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Summary: Animals have emotions and souls, but this book was terrible!
Review: I love animals. Anyone who has ever lived with a dog, cat, horse, or many other species of animals knows that they have emotions. Some humans just don't have the time or the heart to 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.
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Summary: Misleading & ignorant but well meaning
Review: The authors of this book clearly meant well. Their basic premise is one that I agree with- that animals are more than non-feeling automations.
They do a good job of making their case- if you don't know much about their sources or the scientific process. They misundersand and misinterperet much of their evidence and to add to it I caught them in one boldfaced lie.
The brunt of their argument relies on the use of annedotes. Many of these stories are compelling but deal more with the opinions of the witnesses which in some cases are highly questionable.
The authors site some well known scientific researchers. I have read a few of the works sited and can tell you that the authors often "forget" to include the words of caution the researchers included about the dangers of anthropomorphizing their subjects and about the fact that although we may guess about an animals emotions we cannot know about them.
The authors of this book have a big problem with anthropomorphization, and do not understand the very real need to avoid it. If scientists are to be allowed to guess and assume things instead of prove them through research, then many would be able to declare that there is life on Mars or that evolution does not exist. We can theorize about these things and try to find proof of them but we cannot SCIENTIFICALLY declare them to be so. If you doubt the fact that people are capable of making big errors in judgment when trying to read animal emotions read the prologue of this book.
While there are scientists and animal researchers out there who claim that animals cannot have emotions, there are plenty of others who believe that they probably do. However, just because we think something is true doesn't mean we can say it is scientific fact.
The authors make the claim that zookeepers don't ask if the animals in their care are "happy", only if they are well fed etc. This is a blatant lie- ask a zookeeper yourself.
Finally, the authors do not seem to understand that just because there is an evolutionary advantage for an emotion does not invalidate that emotion. They continually attack biologists who seem open to the idea of animal emotions. I found this puzzling and it did not help their case.
A number of good points are made in this book, however knowing that the authors lied at least once and misinterpeted/misunderstood so many of the stories they cite as evidence, I am left to wonder about anything they say.
I picked up this book with the hope of enjoying it and learning more about the emotional lives of animals but I was deeply disappointed. This book did more to discredit the idea of animal emotions than it did to support it.
If you really are interested in the subject please do yourself a favor and read the works they cite for yourself.
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Summary: very bad book
Review: this book was the worst book i ever read it was very boring
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Summary: WONDERFUL BOOK
Review: This book is one that will stay with you as you look at the animal kingdom with a totally different point of view. The complex emotional lives of the creatures that share our earth will sometimes make you cry or laugh, but always to think. I know that after reading this book, I cannot go into the monkey house or look at the elepahants at the zoo without being tremendously sad.
This book should be read by all as it teaches that although we have opposable thumbs, other animals are just as sensitive as us and we should cherish and protect all of them.
Truly a gem to be passed along to friends.
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Summary: Truly heart rending
Review: A must read book, I personally recommend this book. I read it and I am glad I did.
People must give due respect to all creation, all sentient manifestation.
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Summary: Do animals have emotions? yes!
Review: I loved the stories in this book of animal emotions and feelings, i.e., When Elephants Weep : The Emotional Lives of Animals by Susan McCarthy, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson, and the book itself raises some quite intersting questions, e.g., "does a mother cat love her kittens and is this show in her cleaning, caressing and nurturing them?". I believe so, since otherwise the species would not have survived. Emotions are imperative when it comes to all species (humans included) and they have formed as a vital part of the evolutionary process.
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Summary: Helped me go vegetarian!
Review: This book was life changing for me. I always loved animals and really always wanted to be a vegetarian, but I never was able to live the way I really wanted. This book is not about vegetarianism at all, what it does is illuminates the emotional lives of animals. Most of us KNOW that animals have emotions, but we don't really think about it. This book expands your thinking and really allows you to appreciate and respect animals in a new, more profound way. It was after reading this book that I began to lose the desire to eat animals. I am truly, truly grateful for this book. I have been a vegetarian for 6 years now! Who would have thunk!
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Summary: opinion presented as fact
Review: I started listening to the audio version of this book, but couldn't get past the introduction, where the author stated that "humans aren't in touch with their emotions." I thought, is the whole book going to be filled with unsupported and untrue statements like this? I can't stand authors who present statements of opinion as though they were fact, nor can I stomach authors who ascribe to the whole world their own shortcomings.
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Summary: This Book Changed My Life
Review: It's true. I picked up When Elephants Weep on audio as an impulse and listened to it in one sitting. Besides awakening in me a renewed respect for the subtleties and beauty of the natural world, it gave me the push I needed to finally make the jump to vegetarianism. The book was fascinating, without being too dry or academic. My only complaint is that the author tends to rant a bit on the subject of eating meat. While I have been a vegetarian for a year and a half, I still believe that it is an individual choice and shouldn't be encouraged through guilt and emotional intimidation. Even as I read the book, I was making the choice to go meatless--but I still thought the tone was too scolding and accusatory. Other than that, I loved the book and recommend it quite often. ....
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Summary: One of my favorite books
Review: "When Elephants Weep" was the first book by Jeffrey Masson that I read. It was deeply moving. Not intended to be a scientific treatise, it is an honest and deeply emotional account of one persons very qualified view on the emotional lives of animals. Only the most anthropocentric of readers could not love this book. I followed up by reading "Dogs Never Lie About Love" and "The Emperor's Embrace" and was also very pleased with these efforts by Mr. Masson. I look forward to all his future work. Hoping for a future world of less violence and more compassion, I wish I could magically put all his books in the hands of children of all ages.
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