Do Animals Feel More Intensely Than We Do?

14 September 2015

 - One might argue that other mammals are more aware of feelings than human beings are, because they possess a “primary” form of consciousness: they are aware of themselves and their environment but less burdened by complexities such as reflection and rumination that typify human consciousness. They live closer to the bone, one might say, than we do.

One animal behavioralist, Jeffrey Masson, has remarked that animals possess feelings of “undiluted purity and clarity”—at least at times—compared to the “seeming opacity and inaccessibility of human feelings.”  A former psychoanalyst, he wonders if the human ego doesn’t get in the way of our experiencing feelings as directly and undistilled as other creatures do. 

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• freedom007

  Intelligent animals – mammals and many bird species – are very similar to small human children in their feelings and self-expression. My cats and my dog react the same way to tender “grandma babble” (like “yea you are my good one, my little one, cuddly one…”) as babies would. And they unmistakably “grin” or “smile” when cuddled.
  Our small kids still haven´t learned to lie and cheat, thats it.
  And tame animals… if they know how to cheat, they perhaps do this among each other, not toward humans.
  Therefore we call both babies and pets “innocent”.

  Wild animals too surely have the whole spectrum of feelings we have – even some kind of gratefulness, I think. some weeks ago I gave some stale bread to my neighbor´s chicken as I often do, and there was a young black crow waiting on a roof nearby for a good occasion to get some crumbs. The weather was hot and dry and all birds here, also the crows, suffered from thirst and hunger. I looked intently at the crow, and threw one piece of bread to a spot near to it where the chicken could not go to, and it took the bit of food at once. the other day when I went to the chicken I saw that crow again, and when it saw me, it turned its head toward me and gave me a long, intent look, as I had done the day before. To me, this gesture meant “Thank you, Two-leg”.

  If we managed to be more truthful in our daily lives,
  our feelings would not seem dull and obscure in comparison to our animals – and our kids.
  And our kids would understand us a lot better.

  Sep 14, 2015, 7:06 am 0 Reply