Lassie in the Patient’s Associations: Working in the Displacement with Adults’ Canine Imagery

Sometimes when adult patients in psychoanalytic treatment talk about their dogs, they are really talking about themselves. This essay builds on my prior article on the topic (Ponder, Citation2019) by considering new research about human-canine interactions, contemporary views about humans’ canine imagery and projections, and additional case studies exploring the utility of dog imagery in treatment and how to work with it. In contemporary case studies, canine associations provided an entrée into the patient’s drives, defenses, transference-countertransference matrix, internal objects, and interpersonal relations. The number of case studies is relatively low, likely reflecting prior tendencies among psychoanalysts to pathologize pet attachments and scientists to eschew anthropomorphism. The human-like characteristics seen in dogs are not pure projection, however, but also reflect actual aspects of their behavior. Indeed, research indicates that dogs are more human-like than any other animal, probably because they cohabited and co-evolved with humans for over 10,000 years. Therefore, I do not consider human identifications with dogs inherently pathological, and find humans’ canine imagery to be a rich source of information and engagement.