Dogs in a Psychologist's Office
AKC Gazette July 1993

One Thanksgiving some 20 years ago, I found a small black puppy, shivering and emaciated, under a car. The pup appeared to be a Poodle mix that had been abandoned and left to die.

I named him Humphrey. The veterinarian who examined him the next day said it would take a long time for Humphrey to recover, but with care and medication, he should do just fine. I feared leaving Humphrey alone all day and decided to take him to the office with me after the holiday weekend.

On that first morning, I wondered, as a psychoanalysis and psychotherapist, what my patients would think of Humphrey. I recalled that Dr. Sigmund Freud saw patients accompanied by his Chow Chows, first Lun Yu, then Jo-Fi, then Lun. I attempted to discover if Freud had used dogs in any kind of therapeutic involvement. Ernst Jones, Freud's biographer, mentions only the names of Freud's dogs and that Freud was inseparable from them.

Following in Freud's Footsteps

In 1971, on a visit to London, I got it in my head to visit Freud's daughter, Anna, also an analyst, at the family home outside London. My wish to meet her was greater than my good sense. I purchased one of her books in town in order in order to beg her autograph. Why I ever believed Anna Freud would ever answer the door, invite me in and then autograph the book is now beyond me.

I arrived at her hose carrying a copy of the book Normality and Pathology in Childhood and rang the bell. An elderly housekeeper answered the door. I realized immediately that she must be Paula Fichtl, the Freuds' remarkable housekeeper who left Vienna with the family in 1938 when they fled the Nazis. I introduced, explaining who I was and why I'd come. Frichtl told me Anna Freud was on holiday in Scotland, and, noting my disappointment, asked me to wait outside a moment.

About 45 seconds later, some 50 policemen surrounded the house-and me. They asked me to lay down the book very, very gently. At that moment, I realized that the IRA had been sending book bombs through the mail. So much for Freud and his dogs, I thought.

When the police realized I was harmless, if not stupid, they released me and my book. Fichtl signaled me to the door and apologized profusely. She invited me in asking if I would like to see Freud's study. This was more than I had hoped for.

During the visit, I asked Fichtel about Freud and his dogs. She said after psychoanalysis, Freud most enjoyed archeology, hiking and dogs. She recalled the dogs were always in his office. She didn't believe that he engaged them in his treatment but said they were always at his feet when he saw patients. Freud once remarked, she recalled, that Jo-Fi understood what a particular patient needed better than he did. I left the house willed with insight.

With the Help of Humphrey

As the word of Humphrey spread among my colleagues, I became known as something of a maverick. They often asked about how Humphrey affected patients' transference-the feelings, moods, thoughts, images impulses and even actions patients transfer onto their analysts from their past.

As the patient and therapist examine the transference, memories and feelings are brought to light for reexamination. Over the years, my experience with dogs in treatment has taught me that dogs do not interfere with the development of transference. In fact, my dogs have often fostered transference that might not have arisen until much later in the patient's treatment.

Humphrey was a wonder co-therapist. He was never intrusive. He would lie by the couch and, if a patient ever moved into an uncomfortable place, he would lift his head and place it on the patient's arm. Patients accepted this gesture as one of infinite comfort, and as a result, would generally move into even deeper emotions.

The dreams patients often reported of Humphrey often involved being rescued by him. Frequently, it meant that these dreams had more to do with feelings I could not rescue them. Some patients felt that if they told me everything, I might not like them anymore or want to help them, much less rescue them. Other patients inquired if I would take care of them the way I took care of Humphrey.

Continued