Pets, these “new shrinks”

It spreads more every day and settles itself in our heads as surely as heatwaves now return every summer. A new kind of fear, that of seeing global warming make our world unlivable. This meditative machine – dubbed “eco-anxiety” – is now superimposed on anxiety about the pandemic, confinement, the outbreak of war near us, or nuclear winter (and let’s forget a few). A fear that some – and this is one of the rare certainties about the future – will deal with their animals, these “new shrinks” that “The Obs” has chosen to put on the cover this week entitled “Animal therapy”.

Pets: those partners who do us good

Dogs, cats and other so-called “domestic” animals have never been so numerous in our societies. They have never generated so much money. Above all, never have they occupied such a place at our side. It is up to them to heal, soothe, console, heal, sweeten. It’s up to them to help us manage our emotions, our… “animal spirits” – to use the expression used by the economist John Maynard Keynes to describe everything that does not fall within the crudest rationality. Like a transitional object – the famous soft toy for children that helps them separate from their mother – which would no longer be transitional.

The sequel after the announcement

Of course, this phenomenon is not new. It has been a long time since dogs or cats are no longer assigned only to a well-defined function (chasing mice, protecting the house from possible intrusions, bringing back game, etc.). The pet has long since joined the ranks of the family. And that the boundaries between human beings and their companions have blurred. Nearly five hundred years ago, Montaigne already explained that he “to it finds more difference from such man to such man than from such animal to such man.. Closer to home, Freud had found in his chow-chow bitches the indispensable companions of the last years of his life, a blindfold for his own sufferings and a useful presence during the sessions he held with his patients. As for Jacques Lacan – who spoke of“human animal” — he didn’t even hide everything his dog Justine brought him.

Audrey Jougla: “The dog is Spinoza and Bergson at the same time”

But this “animal need” has taken on a new dimension in recent years, which says a lot about the world around us and about our own torments. The animal is above all a call to nature, a response to the growing need to surround oneself with the living, which we also see collapsing. It is also a presence, a permanence, a palliative for contemporary individualism and a remedy for isolation, even emotional. It’s a framework, a routine, refrains that punctuate everyday life, give meaning and help fight the absurdity of a secularized world.

So many reasons that allow us to understand how families can dedicate a large part of their budget to their dog or cat in order to have “the best for their pet”, just as others want the “best for their child”. But they also explain that animals can sometimes become the melting pot of our neuroses, such as the frantic need to distinguish themselves from others: how else can we explain the development of niches or designer leashes from the big luxury brands, which we display on social media? More than ever, the animal is a formidable mirror. A mirror of the human being and of his time.

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