The relationship between humans and animals is both intimate and psychologically complex, yet it remains relatively underexplored in psychoanalytic theory. While animals appear frequently in clinical material—in dreams, memories, childhood narratives, and experiences of loss—they are rarely addressed directly in analytic literature.

Following on a Special Extension Workshop in 2025 (“A Psychodynamic Exploration of Pet Bereavement”), this course focuses more broadly on the role of animals in the psychic lives of ourselves and our patients.

We explore the human–animal bond through classical and contemporary psychoanalytic perspectives. Drawing on the work of thinkers such as Sigmund Freud, Melanie Klein, Donald Winnicott, Wilfred R. Bion, Heinz Kohut, and Adam Phillips, the course examines how animals function as companions, as attachment figures, as internalized objects, in dreams, and as participants in the analytic situation.

Particular attention will be given to childhood experiences with animals, animals in play therapy, the meanings of pet neglect and care, animals appearing in dreams and fantasy life, and the increasing presence of pets within the analytic frame in the era of remote therapy. The course will also introduce participants to equine-facilitated psychotherapy as an emerging area of clinical practice.

Class 1 – Childhood Pets and the Development of Attachment

This opening session explores the role of animals in childhood development. For many individuals, pets function as early attachment figures, transitional companions, or repositories of emotional life. They may be a child’s closest companion. They may be a child’s first experience with death.

Drawing on concepts from Donald Winnicott and Melanie Klein, we will consider how animals may function as transitional objects, recipients of projection, and early objects of care and aggression.

Themes will include:

• “I was named after my mother’s dog”: animals as family members and important early attachment figures.
• Pets as companions in loneliness and emotional development
• Projection, aggression, and guilt toward animals
• Animals as early training grounds for empathy and responsibility
• Clinical vignettes and reflections from analytic literature will be discussed.

Class 2: Neglect, Cruelty, and Moral Development

Animals often appear in clinical histories in the context of neglect, cruelty, or intense attachment. This session examines what relationships with animals can reveal about psychic development, aggression, and empathy.

Using ideas from Sigmund Freud, Anna Freud, and Wilfred R. Bion, we will explore the psychological meaning of cruelty to animals and the ways animals may function as containers for unmentalized affect.

Topics include:

• Animal cruelty and developmental disturbance
• Pets as containers of unprocessed emotional states
• Identification with vulnerable creatures
• Clinical implications when patients recount experiences of harming or rescuing animals.

Class 3 – Animals in Dreams and the Unconscious

Animals appear frequently in dreams and symbolic life. This class examines their meanings within psychoanalytic dream interpretation and unconscious fantasy.

Drawing from dream theory we will consider animals as symbolic figures representing instinct, parental imagos, and dissociated parts of the self.

Discussion topics include:

• Animal in dreams
• Animals as representations of instinct and bodily life
• Dream animals as expressions of split or disowned psychic parts
• Clinical examples of animal dreams
• Participants will be invited to reflect on dream material in analytic memoirs and case literature.

Class 4 – Animals in the Analytic Frame: From Pandemic Pets to Equine Therapy

The pandemic dramatically changed the analytic situation. With the rise of remote therapy, pets often entered the analytic frame in new ways. Animals that were once invisible became audible, visible, and occasionally active participants in analytic encounters.

Using ideas from various analytic theorists, we will consider how animals may function as selfobjects, internal objects, regulators of affect, and witnesses to psychic life.

Topics include:

• Pets appearing during remote analysis.
• Animals as regulators of loneliness and anxiety
• Working analytically with patients’ relationships to pets
• Therapist reactions to animals in the analytic space

The session concludes with a discussion of how the human–animal bond may expand psychoanalytic thinking about attachment, care, and emotional regulation and deepen our work in the clinic.

Learning Objectives:

By the end of the course, participants will be able to:

1. Identify and describe key psychoanalytic concepts that illuminate the psychological significance of relationships between humans and animals.
2. Recognize and interpret the appearance of animals in clinical material, including childhood memories, dreams, and experiences of loss, using psychoanalytic frameworks.
3. Apply psychoanalytic thinking to contemporary clinical situations in which animals appear within the analytic frame, including remote therapy and animal-assisted therapeutic settings.

Karen Dougherty, MA, RP (CRPO), FIPA

Karen Dougherty, MA, RP (CRPO), FIPA, is a Psychoanalyst and Registered Psychotherapist in private practice in Amaranth, Ontario, a filmmaker, a former producer in TVO’s Documentary Unit, and mental health consultant for film and television. She is a clinical supervisor who teaches at the TIP, ATPPP, and the FPP, and is Chair of the Extension Program of the Toronto Psychoanalytic Society. Her most recent documentary project is a six-part series for the Ontario Veterinary College’s Pet Trust about pet loss, following several families as they find ways to actively mourn their lost animal companion. Member TPS&I.