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Product Description
From Publishers Weekly
An examination of the inner lives of animals, arguing that they possess an emotional sensibility not unlike that of humans.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
YA?Animals do in fact lead emotional lives, according to Masson. He has managed to find hundreds of anecdotes from the published works and field studies of such noted behaviorists as Jane Goodall, Dian Fossey, and Cynthia Moss that support his theory. It seems that, despite the fact that anthropomorphism is among the worst of scientific taboos, these respected scientists cannot help but notice the similarities between human and animal behavior. Chapters are organized by topic, such as fear, love, grief, and even compassion and beauty. An index provides access by species and by personal name of both people and animals. An excellent resource in psychology, this title will also be a useful addition for animal research. Its clear and conversational style makes it interesting for general readers as well. A well-documented, compelling, and thought-provoking defense of animal emotions.?Robin Deffendall, Prince William Public Library System, Manassas, VA
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.
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First Sentence
Somewhere in India, a blind river dolphin seeks her companion. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
Somewhere in India, a blind river dolphin seeks her companion. Read the first page
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Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index
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Most helpful customer reviews
4 of 5 people found the following review helpful
1.0 out of 5 stars
Animals have emotions and souls, but this book was terrible!,
By "songbear" (Ashburn, VA United States) - See all my reviews
This review is from: When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals (Paperback)
I love animals. Anyone who has ever lived with a dog, cat, horse, or any other species know animals have emotions. Some humans just don't have the time or the heart to recognize them and respond to them. This book deserved to be so much better than it actually was. Great idea executed poorly. "When Elephants Weep" ended up being too much of an intellectual discussion about what is wrong with the human race and is written from a sophomoric slant enough to bore all but the most devout pop psychology buff to complete and utter insanity. In the first two chapters, authors Susan McCarthy and Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson just rail on unfeeling humans (there is actually a chapter entitled "Unfeeling Brutes") and all we get for over 40 pages is a diatribe against the scientific community. The author even goes so far to discuss the deficiencies in Freudian psychology in the area of human child sexual abuse, but never fully explains why this is relevant to the topic of the book.Opinions, opinions, and more opinions. I kept waiting for even moderately detailed, heartwarming accounts of animal emotions and all I got were short burst of dry, clinical accounts of various animals followed by paragraphs and paragraphs of human psychology. The main author Masson has a PhD in Sanskrit. Maybe he should stick to something he knows about, because he doesn't demonstrate that he knows anything about emotion in this book - animal or otherwise. This book is overwrought, poorly written, not well thought out, disorganized, doesn't make a good argument for animal emotions (which deserves one), and doesn't do anything to seriously convince the scientific community why they should study this subject more closely. Books like this actually hurt the cause more than they promote it. I just can't believe he got this published. I don't care what the critics say, or the fact that this was a New York Times best seller. Don't waste your money on this book. The authors come off like raving lunatics, making a respectable topic for research and further study look like it belongs on the magazine rack with the tabloids. I have learned more about being human from my dog than I have ever learned from another human being. Animals have emotions - and I believe they have souls. Most humans know that by instinct and we'll have to rely on instinct until better written books and thorough research on this subject are published.
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Fascinating Documentation of Animal Feelings,
By
This review is from: When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals (Paperback)
This book presents the argument that other animals are sentient, and that in a moral society we wrong them when we fail to take their suffering into account in the way we treat them. Illustrated by anecdotes showing the emotional reactions and feelings of animals of many species and in many situations, the authors successfully make the case that they must experience emotions and declare that it must be acknowledged. Elephants provide an excellent example since they are highly intelligent, and as emotionally bound to their family members as humans are.I found the book a fascinating and revealing read, and for people who love their pets and wonder whether other species could be emotionally responsive to humans and have feelings, this book is a good one. While arguments are also presented, criticizing the way mainstream society considers animals and in failing to take their suffering into account, it is a wonderful read for anyone interested in animal subjective states, if only for the surprising anecdotes that are given. And considering the reality of the way animals are being treated today, for big business in so many forms, from agribusiness to elephant torture training in circuses, these are arguments that need to be stated. For a comprehensive view of this more social side of the question, this book tells it like it is!
4.0 out of 5 stars
When Elephants Weep, We All Should...,
By Skinartia (Winnipeg, Manitoba Canada) - See all my reviews
This review is from: When Elephants Weep: The Emotional Lives of Animals (Paperback)
This is a very interesting book both as a lay person and a vegan/animal rights supporter. There were a couple of points in it that I thought were ridiculous (I can't give any specific example off the top of my head), and some of it read too much like a psychological text book instead of being directed at lay people which was a bit distracting. Overall, I highly recommend this book as more people need to realize that animals are indeed feeling creatures with emotions in their own rights and not cold, unfeeling "things" to be used and abused by us.
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