Publisher's Synopsis
This book is not about what we can teach animals, but what they can teach us. Their differences are often not as radical as most humans imagine, which is one reason we love animals. We have more neurons in our neurological systems, but we share many of the same features and underestimate what they have learned about survival strategies over the eons. We stop and think a lot more, but in doing so can sometimes interfere with natural processes and the results are not always good. Animals provide a good platform from which we should launch emotionally and even ethically if we pay attention to them.
This book is unlike carefully documented scholarly articles that Dr. Thomas also writes. It is written for a wide popular audience, and is loaded with stories and humor. It is meant to be easy to read for almost anyone.
In this brilliant and entertaining book Jesse Thomas unfolds how human cognition originates in embodied emotions starting already at the animal level. The readers are not confronted by incomprehensible psychological theory, but learn from practical examples and will find them useful for their own emotional development.
Arnold O. Benz
Author of "Astrophysics and Creation -
Perceiving the Universe through Science and Participation"
Jesse holds a Ph.D. from Northwestern University and a Post-Doctoral Diplomate of The Gestalt Institute of Cleveland. He is known for his long teaching experience in leading universities, most recently San Diego State University, and as a Gestalt Therapist, including practices in La Jolla CA and in the Scripps Hospital Complex there. At the American Association for the Advancement of Science-Pacific Division he has organized symposia and presented papers. He is widely published, with 2 earlier books and articles in diverse academic journals.
He is a native mid-westerner, but a Californian for several decades now. His specialty is psychology, now focused on the relationship between animal and human consciousness. He is known for his ability to put diverse and complex theories in everyday language. Personally he is known as very intelligent, but also very warm and friendly.
