TRANS-SPECIES PSYCHOLOGY
(This section is adapted and reprinted with permission from The
Kerulos Center).
Commensa's care farm program as well as its approach to ecotherapy builds
on a number of theories and methods in psychotherapy and psychology. Key
to our approach is the evolving field of trans-species psychology
established by Gay Bradshaw, founder of the The
Kerulos Center. Treans-species psychology considers the minds and emotions
of all animals, including humans. It represents a new species-inclusive
paradigm of learning and knowledge-making. Its establishment involves a
new way of thinking and behaving towards animals, that we are all "kin
under skin, fin, feather, and fur."
While many of the concepts of trans-species psychology are intuitive, at a deeper level it provides a collective language that links scientific objectivity with subjective knowledge and experience to create a "science of the heart." In so doing, animal psychology is approached from a supportive, mutualistic perspective, not as an object for human gain.
The "trans" in trans-species psychology signifies that there is no scientific basis for maintaining separate fields and models for animal and human psychology. Until recently, animals were thought to lack many attributes, such as emotions, feelings, sophisticated cognitive capacities, culture, the ability to feel pain, and other qualities that presumably defined humans uniquely. This differentiation provided a rationale for objectifying animals, one that has enabled the widespread trauma and crisis now prevalent in animal cultures. Today, however, scientific theory and data are congruent with our sensibilities. Though individual differences may exist, the same psychobiological theories and models that hold for people also hold for other animals.
Trans-species psychology also stands apart from most conventional approaches to animal conservation. Like veterinary medicine, trans-species psychology is devoted to the wellbeing of the individual. The welfare of an individual is not considered secondary, nor is it sacrificed to the objectives of the group such as species or population. The Kerulos Center seeks to imbue this perspective and ethic into the theory and practice of conservation.
Trans-Species Science Research
Similar to psychology in general, trans-species psychology is committed to the health and well-being of its subjects. Trans-species psychology is therefore rooted in methods and enquiry that eschew causing distress or damage in the process of knowledge-making.
In contrast to the past scientific paradigm, trans-species psychology does not support the gathering of "knowledge for the sake of knowledge." Prioritizing research over the wellbeing of animals has been one of the primary causes of animal suffering. Chimpanzees, rats, mice, fish, and others are used routinely as experimental subjects with little consideration for their rights as living beings. Elephants, wolves, deer, lions, orcas, turkeys, and others are manipulated and "managed" through conservation methods such as culls, translocations, confinement, and artificial insemination with little regard for the emotional, social, and psychological costs.
Similarly, the lives of companion and farm animals are directed by largely human values and concerns. Now that there is clear scientific evidence showing parity between human and animal emotions and cognition, science culture is compelled to change its practices and standards to be ethically congruent with what we know.
For these reasons, trans-species psychology also includes the study of institutions and cultures that have been agents of animal suffering. Conversely, trans-species psychology seeks to identify behaviour and cultural practices that enhance animal wellbeing and positive relationships. By expanding definitions of health to include the psychological, we bring attention to the striking parallels that exist between humans and animals who have been held captive or have experienced other forms of violence and oppression. In so doing, we embark on the emergence of a trans-species culture and ethic.
Interspecies Communication
Notably, communication in the animal world and between animals and people
does not involve written language or even much that is spoken. Subsequently,
Kerulos research and teaching invokes the sensed, felt, and directly experienced
world. Kerulos engages in projects and programs that include revitalizing
indigenous ways that facilitate interspecies communication and culture to
deepen understanding of animals and then translates this knowledge into
everyday living. At the same time, scientific theories and language can
guide us together on the journey back to ways of being, knowing, and speaking
of the heart that transcend across all boundaries toward a species-inclusive
knowledge system.
Copyright © 2009 The Kerulos Center
Read More
Bradshaw, G.A. (forthcoming, 2009). Elephant breakdown. New Haven:
Yale University Press.
Bradshaw, G.A , A.N. Schore, J.L. Brown, J.H. Poole, and C. J. Moss. (2005).
Elephant
breakdown. Nature, 433, 807.
Bradshaw, G.A. & M. Watkins. (2006).Trans-species
psychology; theory and praxis. Spring. 75, 69-94.
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