About this item
In his previous bestsellers, Masson has showed us that animals can teach us much about our own emotions -- love (dogs) , contentment (cats) , and grief (elephants) , among others. In Beasts, he demonstrates that the violence we perceive in the "wild" is a matter of projection.Animals predators kill to survive, but animal aggression is not even remotely equivalent to the violence of mankind. Humans are the most violent animals to our own kind in existence. We lack what all other animals have: a check on the aggression that would destroy the species rather than serve it. In Beasts, Masson brings to life the richness of the animal world and strips away our misconceptions of the creatures we fear, offering a powerful and compelling look at our uniquely human propensity toward aggression.
About the Author
Masson has had at least four lives: first as a boy raised to become a "spiritual leader" (see his denunciation of such a life in My Father's Guru) . While in the middle of his disillusion, he became a professor of Sanskrit at the University of Toronto. At the same time he trained to become a Freudian analyst. Upon graduation he became Projects Director of the Freud Archives, and was scheduled to move into Freud's house in London when fate intervened: Masson found documents which seemed to show that Freud was right in believing that many women had been sexually abused as children, and that he was wrong to give up this belief, perhaps impelled by societal displeasure at his discoveries. Saying this publicly turned Masson into a psychoanalytic pariah, and he gave up both his professorship and his analytic career to delve into the far more fascinating world of animal emotions. Two of his books, WHEN ELEPHANTS WEEP and DOGS NEVER LIE ABOUT LOVE, were New York Times best-sellers. He became vegetarian as a result of his research, and later, when he looked into the feelings of farm animals, he became even stricter, and no longer eats or uses any animal product (vegan) . Harpercollins published his book: THE DOG WHO COULDN'T STOP LOVING: HOW DOGS HAVE CAPTURED OUR HEARTS FOR THOUSANDS OF YEARS. He subsequently published a book about becoming vegan: THE FACE ON YOUR PLATE: THE TRUTH ABOUT FOOD. His book BEASTS: WHAT ANIMALS CAN TEACH US ABOUT THE ORIGINS OF GOOD AND EVIL is about the us/them divide. He lived on a beach in New Zealand with his two sons, Ilan and Manu, and his German wife, Leila, a pediatrician who works with children on the autistic spectrum (using the bio-medical approach) , Benjy, a golden lab, and three cats for 14 years. They moved to Europe (Malaga and Berlin) and are now living in Bondi Beach in Sydney, Australia. They often travel to the States to see their grandchild, and Europe to see Leila's family. Jeff has just signed a contract with St. Martin's to write about the death of dogs (and other animals we consider family) .
