13:21when their calves are taken away.
-
13:21 - 13:23Many zoo gorillas have been given antipsychotics
-
13:23 - 13:25and antianxiety medications.
-
13:25 - 13:28But dogs like my own Oliver
-
13:28 - 13:31are given antidepressants and
some antianxiety medications -
13:31 - 13:33to keep them from jumping out of buildings
-
13:33 - 13:35or jumping into traffic.
-
13:35 - 13:38Just recently, actually, a study came out in "Science"
-
13:38 - 13:40that showed that even crawdads
-
13:40 - 13:42responded to antianxiety medication.
-
13:42 - 13:45It made them braver, less skittish,
-
13:45 - 13:50and more likely to explore their environment.
-
13:50 - 13:52It's hard to know how many
animals are on these drugs, -
13:52 - 13:56but I can tell you that the
animal pharmaceutical industry -
13:56 - 13:57is immense and growing,
-
13:57 - 14:00from seven billion dollars in 2011
-
14:00 - 14:06to a projected 9.25 billion by the year 2015.
-
14:06 - 14:10Some animals are on these drugs indefinitely.
-
14:10 - 14:14Others, like one bonobo who lives in Milwaukee
-
14:14 - 14:15at the zoo there was on them
-
14:15 - 14:18until he started to save his Paxil prescription
-
14:18 - 14:20and then distribute it among the other bonobos.
-
14:20 - 14:25(Laughter) (Applause)
-
14:25 - 14:28More than psychopharmaceuticals, though,
-
14:28 - 14:30there are many, many, many other
-
14:30 - 14:33therapeutic interventions that help other creatures.
-
14:33 - 14:35And here is a place where I think actually
-
14:35 - 14:38that veterinary medicine can teach something
-
14:38 - 14:39to human medicine,
-
14:39 - 14:41which is, if you take your dog, who is, say,
-
14:41 - 14:43compulsively chasing his tail,
-
14:43 - 14:45into the veterinary behaviorist,
-
14:45 - 14:48their first action isn't to reach
for the prescription pad; -
14:48 - 14:51it's to ask you about your dog's life.
-
14:51 - 14:54They want to know how often your dog gets outside.
-
14:54 - 14:56They want to know how much
exercise your dog is getting. -
14:56 - 14:58They want to know how much social time
-
14:58 - 15:00with other dogs and other humans.
-
15:00 - 15:02They want to talk to you
about what sorts of therapies, -
15:02 - 15:05largely behavior therapies,
-
15:05 - 15:07you've tried with that animal.
-
15:07 - 15:10Those are the things that
often tend to help the most, -
15:10 - 15:13especially when combined with
psychopharmaceuticals. -
15:13 - 15:15The thing, though, I believe, that helps the most,
-
15:15 - 15:17particularly with social animals,
-
15:17 - 15:20is time with other social animals.
-
15:20 - 15:24In many ways, I feel like I became a service animal
-
15:24 - 15:27to my own dog,
-
15:27 - 15:31and I have seen parrots do it for people
-
15:31 - 15:33and people do it for parrots
-
15:33 - 15:34and dogs do it for elephants
-
15:34 - 15:37and elephants do it for other elephants.
-
15:37 - 15:39I don't know about you;
-
15:39 - 15:41I get a lot of Internet forwards
-
15:41 - 15:43of unlikely animal friendships.
-
15:43 - 15:47I also think it's a huge part of Facebook,
-
15:47 - 15:50the monkey that adopts the cat
-
15:50 - 15:54or the great dane who adopted the orphaned fawn,
-
15:54 - 15:57or the cow that makes friends with the pig,
-
15:57 - 16:01and had you asked me eight,
nine years ago, about these, -
16:01 - 16:04I would have told you that they
were hopelessly sentimental -
16:04 - 16:07and maybe too anthropomorphic in the wrong way
-
16:07 - 16:10and maybe even staged, and what I can tell you now
-
16:10 - 16:13is that there is actually something to this.
-
16:13 - 16:16This is legit. In fact, some interesting studies
-
16:16 - 16:18have pointed to oxytocin levels,
-
16:18 - 16:21which are a kind of bonding hormone
-
16:21 - 16:23that we release when we're having sex or nursing
-
16:23 - 16:26or around someone that we care for extremely,
-
16:26 - 16:28oxytocin levels raising in both humans and dogs
-
16:28 - 16:30who care about each other
-
16:30 - 16:31or who enjoy each other's company,
-
16:31 - 16:33and beyond that, other studies show that oxytocin
-
16:33 - 16:36raised even in other pairs of animals,
-
16:36 - 16:39so, say, in goats and dogs who were
friends and played with each other, -
16:39 - 16:44their levels spiked afterwards.
-
16:44 - 16:46I have a friend who really showed me that
-
16:46 - 16:49mental health is in fact a two-way street.
-
16:49 - 16:53His name is Lonnie Hodge,
and he's a veteran of Vietnam. -
16:53 - 16:55When he returned, he started working
-
16:55 - 16:58with survivors of genocide and a lot of people
-
16:58 - 17:00who had gone through war trauma.
-
17:00 - 17:02And he had PTSD and also a fear of heights,
-
17:02 - 17:04because in Vietnam, he had been
-
17:04 - 17:06rappelling backwards out of helicopters
-
17:06 - 17:08over the skids,
-
17:08 - 17:11and he was givena service dog
named Gander, a labradoodle, -
17:11 - 17:14to help him with PTSD and his fear of heights.
-
17:14 - 17:17This is them actually on the first day that they met,
-
17:17 - 17:20which is amazing, and since then,
-
17:20 - 17:21they've spent a lot of time together
-
17:21 - 17:26visiting with other veterans
suffering from similar issues. -
17:26 - 17:29But what's so interesting to me about
Lonnie and Gander's relationship -
17:29 - 17:30is about a few months in,
-
17:30 - 17:34Gander actually developed a fear of heights,
-
17:34 - 17:38probably because he was
watching Lonnie so closely. -
17:38 - 17:41What's pretty great about this, though,
is that he's still a fantastic service dog, -
17:41 - 17:44because now, when they're both at a great height,
-
17:44 - 17:47Lonnie is so concerned with Gander's well-being
-
17:47 - 17:53that he forgets to be scared of the heights himself.
-
17:53 - 17:57Since I've spent so much time with these stories,
-
17:57 - 17:58digging into archives,
-
17:58 - 18:00I literally spent years doing this research,
-
18:00 - 18:03and it's changed me.
-
18:03 - 18:07I no longer look at animals at the species level.
-
18:07 - 18:09I look at them as individuals,
-
18:09 - 18:10and I think about them as creatures
-
18:10 - 18:13with their own individual weather systems
-
18:13 - 18:15guiding their behavior and informing
-
18:15 - 18:17how they respond to the world.
-
18:17 - 18:20And I really believe that this has made me
-
18:20 - 18:23a more curious and a more empathetic person,
-
18:23 - 18:26both to the animals that share my bed
-
18:26 - 18:28and occasionally wind up on my plate,
-
18:28 - 18:31but also to the people that I know
-
18:31 - 18:34who are suffering from anxiety
-
18:34 - 18:37and from phobias and all manner of other things,
-
18:37 - 18:38and I really do believe that
-
18:38 - 18:41even though you can't know exactly
-
18:41 - 18:44what's going on in the mind of a pig
-
18:44 - 18:46or your pug or your partner,
-
18:46 - 18:50that that shouldn't stop you
from empathizing with them. -
18:50 - 18:53The best thing that we could do for our loved ones
-
18:53 - 18:57is, perhaps, to anthropomorphize them.
-
18:57 - 19:00Charles Darwin's father once told him
-
19:00 - 19:06that everybody could lose their mind at some point.
-
19:06 - 19:08Thankfully, we can often find them again,
-
19:08 - 19:11but only with each other's help.
-
19:11 - 19:13Thank you.
-
19:13 - 19:16(Applause)
- Title:
- Depressed dogs, cats with OCD — what animal madness means for us humans
- Speaker:
- Laurel Braitman
- Description:
-
Behind those funny animal videos, sometimes, are oddly human-like problems. Laurel Braitman studies non-human animals who exhibit signs of mental health issues — from compulsive bears to self-destructive rats to monkeys with unlikely friends. Braitman asks what we as humans can learn from watching animals cope with depression, sadness and other all-too-human problems.
- Video Language:
- English
- Team:
- closed TED
- Project:
- TEDTalks
- Duration:
- 19:29
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Depressed dogs, cats with OCD — what animal madness means for us humans | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Depressed dogs, cats with OCD — what animal madness means for us humans | ||
Morton Bast approved English subtitles for Depressed dogs, cats with OCD — what animal madness means for us humans | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Depressed dogs, cats with OCD — what animal madness means for us humans | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Depressed dogs, cats with OCD — what animal madness means for us humans | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Depressed dogs, cats with OCD — what animal madness means for us humans | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Depressed dogs, cats with OCD — what animal madness means for us humans | ||
Morton Bast edited English subtitles for Depressed dogs, cats with OCD — what animal madness means for us humans |