Language and social identity, healing through connection with animals, and a painting in progress

This week I was planning to post my current painting and write a bit about the painting process, but the art project is still in progress, and so, I thought I’d share some of the various things I’ve been looking at and listening to that might also interest people visiting this site.

1) A link: https://www.rickhanson.net/being-well-podcast-how-language-shapes-your-identity-with-dr-katherine-kinzler/ to an episode on the Wellbeing podcast with Forrest Hanson and Dr Katherine Kinzler about how language shapes our social identity and how we view other people. The key topics discussed are: the reasons that language is such an important signifier of identity and why the brain cares about categories; brain plasticity and early language acquisition; positive influence of bilingual exposure; language bias and dialectical prejudice and their consequences; what can be done to limit linguistic prejudice in diverse contexts and the need to talk to children about language. The podcast was of special interest to me since I acquired English, as a second language, at an early age, and also brought up my son bilingual, which gave me the chance to observe and experience a lot of what is discussed on the podcast first hand. Also, the podcast took me back in time to Henri Tajfel’s work, social psychology courses and exams.

Summarily, they discussed how the groups we belong to become an important part of our self concept. As they mentioned, we all tend to automatically divide the world into people like me and not like me. From an evolutionary perspective this fast prejudicial sorting helped our ancestors survive thousands of years ago, but can lead to many cognitive biases, stereotyping, prejudice and other errors. Henri Tajfel proved that even minimal and insignificant differences were enough to make people display in group biases. He claimed that ‘….. when skin color, or height, or some facial traits of social ‘value’ are concerned, there will be marked sharpening of differences in the degree of these characteristics perceived as belonging to individuals who are assigned to different categories(1957)…. and that ‘if a group of individuals is perceived as different from the non-group of individuals, the perceived differences between those within the group and those outside the group will automatically be sharpened, and the differences perceived between the members of the group (i.e., intragroup differences), and between those outside the group will be lessened’. He also, cautioned against explaining phenomena like discrimination, racism or oppression at a psychological level alone. He wrote: ‘No psychologist who has a sense of proportion about the possibilities and the limitations of his discipline would claim that prejudice can be ‘explained’ and dealt with on the psychological level alone. This is an infinitely complex problem, and in its handling we need the cooperation of legislators, social workers, economists, historians, sociologists, psychologists and many others’ (1963). This could be relevant to the fundamental attribution error (FAE), mentioned on the podcast, which basically, refers to how we tend to over-estimate personality-based explanations for human behaviours and underestimate contexts and environmental influences.

On this podcast Dr Kinzler presents studies that have shown that we definitely also display biases in relation to languages and accents even from early childhood. Research demonstrates preferences for native-language speakers at a young age. Children do not only automatically categorize, but also internalise stereotypes, preferences and beliefs in their social contexts. One explanation inside an evolutionary psychology framework is that children preferentially evaluate others along dimensions that distinguished social groups in prehistoric human societies. She also discusses the benefits of bilingualism and the ease that young children pick up languages, and also how bilingual exposure could decrease linguistic prejudice. Dr Kinzler talks about the benefits to being raised in a multilingual environment and the fact that early exposure to multiple languages can enhance children’s communication skills, even when they are monolingual. She speculates that this might be because it enhances perspective taking, our ability to see things from someone else’s point of view.

More themes are touched upon on the podcast like homophily, the tendency in people to associate and bond with others they view “like them” and the theory of group behavior that seeks to understand how hierarchies of power are created and perpetuated within societal groups, where often one social group holds disproportionate power and enjoys special privileges over another and influences who gets access to what kinds of social resources. Unfortunately, injustices and oppression are then normalized through justifying them as being moral or handed down to us by God. They also make reference to Nicholas Christakis (I have devoted a previous post on one of his books), who found that even though your friends are not your relatives, they are likely to be as genetically similar to you as if they were your distant cousins. They discuss code switching, which is when someone moves from using different languages or dialects in different circumstances. For example, one might reverse to using the local dialect when returning back to their village.

2) An extract from Bruce D. Perry’s (M.D. Ph.D) forward in the e-book: Transforming Trauma: Resilience & Healing Through Our Connections With Animals edited by Philip Tedeschi and Molly Anne Jenkins, which is a compilation of essays that focuses on the capacity of human-animal interactions to play a central role in the therapeutic approach to trauma.

“……In studies of the effectiveness of therapy, one common (and most powerful) factor emerges: the capacity to form a helping relationship is the best predictor of outcomes independent of clinical technique or therapeutic perspective. Reflect a moment on the intense emotional connections between humans and animals—you may have one yourself.….. It stands to reason then, that the human-animal connection could be used for therapeutic purposes…… Another emerging, important factor in therapeutic work in trauma is the importance of regulation as a key factor in effective engagement. A dysregulated child (or adult) is difficult to connect with and impossible to reason with. And, of course, a sensitized, overly reactive stress response is a major characteristic of most trauma-related syndromes. This sensitization frequently interferes with the capacity to utilize any cognitive dominant interventions. The organization of the central nervous system (CNS) is such that all sensory input (read as “all experience”—including therapeutic engagement) first is processed and, if appropriate, acted on by lower, more reactive networks in the brainstem and diencephalon before limbic and cortical networks have a chance to process or act. This means a clinician attempting to engage a dysregulated individual with these lower neural networks on hyperdrive will be fundamentally frustrated. The sequence of engagement dictated by our neuroanatomy is to regulate first, then relate, and then reason. Our capacity to get to the most important and most “human” part of our brain depends upon a minimal level of regulation. Enter man’s co-evolutionary partners, the dog and horse. In the codependent evolution of humankind and animals, dogs, specifically, were major regulators for humans. For possibly 32,000 years, humans and dogs have depended upon each other. When a known dog is present and projecting nonverbal, nurturing signals, part of the human brain knows “the camp is safe.” Dogs, with their superior capabilities in hearing and smell, expanded the sensory alarm radius for their human clan dramatically. Deep in our brain we know that if the dog is relaxed and playfully engaged, we are safe. The mere presence of a calm dog will calm us down. In contrast, a shift in vigilance or an alarm bark tells us something is afoot. Similar shifts in a horse’s behavior can have comparable impact on our regulatory state. The horse has been our co-evolutionary partner for less time than dogs, probably 8,000 years or so, but this capacity to read and respond to the subtle emotional cues of a human in ways that are regulating and reassuring is equally strong. Certainly, this co-regulatory capacity is a major component of therapeutic work with animals. A second and equally important regulating element of interacting with our animal partners is the impact that repetitive, rhythmic somatosensory….. Petting, grooming, riding, and walking with our animals will provide a powerful regulating rhythmic input that is known to calm a dysregulated individual. The combination, then, of human-animal connectedness to regulate and relationally engage (relate) provides a perfect matrix for the therapeutic process with an individual experiencing trauma. This is most helpful if the trauma has been in the context of early life relationships resulting in attachment problems; in these cases, the individual has developed human-specific relational evocative cues that can disrupt attempts to use traditional therapies that are relationally mediated. The client will be escalated and dysregulated by attempts to “connect.” In these situations, the animal-specific sensory cues that are present during the regulating and relationship-building processes are not “evocative” and disruptive. The client can engage, learn, grow, and heal in context of the human-animal relationship, preparing them for healthier human connectedness in the future…..”

3) Finally, I am also providing links to a Greek TV series, Πλάνα με Ουρά, in which we get to see how animals, especially, horses and dogs, can play a role in healing trauma and supporting physical conditions, as well as, facilitating self awareness.

a) In episode 10 at: https://www.ertflix.gr/ellinika-docs/plana-me-oyra-ep10/ there’s a part (37 min. onwards) about «Ιππόλυση», a center that rescues horses, which then help people through learning, healing and self-awareness sessions (ένα κέντρο που σώζει άλογα, τα οποία στη συνέχεια βοηθούν τους ανθρώπους μέσα από συνεδρίες μάθησης, θεραπείας και αυτογνωσίας).

b) In episode 12 at:https://www.ertflix.gr/ellinika-docs/plana-me-oyra-ep12/, there’s also a part (18 min. onwards) about the Therapeutic Equestrian Center of Serres, where children and adults with cerebral palsy, multiple sclerosis, severe neurological diseases, or mental retardation work with horses and staff (Στο Κέντρο Θεραπευτικής Ιππασίας Σερρών, παιδιά και ενήλικες με εγκεφαλική παράλυση, σκλήρυνση κατά πλάκας, σοβαρές νευρολογικές παθήσεις, αυτισμό ή νοητική υστέρηση συμμετέχουν σε συνεδρίες με ειδικούς και άλογα).