The Moral Ambiguity of Animal-Assisted Therapy and the Conflicts of Medicalizing Another Social Species.
The social relationships between humans and our closest nonhuman species (e.g., dogs, cats, and horses) are complex and subject to change. This complexity contradicts the popular phenomenon of using these animals in medical interventions for mental health (i.e., animal assisted therapy). This articl...
| Publicado en: | Journal of Animal Ethics Vol. 15; no. 1; pp. 17 - 32 |
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| Formato: | Artículo |
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University of Illinois Press
Spring2025
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| Acceso en línea: | Ver este registro en EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=184018876&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 184018876 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 21565414 BFVH jtl: Journal of Animal Ethics issn: 21565414 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: Spring2025 vid: 15 iid: 1 pid: 416 pub: University of Illinois Press artinfo: ui: 184018876 10.5406/21601267.15.1.04 ppf: 17 ppct: 15 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 123KB tig: atl: The Moral Ambiguity of Animal-Assisted Therapy and the Conflicts of Medicalizing Another Social Species. aug: au: Fletcher, Katherine affil: Macquarie University, Australia su: Animal-assisted therapy Mental health Phenomenology Human-animal relationships Ethical problems Social support Pets Ethnology research sug: subj: Animal-assisted therapy Mental health Phenomenology Human-animal relationships Ethical problems Social support Pets Ethnology research keyword: companion animals emotions ethnography happiness medicalization mental health multispecies social species suffering therapy ab: The social relationships between humans and our closest nonhuman species (e.g., dogs, cats, and horses) are complex and subject to change. This complexity contradicts the popular phenomenon of using these animals in medical interventions for mental health (i.e., animal assisted therapy). This article uses anthropological research and ethnographic examples from the Central Coast, Australia, to exemplify the conflicts, contradictions, and realities of our companion animals' relationship to human mental health. Using a phenomenological perspective, the article examines the complex realities in which companion animals (being living, fluctuating, mortal creatures) experience trauma, respond to human behaviors, and ultimately change throughout their lives, making them less "manageable" as mental health support while still valuable as a longer-term relationship. Companion animals maintain an extremely important position in the emotional lives of their human companions. However, their position in human worlds has purpose beyond therapeutic utility. Future research and use of companion animals for mental health purposes should carefully reconsider the implications of using living creatures in medical models and instead seek to better understand how our companion animals allow humans to access alternate ways of thinking throughout their lives. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Journal of Animal Ethics is the property of University of Illinois Press and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Journal of Animal Ethics holder: University of Illinois Press dt: @attributes: year: 2025 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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