Pets and Mental Health

Odean Cusack

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2014
• eBook ISBN: 9781317715030
• Subtopic: Mental Health in Psychology

This fascinating new book addresses the most recent research and provocative findings on the use of pets in mental health therapy. The historical basis of using pets in therapy is reviewed, and numerous examples are provided of results incurred from prescribing pets to disabled, lonely, incarcerated, and institutionalized individuals. The author provides convincing evidence of the therapeutic value of animals in making us happier, healthier, and more sociable.
Although the terms human-animal bond and pet-facilitated therapy are relative newcomers to the scientific literature, the concepts they encompass have been with us for centuries.
BACKCOVER COPY
Research has shown that animals can promote humor, laughter, play, and a sense of importance in people. This fascinating book explores the provocative findings on the use of pets in mental health therapy. Although the terms human-animal bond and pet-facilitated therapy are relative newcomers to the scientific literature, the concepts they encompass have been with us for centuries. The historical basis of using pets in therapy is reviewed, and numerous examples show the astonishing results of prescribing pets to disabled, lonely, incarcerated, and institutionalized individuals. Odean Cusack, animal lover and writer, provides convincing evidence of the therapeutic value that animals have in making us happier, healthier, and more sociable.

CHAPTER 1

Pet-Facilitated Therapy:
An Introduction

What is man without beasts? If all the beasts were gone, men would die from great loneliness of spirit, for whatever happens to the beast also happens to man. Whatever befalls the earth befalls the son of earth.

– Chief Seattle of the Duwamish Tribe, State of Washington, Letter to President Franklin Pierce, 1855

The terms human-animal bond and pet-facilitated therapy are relative newcomers to the scientific literature, but the concepts they encompass have been with us for centuries.

James Harris of the Montclair Veterinary Clinical Hospital in Oakland, California, defines the human-animal bond as “that physical, emotional, intellectual, and philosophical relationship that occurs between a person or family unit and an animal.”¹

In our society the most common of these relationships and the ones we are most familiar with are undoubtedly those between people and their pets. However, the human-animal bond is not confined to urban domestic animals, nor is it necessarily an outgrowth of our pet-loving society.

One of the earliest archaeological indicators of the human-animal bond was uncovered in 1976 by Simon Davis of Hebrew University, who excavated a human skeleton in a tomb in northern Israel. Clutched in the hands of the skeleton were the remains of a puppy, suggesting to Davis that the relationship between the two was an affectionate-, not a dietary, one. Probably the first animal domesticated, the dog has occupied many roles in human society. Davis’s poignant find, estimated to be approximately 12,000 years old, suggests that its early, and possible its best, destiny was as man’s friend and companion.²

The terms pet-facilitated therapy, animal-facilitated therapy, and adjunctive pet therapy refer to the use of animals (usually pet or companion animals) as aids or accompaniments to more traditional therapies. Again, although the terms are of recent vintage, the concepts have historical antecedents.

The first recorded historical use of animals as institutional adjuncts was in 1792 at the York Retreat in York, England. Founded by a Quaker merchant, William Tuke, the York Retreat included animals as part of the living environment and encouraged patients to care for them. A forerunner of positive reinforcement programs, the York Retreat stressed positive, rather than punitive, means to control behavior.³ A writer of that era remarked that an animal not only provided pleasure to the patients, but “… [it] sometimes tends to awaken the social and benevolent feelings” as well.⁴

Bethel, a multibased treatment facility in Bielefield, West Germany, was originally founded in 1867 for the treatment of epileptics, but eventually expanded its treatment base to care for other disorders as well. Dubbed “an institution without walls,” Bethel incorporates farm animals and a wild game park in addition to traditional pet animals and a highly successful equestrian program.⁵

Formal use of animals as therapeutic aids in the United States began at the Pawling Army Air Force Convalescent Hospital in Pawling, New York. The Hospital utilized farm animals and small reptiles and amphibians from the nearby forest, and encouraged their patients, who were recovering from fatigue as well as physical injury, to interact with them. Patients organized frog jumping contests and turtle races, which inspired a competitive spirit and provided an educational experience.⁶

In 1953, however, a shaggy dog named Jingles paved the way for more extensive use of animals in psychotherapy. Jingles belonged to psychiatrist Boris Levinson and happened to be in the office with him when a mother and child arrived unexpectedly for an appointment not scheduled until many hours later. Levinson, a pioneer in pet-facilitated therapy, noticed that the youngster, previously withdrawn and uncommunicative, interacted positively with the dog. This breakthrough enabled Levinson to treat the youngster, and eventually contributed to his recovery. Jingles acted as an intermediary between the child and Levinson, and enabled the youngster to develop trust in the therapeutic milieu. With the publication of Levinson’s article describing his experience, pet therapy formally began.⁷

Much of Levinson’s subsequent work stressed the importance of pets to children both in the home and in a therapeutic environment, but he also recognized their value to adults, particularly the elderly, as well.

During the 1970s Sam and Elizabeth O’Leary Corson* were researching dog behavior at Ohio State University Hospital. The kennels were in earshot of the adolescent ward, and several of the young patients broke their self-imposed silence and asked to play with the dogs. The Corsons selected the most withdrawn patients for a pilot project to ascertain the effects of interacting with the canines. Forty-seven of 50 participants showed improvement, and many eventually left the hospital.⁸

The Corsons extended their work at the Castle Nursing Home in Millersburg, Ohio, and obtained similar results. Interaction with the animals promoted self-reliance and increased responsibility among the patients, many of whom had been almost entirely unmotivated in these areas. The animals also facilitated social interaction between the residents themselves and between the residents and the staff.⁹,¹⁰

The value of prescribing a pet for an otherwise lonely individual has been recognized by many in the field. Levinson reports the case of a 72-year-old man who, although recently widowed, declined to live with his son:

During the week he was alone it soon became evident that he was not eating enough to stay healthy. He and his wife had a cat, but it died about a month before his wife did, and he had not the energy to replace it. The son came to the shelter to get a cat for his father, in the hope that the animal might relieve the old man’s loneliness…. His father [was] delighted with the pet … with the result that the man ate more than formerly. By the end of the first week an elderly lady who lived next door had made friends with the cat and through it with the man.¹¹

Marcel Heiman often practiced “zoo therapy” – prescribing pets for individuals who, for various reasons, could not live with other persons but were too anxious to live alone comfortably. Heiman reports one case in which a parakeet was placed with a woman who had a long clinical history of social estrangement, irrational fears, and semi-psychotic episodes. The patient found that when she was irritable with the pet, it responded that way to her, and she learned that her unrealistic demands upon others contributed to her maladjustment. Eventually, she was able to discontinue therapy.¹²

The late Michael McCulloch, psychiatrist and former vice president of the Delta Society, the multidisciplinary organization for investigation into the human-animal bond, was one of the first professionals to evaluate formally the influence of pets in a person’s life. By questioning his patients about pets past and present while establishing a history, McCulloch found unexpected and revealing insights into their mental health:

I look at pets as a window to psychodynamics, as a way toward understanding a lot of the developmental things that occurred in the past. People often talk freely about relationships with pets, and you can see tremendous insights. And I do it as an assessment of what the current support is for a patient as a diagnostic tool. You can get someone to chronologically draw out the level and intensity of dependence on pets over a lifetime and begin to look at what was happening at certain times. A pet often mirrors some of the conflict level.¹³

McCulloch was also one of the first psychiatrists actually to prescribe pets:

Prescription of pets is a very tricky situation, and you need to be very cautious and sensitive to the social, economic, and psychological status of an individual. There are many situations where pets can be used without requiring full-time ownership.

The therapeutic value is self-evident. Research is showing animals have tremendous value in promoting humor, laughter, and play, and in promoting a sense of importance. They make people feel significant.¹⁴

McCulloch practiced what he preached. After leaving his dog one weekend with his father, who is hard of hearing, he asked his mother to notice how much his father laughed with the pet. The following weekend he took the dog away, once again asking his mother to notice. His father laughed four times as much with the dog.

“Animals do not emphasize or force you to look at deficits you may have,” said McCulloch. “The dog didn’t care if my father was hard of hearing. In the presence of a pet, my father felt whole.”¹⁵

The exact number of animals now used in a clinical or therapeutic environment is not known, but some surveys suggest that the number is significant. In 1970 Philadelphia psychologist Ethel Wolff prepared a survey for the American Humane Association and reported that 48% of the institutions she surveyed used animals in some capacity.¹⁶

In 1972 Levinson randomly surveyed members of the Clinical Division of the New York State Psychological Association. Of those who responded to the questionnaire (319), 39% reported familiarity with the use of pets in psychotherapy, 16% had used pets at one time or another, and 51% recommended p...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Chapter 1: Pet-Facilitated Therapy: An Introduction
• Chapter 2: The Human-Animal Bond
• Chapter 3: Why We Love Our Pets: A Naturalistic/Psychoanalytical Approach
• Chapter 4: Why We Love Our Pets: A Learning TheoryPerspective
• Chapter 5: Depression
• Chapter 6: Stress and Anxiety
• Chapter 7: Psychiatric Patients
• Chapter 8: Pets and Children
• Chapter 9: Pets and Adolescents
• Chapter 10: Pets in the Family
• Chapter 11: Pets and the Elderly
• Chapter 12: Tiffany: Portrait of a Canine Cotherapist
• Chapter 13: Prison Pets
• Chapter 14: The Veterinarian as Human Psychologist
• Chapter 15: The Death of a Pet
• Chapter 16: Pet-Facilitated Therapy for the Physically Challenged
• Chapter 17: Closing Thoughts
• Bibliography and Selected Readings
• Appendix: Organizations Involved in Pet Therapy and Research into the Human-Animal Bond
• Index