Our Spirit Mind Body Group had the unique and enjoyable opportunity to hear Professor Harry Prosen, Emeritus Professor of Psychiatry and Behavioral Medicine, Medical College of Wisconsin, and former Chief of the Department, and formerly Professor of Psychiatry, University of Manitoba, Canada and chief of the Psychiatry Department there. Dr. Prosen has a multitude of other roles in his past academic career and even currently, but perhaps what he is most known for by non medical people at least on the Internet is his behavioral consultant work to the Milwaukee Zoo on bonobos. Since his work in this capacity he has received calls from all over the world about psychological and some medical problems with the great primates. In addition to his medical leadership roles as past President of the Canadian Psychiatric Association, and leadership roles in the Royal College of Physicians and Surgeons of Canada, and the American Psychiatric Association, he is currently head consultant for the Bonobo Species Preservation Society.
Dr. Prosen first told us how he became a psychiatric consultant for bonobos. The story involves Brian, a young bonobo male who was sent from Yerkes Primate Research Center in Atlanta, where he had been housed with a male bonobo alone, not as normal which would be with his mother. Brian was very psychiatrically ill for a bonobo and was totally dysfunctional. He was engaging in a juvenile masturbation activity called fisting, in addition to other behavioral defects. With zookeepers, and administrators, various plans were outlined to try to help Brian. Eventually he was put into the enclosure with several females but they recognized his behavioral problems and were beating up on him. After much work and various brainstorming sessions, finally an older male, Lody and a very nurturing blind female, Kitty, were able to help Brian and his behavior slowly normalized. I had heard this story before, but didn't know the outcome. I was happy to learn that Brian is now the alpha male of the bonobo group at the Milwaukee County Zoo.
Bonobos are very threatened in the wild. There may be only a couple thousand left in the Congo, where they reside on one side of the Congo River, the chimpanzees on the other side. Bonobos are matriarchal at least in the breeding colony. When males reach young adulthood they are chased out of the colony by the females and must join another colony or build one from scratch. The bonobos are considered to be one of the most empathic of all creatures and their society is characterized by much physical contact. It has been observed that bonobos solve most threatening problems by everyone having sex with everyone else. Then they see what is left that is threatening after a period of this sexual behavior. Milwaukee has the biggest bonobo colony in North America. Also Antwerp, Belgium has a large colony. Due to Dr. Prosen's observations and experience, Milwaukee Zoo is now considered an expert location for bonobos. However, Dr. Prosen reports that his tasks have not been easy. Like any other large organization, people at the Zoo have had their own ideas. Sometimes the keepers understand the animals better, but the researchers are in charge and don't always have an open mind. Many of the consultations that Dr. Prosen has received from around the world are done confidentially because some of the young caretakers are afraid to counter the researchers or the administration, or representatives of the philanthropic wing of the zoological park.
It should be noted that the story of Brian and the story of where his initial consultation took Dr. Prosen is told in more detail in the Atlantic Monthly, of June, 2014. Here is a link.
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/brian-the-mentally-ill-bonobo-and-how-he-healed/372596/
You may also learn more about Dr. Prosen. There is a nice Wikipedia article that is fairly thorough.
Laurel Braitmans also tells Brian's story in her book: "Animal Madness: How anxious dogs, compulsive parrots, and elephants in recovery help us understand ourselves, a survey of mental illness in animals and its relationship to our own problems."
Dr. Prosen had done research in empathy and particularly in family relationships, looking at non verbal communication, and utilizing facial movements to communicate. This basis of study was a perfect baseline of knowledge from which Dr. Prosen could serve in such an expert way for the bonobos. Likewise and in the reverse, his work with these primates and for that matter a few other species of animals helped him to even further understand human empathy. A quote on empathy by Dr. Prosen: "Empathy knows no country, no species, is universal and has always been available. I discovered after arriving at the zoo that it belonged to the bonobos long before us."
Dr. Prosen has written over 70 books, monographs, and articles, reviewed over 30 books and delivered over 60 presentations at various conferences.
Most recently Dr. Prosen has served as an advocate for Australian biologist Jeremy Griffith, whose several books on the human condition have led to Dr. Griffith founding a movement called the World Transformation Movement, or WTM. The most complete Griffith book on this topic has been rewritten and is now entitled "Freedom", and has an introduction by Dr. Harry Prosen. Also Dr. Prosen has worked in depth with Dr. Griffith on a planned documentary to explain the human condition in detail. I believe there is slow movement toward the production of this documentary film. The problem is that Griffith has alienated some people in high places in the religious community in Australia and that may have slowed the documentary process. I'm not going to go into the WTM in great detail here, but basically Dr. Griffith feels he has sorted out why human beings act the way they do, in so many ways contributing to the suffering of their fellow human beings. The book explains why there seems to be evil in the world and why we cannot live in peace. I suggest starting with the Wikipedia article on the WTM and take it from there.
Our group members seemed particularly interested in empathy and what it is, how it can be defined, how it differs from sympathy and from compassion, whether it can be taught or learned, and how we can practice more empathy in daily life.The group felt that empathy can be taught or is learned. But there is a difference between compassion and empathy though the difference is slight. It also depends on our perception and how the word compassion is being used. We all have empathy but the amount varies. Recent imaging studies have shown in which areas of the brain empathy arises. There are certainly inborn aspects of empathy. And the presence of empathy is tied up with the human condition. In the beginning, we may have empathy. Studies of infants have shown this. But in some of us as our lives are built we displace the empathy. Projection seems like empathy but it is not. For the psychiatrist, transference and countertransference are also involved. There was a general consensus that the group could spend another session discussing empathy. That may take place in the future.
Again the group would wholeheartedly like to thank Dr. Prosen. He also offered to come back sometime and go into more detail about empathy and his areas of study.
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