Animal Madness Book Review
Author Laurel Braitman has a fresh perspective on animal psychology. Her PhD work is in History of Science and she provides interesting historical context for the early days of mental illness diagnoses in animals, and the development of modern-day psychopharmacology.
She gets her point across mainly in series of cases of captive animals – more wild-caught animals than domesticated. From zoo animals to logging elephants to racehorses and our household companions, there are many mentally unwell animals in our world. Veterinary behaviorists do come up, although she didn’t seem to have much success treating her own dog for separation anxiety.
This is a well-written, interesting read and I would recommend it.
Dr. Karen van Haaften, DVM
UC Davis Clinical Behavior Resident I
