A report in the British journal Nature provides vivid evidence that other animal species suffer from the psychological symptoms of traumatic stress that we like to think of as human disorders.
Elephants, like humans, are a highly intelligent, long-lived mammalian species with strong family ties, a complex social life, and long memories. They grow up in extended families headed mainly by grandmothers (older females). Human violence and habitat destruction have been breaking up those families for a century or more. It's estimated that in 1900, there were more than 10 million elephants in Africa; in 2005, after a century of ivory poaching, habitat loss, and legal culling, about a half million are left.
It's well known that early traumatic experiences can have long-lasting effects, raising the risk of post-traumatic stress disorder, depression, and violence. Today, in increasing numbers, elephants are showing signs of abnormal startle responses, unpredictable aggression, and antisocial behavior. The loss of older family members is especially devastating for adolescent males. Often they have only young inexperienced mothers, or no mothers, to raise them, and there are few older males to mentor them during adolescence.
Young males killing other young males account for 90% of male elephant deaths in some areas. In one incident, a group of orphaned adolescents went on a killing rampage against rhinoceroses 10 years after their mothers and grandmothers were slaughtered.
These consequences of trauma are easy to observe — examples of what psychiatrists and psychologists call "externalizing" behavior.
Since elephants probably do not have the same capacity for self-knowledge that humans do, externalizing is their only choice. Furthermore, the elephants are in a terrible fix. Present methods of conservation do not preserve elephant families and social systems because not enough older animals are allowed to survive.
Fortunately, humans have better options. Unlike elephants, we are more likely to move past traumatic events, because we can make contact with others through language. We can also come to terms with events, for example, through self-reflection (sometimes with the help of a therapist) or through creative expression. Human beings also have more opportunities than elephants to develop successful strategies for coping and functioning.
Where does this leave the elephants? In the face of current ravages, elephants have few ways to help themselves or one other. They must depend on human beings to improve their lot.
Do you have any reflections on trauma as a universal experience?
Mental Health Letter
The field of mental health is rapidly evolving, and whether your interest is professional or personal, staying informed about these mental health issues is no easy job. The Harvard Mental Health Letter is a source of mental health news you can trust—and it comes directly from the more than 8,000 doctors and researchers at Harvard Medical School.
Dr. Michael Miller has been on staff of the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, a large teaching hospital in Boston, for more than 25 years. He is also an Assistant Professor of Psychiatry at Harvard Medical School.
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Comments: 6
You make a good point, and — yes — elephants may very well be self-aware. We can't really know, but I assume that many animals have some capacity for self-awareness. Certainly all animals learn from their experience.
But I assume, based on what I know about the brain, that non-human animals don't have the ability to think as abstractly as we humans do. This ability for abstract thinking gives us a lot more options for dealing with problems we face.
Or maybe it's better to describe it this way: Animals may be self-aware, but they don't have the capacity for self-reflection that humans do. That capacity makes it possible for us to do things other than externalize our feelings. We can talk about them, for one thing. And sometimes we even have reasoning powers that help us to come to terms with painful experiences.
Animals need us to do the abstract thinking for them. So, in the case of the elephants, it's up to us to use our powers of empathy to treat them more respectfully.
I completely agree with you that caring in a general way is very important. I used the word empathy in my previous post. What I mean by that specifically is the ability to put yourself in another person's shoes. Or in this case being able to think about the elephants' experiences and understand what they might feel.
There is an obvious problem here. It's hard enough for one person to understand another person's experience. We tend to make assumptions based on our OWN experiences, but assumptions may be wrong. Men and women often feel different things in the same circumstances. Two people from different ethnic, cultural or religious backgrounds may not understand one another. Gay and straight people may feel things and look at things very differently. And two people of the same gender, sexual, ethnic or cultural group are also likely to have very individual points of view!
But at least we're all human so we have that in common. And — if we choose to — we can talk to one another to sort out our differences. It is very difficult to know what an elephant, a bear or a dog might be thinking or feeling. And sadly, we can't ask.
I think it's fair, however, to ask that people consider what's fairest to non-human creatures. If there are two or more ways of achieving a human goal, why not consider the animals around us and make choices that minimize their suffering?