attachment — blog — Anne Benvenuti

Grief

Grief. This fundamental affect is not easy to name, but you know it when you're in it. Bereft might be the best word to describe it, the sudden panic that drops into a well of sadness, even despair, and it's caused by the loss of an important attachment. The reason why being shunned (as in solitary confinement or the "scarlet letter") is considered the most severe punishment is that this kind of separation pain is a pain like no other. It's the emotional pain that really can kill you.

So let me insert the good news here.

animal family, animal studies, anthrozoology, critical thinking, human-animal relationsAnne BenvenutiOctober 18, 2017grief, animal nature, animal sentience, animal family, animals and grief, Jaak Panksepp, Jane Goodall, attachment, oxytocinComment

Mammals Suck, and That Makes Oxytocin!

This mamma-baby connection is where oxytocin—the trust hormone—flows at peak levels, creating in both animals (the mom and the baby) the feeling of intense warm attachment. It is the way that the desire for warm attachment becomes part of an individual, staying with her for life and creating the desire and willingness that trust between animals might work. It feels really good to be connected in trust, and that's nature's way of making sure it happens. Yes, this is yet another way in which all mammals, ourselves included, are alike.

Unless we're very, very unlucky, we get lots of oxytocin from day one onward.

animal family, animal studies, anthrozoology, human-animal relationsAnne BenvenutiOctober 10, 2017mother-baby connection, oxytocin, attachment, trust, regulating emotions, pacific gray whale, Jaak Panksepp, Baja, San Ignacio lagoon, understanding across species, animal family, animal studies, affective brain systemsComment