Research in animal assisted therapy shows that bringing animals in psychiatric or geriatric settings can make a big difference for some patients. It is often said that animals “make these places more human”. How is it that the sharing of interspecies modes of sociability leads to a kind of re-humanisation for these patients? What kind of world is shared in the human-animal interaction, that gives some very retired patients the confidence to interact with people? How does the animal’s presence affect the way of being in the world? These questions will be addressed through three kinds of data: interviews with dolphin trainers, clinical observations of a therapy dog and a patient with dementia, and micro-phenomenological interviews of people who experienced a “special moment” in an ordinary encounter with a horse. Together, they give some clues about how being with animals might change the experience of the self. 

About the speaker
Véronique Servais is a psychologist and Professor of Anthropology of Communication at the Faculty of Social Sciences of the University of Liege (Belgium). Her research focuses on the relationships and interactions between humans and animals in the Western context. She is currently doing research on human-animal/forest encounters using micro-phenomenological interviews.