Cercle de Vie

By Kristi Myllenbeck
The more we know about animal minds, the more we realize how similar they are to ours—and that’s just as true of animals’ mental illnesses.
Increasingly, scientists are discovering that dogs, cats, and other animals suffer from anxiety, dementia, and even phobias.

Cesar Millan, the 'dog whisperer,' plays with dogs — Cesar Millan, the “dog whisperer,” interacts with canines. Photograph by Mark Thiessen, National Geographic Creative

Laurel Braitman’s new Animal Madness: How Anxious Dogs, Compulsive Parrots, and Elephants in Recovery Help Us Understand Ourselves offers insight into how different creatures can be afflicted with myriad mental and emotional disorders.
For example, Asian elephants in Thailand show emotional trauma after being mistreated and pets can develop obsessive-compulsive disorder (OCD) because of stress in their families, according to the book, which will be published by Simon & Schuster on June 9.
We talked to Braitman, who recently received her Ph.D. in history and anthropology of science at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, to hear more about her book.
What caused you to choose the subject of animal mental illness?
This book actually began with my own dog, who is a rescue. Six months in, his separation anxiety began to manifest. He could barely be left alone. It sort of culminated into him jumping out of our window.
We went to the vet hospital and I asked them what we should do. They said, ‘Well, you should move to a first-floor apartment,’ and they gave us a prescription for Valium. I was shocked. But sometimes the best stories are the ones that you sort of stumble into. (See “Dog and Human Genomes Evolved Together.”)
How did you go about conducting your research?
I started doing literature searches about mental illness in animals, insanity, and madness. There was actually very little on the subject. Because there is no such thing, really, as the field of mental illness in animals, I had to go to a bunch of different places—the behavioral sciences, the animal pharmaceutical industry, early research and experiments on animals, and even Pavlov’s research on his own dogs. (Related: “Q&A: What Can Dog Brains Tell Us About Humans?“)

What I found is that there were a lot of parallel ideas. People in different fields were asking similar questions: How smart are we? What heals us? And what can we learn from each other?
What similarities did you discover between human and animal mental illness?
The most common mental illnesses in the United States are various manifestations of fear and anxiety disorders. When you think about it, fear and anxiety are feelings we share with most of the animal kingdom because they’re beneficial to us. [For instance, being afraid of a lion helps you escape becoming dinner.] The problem is when you begin to feel fear inappropriately.
Another manifestation among animals and humans is OCD behavior, most often OCD-grooming behaviors. It’s also common for animals to react when there is a change in the family—a move, a divorce, or even a new baby. (See “OCD Dogs, People Have Similar Brains; Is Your Dog OCD?”)
Humans have therapists, but how is animal mental health addressed?
It depends on the animal. A free-living orca [killer whale] with panic disorder is probably never going to be diagnosed or end up on medication. Animals tend to get diagnosed when it is really extreme—when they won’t stop licking their tail so they won’t stop to eat, or they’re so obsessed with chasing shadows that they won’t take a walk. Animal mental illness is more likely to be diagnosed by an animal behaviorist rather than a veterinarian.
Are there repercussions in animals if mental illness is left unaddressed?
Thailand has over 2,000 working elephants. Many of them were used in the logging industry. When the logging industry was deemed illegal in the ’90s, thousands of these elephants were put out of work. Some of these elephants have extreme emotional problems. They can have trauma disorders, and emotionally distraught elephants are a public health hazard. (See a photo gallery of animals that are smarter than you think.)
When it comes to pets, the danger of not helping them through whatever is bothering them is usually a question of life or death. Most animals that wind up at shelters are there because they have behavioral problems.
What should readers take away from your book?
I hope, generally, that people’s view of other animals becomes just a tiny bit more complicated. After writing this book, I look at pigeons differently, I look at wombats differently, I look at gorillas differently, I look at dogs differently.
I think that we’re very used to thinking of ourselves as individuals, but I think we should actually be extending those capacities of individuality to those animals with which we share the planet. I think that we can also learn how to treat ourselves when we are emotional and stressed by interacting with these other creatures. Often what helps them helps us.
This interview has been edited and condensed.
Readers, tell us: Has your pet experienced mental illness?

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“”I am wiser than this man, for neither of us appears to know anything great and good; but he fancies he knows something, although he knows nothing; whereas I, as I do not know anything, so I do not fancy I do. In this trifling particular, then, I appear to be wiser than he, because I do not fancy I know what I do not know.

—attributed to Socrates, from Plato, Apology

The Dunning-Kruger effect, named after David Dunning and Justin Kruger of Cornell University, occurs where people fail to adequately assess their level of competence — or specifically, their incompetence — at a task and thus consider themselves much more competent than everyone else. This lack of awareness is attributed to their lower level of competence robbing them of the ability to critically analyse their performance, leading to a significant overestimate of themselves. Put more crudely, they're too stupid to realize they're stupid.
The inverse also applies: competent people tend to underestimate their ability compared to others; this is known as impostor syndrome.
If you have no doubts whatsoever about your brilliance, you could just be that damn good. On the other hand...

[hide]

The effect

“”One of the painful things about our time is that those who feel certainty are stupid, and those with any imagination and understanding are filled with doubt and indecision.

—Bertrand Russell, The Triumph of Stupidity

The Dunning-Kruger effect is a slightly more specific case of the bias known as illusory superiority, where people tend to overestimate their good points in comparison to others around them, while concurrently underestimating their negative points. The effect has been shown by experiment in several ways, but in this case Dunning and Kruger tested students on a series of criteria such as humour, grammar, and logic and compared the actual test results with each student's own estimation of their performance.
Those who scored well on these tests were shown, consistently, to underestimate their performance. This is not terribly surprising and can be explained as a form of psychological projection: those who found the tasks easy (and thus scored highly) mistakenly thought that they would also be easy for others. This is similar to the aforementioned "impostor syndrome"— found notably in graduate students and high-achieving women— whereby high achievers fail to recognise their talents as they think that others must be equally good.
More interestingly, and the subject of what became known as the Dunning-Kruger effect, those who scored lowest on the test were found to have "grossly overestimated" their scores. And what about the underachievers who overestimated their performance? In the words of Dunning and Kruger:

This overestimation occurs, in part, because people who are unskilled in these domains suffer a dual burden: Not only do these people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices, but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it.

The original study was focused specifically on competence, as opposed to intelligence - Dunning and Kruger were more concerned with the empirical, measurable factors of how well a person could perform a task (even "simple" or "stupid" tasks) and that person's perception of how they performed that task, rather than the more nebulous concept of comparative "intelligence" or "education." The classic "believes-themselves-better-than-they-actually-are" effect is very often tied to a lack of education or other intelligence deficit. However, the inspiration for the entire study was a desperately under-educated Pittsburgher who possessed badly flawed reasoning skills (see below). The term is still properly meant to describe a disconnect between perceived and empirical competence, rather than IQ or intelligence.

A little knowledge can be dangerous

“”It is not in our human nature to imagine that we are wrong.

—Kathryn Schulz^[1]

The effect can also be summarised by the phrase "a little knowledge is a dangerous thing."^[2] A small amount of knowledge can mislead a person into thinking that they're an expert because this small amount of knowledge isn't a well known fact.
For a potent example, consider former children's TV presenter and "science advocate" Johnny Ball, who in 2009 stunned audiences by denying the existence of climate change. His reasoning was based on the fact that water vapour as a greenhouse gas is much more prevalent, potent, and thus much more powerful than carbon dioxide — and because combustion reactions also produce water, it should be water vapour we're worried about, not carbon dioxide.^[3] Sound reasoning to an amateur, but anyone minimally qualified in atmospheric chemistry would tell you that the water isn't a problem because the atmosphere has a way of getting rid of excess water — it's called rain. Thus its concentration (for given temperatures and pressures) remains more or less constant globally.
Ball's premise is also used by some critics against the hydrogen economy: because hydrogen vehicles emit water vapour from their exhaust, they are seen to be more damaging to the environment than petrol driven vehicles. An ill-informed and unsound argument — hydrogen fuel cell vehicles emit approximately the same amount of water per mile as vehicles using gasoline-powered internal combustion engines.^[4] The difference is that while water vapour remains in the atmosphere only a few days or weeks, and hydrogen gas about two years, carbon dioxide lingers for more than a century.^[5]

Origins

Comparison of actual score vs perceived score. A well-calibrated and honest set of predictions would follow a straight line (i.e., prediction of ability matches the outcome). However, experimentally it was found that people consistently over-estimated their ability. Graphed as a proportion of the over-estimate, those in the lowest quartile were guilty of the most significant over-estimation.^[6]

Dunning and Kruger properly proved its existence in their seminal, 2000 Ig Nobel Prize winning^[7] paper "Unskilled and Unaware of It,"^[8] doubtless at great risk to personal sanity.
They were famously inspired by McArthur Wheeler, a Pittsburgh man who attempted to rob a bank while his face was covered in lemon juice. Wheeler had learned that lemon juice could be used as "invisible ink" (that is, the old childhood experiment of making the juice appear when heated); he therefore got the idea that unheated lemon juice would render his facial features unrecognizable or "invisible."
After he was effortlessly caught (as he made no other attempts to conceal himself during the robberies), he was presented with video surveillance footage of him robbing the banks in question, fully recognizable. At this, he expressed apparently sincere surprise and lack of understanding as to why his plan did not work - he was not competent enough to see the logical gaps in his thinking and plan.^[9]
The idea that people who don't know enough also don't know enough to realise that they don't know enough ("Dunning-Kruger effect" is so much simpler to get your tongue around) isn't particularly new. The Bertrand Russell quote is from the mid 1930s, and even earlier, Charles Darwin, in The Descent of Man in 1871, stated "ignorance more frequently begets confidence than does knowledge." Even back in ancient Greece, Plato's Apology attributed to Socrates the quote at the top, which today is often summed up as, roughly, "the wisest people know that they know nothing."
In his 1996 book Rush Limbaugh is a Big Fat Idiot, Al Franken described the phenomenon of "pseudo-certainty" which was rampantly being displayed by pundits and politicians such as Rush Limbaugh and Newt Gingrich, who would use "common sense" as the basis for their confidently-made assertions, but without actually backing them up with time-consuming research or pesky facts. Franken prefers the term "being a fucking moron."

Locally relevant examples

Members of Answers in Genesis or CMI
Andrew Schlafly; the Lenski Affair, where Schlafly decided that he was both intellectually qualified and physically equipped to study bacteria himself.
Larry Sanger; micromanaging experts on Citizendium in areas he was not qualified for or had knowledge of.
Vox Day, and how!
vaccine deniers.

ee also

External links

Also known as "Mount Stupid"
What happens when Dunning-Kruger and Poe's Law collide.

Footnotes

↑Being Wrong: Adventures in the Margin of Error, 2010
↑Phrases.org.uk - meanings
↑Daily Express: IT'S NOT THE END OF THE WORLD
↑ See U.S. Department of Energy - Water Emissions from Fuel Cell Vehicles
↑ For further discussion see Union of Concerned Scientists - Fuel Cells and Water Vapor
↑See this alternative formulation of the idea.
↑Improbable Research - Winners 2000
↑ Kruger, Justin; David Dunning (1999). "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments". Journal of Personality and Social Psychology77 (6): 1121–34. doi: 10.1037/0022-3514.77.6.1121. PMID 10626367
↑Mindhacks - The Burglar With the Lemon Juice Disguise (w/ except from Dunning-Kruger study)



	Les phosphates créent-ils les hyperactifs ? Chère amie, cher ami, Lorsque j’étais enfant, nous nous amusions toujours à lister les ingrédients commençant par « E » dans les produits que nous consommions à la cantine de l’école, notamment dans les flans au caramel. Cela nous amusait de voir que la liste des émulsifiants, des gélatines et des additifs en toute sorte était bien plus longue que celle des ingrédients « normaux ». Puis nous mangions nos pots sans nous poser de questions parce qu’il y avait du lait et du sucre et que c’était bon. Nous ne savions pas alors que derrière ce « E quelque chose » se cache parfois un minéral qui n’a pas fini de faire parler de lui parce qu’il représente un sérieux danger pour notre santé – s’il est pris en excès. Il s’agit du phosphate - un sel d’acide phosphorique. On le retrouve naturellement dans certains aliments (graines de soja, noix de cajou, certains poissons) et surtout dans les plats préparés ou les aliments industriels (sodas, Nutella, barres chocolatées, charcuteries industrielles…). L’excès de phosphate : un danger peu connu Comme nous l’a appris Paracelse [1] : tout est une question de dose [2]. Car le phosphore est un nutriment essentiel au fonctionnement de chacune de nos cellules [3]. Il fonctionne en synergie, notamment avec le calcium. L’important pour nous est de prendre autant de l’un que de l’autre. Une carence en phosphore que l’on retrouve par exemple chez les personnes anorexiques, provoque des faiblesses musculaires, des douleurs osseuses, et un état d’anémie [4]. Par ailleurs, le phosphore est particulièrement utile pour favoriser la croissance : c’est la raison pour laquelle on s’en sert pour les engrais ou l’alimentation animale. Mais pour la plupart des gens en Occident, le vrai risque est l’excès de phosphore lié à une alimentation trop riche en phosphates. Chez l’adulte, cet excès est associé à un risque plus élevé de maladie cardiovasculaires, rénales et osseuses et chez l’enfant à l’hyperactivité, l’autisme, voire la schizophrénie [5]. Une étude d’observation menée sur près de 10 000 patients entre 1994 et 1998 [6], a montré qu’un taux élevé de phosphore dans le sang augmentait la mortalité chez les personnes en bonne santé. Nous savons que l’excès de phosphore joue sur les niveaux de calcium et de vitamine D dans le corps. Il est certain aussi que d’une personne à l’autre les seuils de tolérance varient et que certaines personnes sont plus sensibles que d’autres à un taux élevé de phosphore dans le sang. Si les scientifiques n’ont pas encore décrypté l’ensemble des conséquences liées à l’intoxication au phosphore, nous savons déjà qu’elles sont loin d’être anodines, notamment chez les enfants. Les enfants hyperactifs mangent-ils trop de phosphates ? Depuis 30 ans, des médecins suisses proposent aux parents d’enfants hyperactifs ou atteints de troubles de l’attention, de changer la diète de leur progéniture en adoptant une alimentation à bas niveau de phosphates [7]. Cette thérapeutique s’appelle la diète Hafer du nom d’une pharmacienne allemande qui l’a créée dans les années 70 pour son propre fils. La diète Hafer est une application pratique des thèses notamment de Benjamin F. Feingold, pédiatre et allergologue américain qui pensait qu’il existait un lien entre les colorants et additifs des aliments et l’hyperactivité des enfants. L’expérience ayant réussie, elle a été retranscrite dans un livre [8] qui a beaucoup circulé dans les cercles de médecins et de diététiciens ouverts aux méthodes naturelles mais reste peu connu du grand public. Le principe est simple et la promesse ambitieuse : il suffit d’une diète de quatre jours pour constater une amélioration chez l’enfant qui perd son hyperactivité dans une grande majorité des cas, ou retrouve sa concentration. En revanche, le moindre écart provoque de nouveaux troubles de l’attention dans les heures qui suivent. Même si cette approche demande à la famille de changer son mode de vie, elle présente les avantages d’être rapide, efficace, et d’éviter à l’enfant de prendre de la Ritaline, le médicament que l’on utilise pour soigner les troubles de l’attention. Cette approche permet aussi d’éviter d’avoir à rencontrer sans résultat des psychologues les uns après les autres. L’approche psychologique ne peut pas marcher puisque l’enfant souffre d’une intoxication alimentaire ! Pour autant, la diète ne permet de guérir que les enfants devenus hyperactifs à cause d’une intoxication aux phosphates. Dans ces cas, il faudra envisager d’autres traitements. Comment éviter l’intoxication aux phosphates ? Sans rentrer dans le détail complet d’une diète que l’on retrouve sur Internet sur le site de la Fondation Kousmine par exemple [9] ou en anglais [10], on s’aperçoit globalement que le problème vient d’abord des produits industriels (yaourts et charcuterie par exemple) et des plats préparés. On trouvera des phosphates dans les petits poissons gras (sardines) ou certains fruits (noix de cajou) mais les avantages de ces produits pour notre santé surpassent de loin leurs inconvénients. Une fois de plus dans notre recherche d’une alimentation choisie et adaptée, il faut mettre de la patience et de la sagesse, ce qui n’est jamais simple dans une société où tout le monde court tout le temps après la montre. Naturellement Vôtre, Augustin de Livois PS : Toujours dans le domaine de la nutrition, n’oubliez pas que nous proposons deux conférences sur le gluten : Le 12 juin prochain à Paris (19h30) : Programme et inscription ici. Le 18 juin à Nantes (19h00) : Programme et inscription ici. Sources : [1] Alchimiste Suisse du 16e siècle, père de la toxicologie et de nombreuses branches de la médecine. [2] « Toutes les choses sont poison, et rien n’est sans poison ; seule la dose détermine ce qui n’est pas un poison. » [3] Phosphorus [4] Ibid [5] Autisme, schizophrénie et hyperactivité- Phosphates dans l’alimentation : les enfants poussés au bord de la folie. [6] Le phosphore alimentaire : nouveau risque pour la santé ? [7] La diète HAFER [8] “La drogue cachée : les phosphates alimentaires, cause de troubles du comportement, de difficultés scolaires et de délinquance juvénile”, 1976 traduit en français publié en 1978 et réédité par les Editions du Madrier, dernière édition 1992. [9] La diète HAFER [10] Low-phosphorus diet: Best for kidney disease ?

Les phosphates créent-ils les hyperactifs ?

L’excès de phosphate : un danger peu connu

Les enfants hyperactifs mangent-ils trop de phosphates ?

Comment éviter l’intoxication aux phosphates ?

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Bien être vs. flux financiers

John Kerry calls for nations, businesses, and everyone worldwide to preserve the world's oceans.