Book Summary and Reviews of The Dog Who Couldn't Stop Loving by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

The Dog Who Couldn't Stop Loving by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

The Dog Who Couldn't Stop Loving

How Dogs Have Captured Our Hearts for Thousands of Years

by Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson

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  • Published:
  • Oct 2010, 272 pages
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About this book

Book Summary

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson has long been interested in the relationship between humans and animals, and he's always been aware that there was something very special in our bond with dogs, more intense than with any other animal. No other animal loves us in quite the same way as dogs love us. And it is mutual. Is it possible that we developed the capacity for love, sympathy, empathy, and compassion because of our long association with dogs?

In The Dog Who Couldn't Stop Loving, Masson considers the far-reaching consequences of this co-evolution of dogs and humans, drawing from recent scientific research. Over the past 40,000 years a collective domestication has occurred that brings us to where we are today - humans have formed intense bonds with dogs, and the adoration is almost always reciprocal. Masson himself has experienced a profound connection with his new dog Benjy, a failed guide-dog for the blind, who possesses an abundance of inhibited love. But Masson knows that the love he feels for Benjy - and that Benjy feels for all the people and animals around him - is not unique, but is in fact a love that only dogs and humans possess. With wisdom, insight, and a brilliant analysis of recent scientific research, the bestselling author delivers a provocative and compelling book that will change the way we think about love and canine companions.

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Reviews

Media Reviews

"An enjoyable book for dog lovers." - Kirkus Reviews

"Masson is at his most personal and appealing in this book, especially when he writes about Benjy." - Publishers Weekly

This information about The Dog Who Couldn't Stop Loving was first featured in "The BookBrowse Review" - BookBrowse's membership magazine, and in our weekly "Publishing This Week" newsletter. Publication information is for the USA, and (unless stated otherwise) represents the first print edition. The reviews are necessarily limited to those that were available to us ahead of publication. If you are the publisher or author and feel that they do not properly reflect the range of media opinion now available, send us a message with the mainstream reviews that you would like to see added.

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Author Information

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson Author Biography

Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson is an American author. Masson is best known for his conclusions about Sigmund Freud and psychoanalysis.

Jeff has a Ph.D. in Sanskrit from Harvard University. He was Professor of Sanskrit at the University of Toronto. While at the university he trained as a Freudian analyst (from 1971-1979) graduating as a full member of the International Psycho-Analytical Association. In 1980 he became Project Director of the Sigmund Freud Archives.

Given access to Freud's papers in London and the Library of Congress, his research led him to believe that Freud made a mistake when he stopped believing that the source of much human misery lay in sexual abuse. Masson's view was so controversial within traditional analytic circles that he was fired from the archives and had his ...

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