Preface
This post is written in a ‘question and answer’ mode which was the style used in my recent book ‘How to talk to your robot dog’ and which investigated the possibility of developing Artificial Intelligence based on the canine intelligence.
QUESTION: Has the world of psychiatry made any observations comparing the behavioural characteristics of dogs with the behaviour of humans?
ANSWER: In assessing the psychological impact of dogs on humans, many commentators have referenced how the psychiatrist Sigmund Freud valued the involvement of dogs in the human condition. The responses of his various dogs – usually present during his consultations in later years – were often used by him as an indication of the honesty of patients describing their doubts, fears and anxieties while lying on the couch in his consulting room. If the dog scratched at the door to be let out during a session, Freud would interpret the responses of the patient as being untruthful. If the dog later scratched to come back in, this would be interpreted that the patient had another opportunity to be more honest. On rare occasions where the dog jumped onto the couch, this was interpreted as an expression of the dog’s excitement that the patient had managed to reveal the source of their anxiety. If the dog got up and wandered about the study towards the end of the typical hour’s consultation, Freud interpreted this that the consultation had been completed. This would on occasion annoy some of Freud’s patients. The question arises as to what set of natural faculties was the dog demonstrating during such sessions. The couch of the famous psychiatrist is still on display at the Sigmund Freud Museum in North London, at the house to which Sigmund Freud and his immediate family escaped from the Nazis in 1938. Tragically, however, three of Freud’s sisters would subsequently die in the Treblinka concentration camp and another sister in the Theresienstadt Ghetto.
It is interesting to note that it was a dog lover, Princess Marie Bonaparte, who had both introduced Freud to the world of dogs and also responsible for securing the release of various members of the Freud family from Vienna in 1938. Freud came to appreciate the more noble attributes of dogs and summarised this as ‘a dog offers its master affection without ambivalence, it frees our lives from the unbearable conflicts of civilisation, and it shows us the beauty of existence itself’. This usefully describes the ability of dogs to be single pointed in the devotion to and care of their owners. Indeed, Freud could inwardly have wished that his patients had demonstrated various of the more positive characteristics of the ‘canine persona’. In this regard, therefore, the ‘robot dog’ project can be considered as an ‘aspiring’ application of Artificial Intelligence.
Freud’s daughter Anna had her own dog called ‘Wolf’. An amusing incident is recorded in a Vienna newspaper cutting from the 1930’s. It describes how Anna was out walking with ‘Wolf’ when soldiers fired some blank rounds – causing the dog to bolt off and vanish into the distance. On returning to the Freud residence, Anna discovered the dog had already made its own way home. According to a taxi driver, the dog had jumped into his cab and could not be dislodged. It then lifted up its head to allow the driver to read its tag which held details of Freud’s address and was subsequently conveyed home in style. Freud paid the taxi fare.
QUESTION: How did Anna Freud regard the role of dogs?
ANSWER: She regarded them in a more ‘balanced’ way and did not allow them into her consulting room as part of her own psychiatric practice. It was in fact her father who had provided Anna with the first dog ‘Wolf’ in the Freud family as a ‘companion’ for security on her long walks in Vienna around 1925. Anna recognised the significant role that interaction with dogs could play in maintaining a positive mental outlook but was somewhat annoyed at how her father had effectively ‘hijacked’ her dog as his companion.
QUESTION: Is there a specific detail of the history of when specific dogs came into Sigmund Freud’s life?
ANSWER: It is possible to construct a brief summary of these details from a range of sources. The earliest reference is that of ‘Wolf’ that was obtained for Anna in 1925. The dog Lün-Yu which belonged to Anna Freud’s close friend, Dorothy Burlington, was given to Freud in 1928. It is likely, however, that Freud’s interest in dogs was prompted by meeting with Marie Bonaparte in Vienna in 1925 as a patient in Freud’s practice. Lün-Yu unfortunately was killed some 15 months later on a railway track after having run off at a railway station. Freud was inconsolable, though around seven months later provided a home for Jofi and Lün, sisters of Lün-Yu. Jofi and Lün were not compatible on account of Jofi being jealous of Lün. Lün was given to family friends. Jofi remained Freud’s faithful companion until 1937, when she died of heart failure. Previously Wolf had died in 1936. Soon after Jofi’s death, Freud was re-united with Lün, the dog that Jofi had tried to exclude from the Freud household. Freud arrived in London in 1938 after escape from the Nazis through the intervention of Marie Bonaparte. Lün was placed in quarantine kennels. Freud would die in September 1939 from a long term cancerous condition. A considerable amount of detail of dogs in the Freud household is outlined in the book ‘Topsy: The story of a Golden-haired Chow by Marie Bonaparte’, which also documented the survival of her dog Topsy from cancer.
QUESTION: Did the meeting of Freud with Marie Bonaparte bring about any other changes in Freud’s outlook?
ANSWER: It is likely that this resulted in a reduction in the contact with Lou Andreas-Salomé, an eminent writer, intellectual and psychoanalyst who was admired by the eminent scholar Friedrich Nietzsche and the writer Rainer Maria Rilke, among others. The film ‘Lou Andreas-Salomé: The Audacity to be Free’ which described her complex and challenging life and relationships was released in 2016 as a German language film.
QUESTION: Is there any indication of a lasting legacy of Sigmund Freud’s appreciation of the benefit of spending time with dogs?
ANSWER: After her father’s death, Anna studied the mental health of children extensively with her co-worker Dorothy Burlington and established various organisations which aimed to promote and develop the well-being of children. After Anna’s death in 1982, the Anna Freud Centre was formed which continues to be a focus for such work and where there is specific recognition of the benefit of spending time with pets or animals as ‘self-care’.
Images
Anna Freud and dog Wolf in Vienna with Sigmund Freud looking on, Copyright © Freud Museum London
