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elrhiarhodanSometimes, the stuff you find in sidebars is both interesting and amusing. This article, from 1924, popped up for me in my New York Times this morning. It's very much a product of the era – sexist and anthrocentric. And a little ridiculous, but not without some truth.
(Because it's short and the link takes you to a barely legible PDF, I've retyped the whole article.)
Psychologist Finds Cats Are Anarchists
Dogs Lack Sincerity, Scientist says – Would Train Animals as Collaborators.
Copyright 1924, by the New York Times Company.
Special Cable to the New York Times
PARIS, Jan, 24 – Animals by nature commit fewer mistakes than humans, in the opinion of Professor Pelinay of the Paris College of Psychology, which has such eminent members as Professor Appell, Professor Branley and M. Raymond Poincare. Professor Lepenay has been closely studying the psychology of cats, which, to use his own words, "are very curious enigmas to which we very rightfully compare to the fair sex. Cats are capricious and independent, suddenly abandoning what just appeared to please them most, following those who flatter and caress them, only suddenly to turn away again. They neither possess the attachment nor the qualities of dogs, which, thorough associating with man, have contracted some of man's faults – for instance, they lack sincerity.
"Cats are anarchists among animals. They make no concessions or only such as please their temper of the moment. To me they are little less than divinities, little more than animals. Unlike my friend Dr. Phillippe Marrechal, I do not support the theory that animals are superior to man, but by instinct, they make fewer mistakes than man in his researches and in his efforts. Generally speaking, we might train them as collaborators, learning better to utilize their associations and ideas, making ourselves understood through educative means. What has been done with men could be done with them, raising them from rank timid slaves to intelligent auxiliaries."
The article: Psychologist Finds Cats Are Anarchists
(Because it's short and the link takes you to a barely legible PDF, I've retyped the whole article.)
Psychologist Finds Cats Are Anarchists
Dogs Lack Sincerity, Scientist says – Would Train Animals as Collaborators.
Copyright 1924, by the New York Times Company.
Special Cable to the New York Times
PARIS, Jan, 24 – Animals by nature commit fewer mistakes than humans, in the opinion of Professor Pelinay of the Paris College of Psychology, which has such eminent members as Professor Appell, Professor Branley and M. Raymond Poincare. Professor Lepenay has been closely studying the psychology of cats, which, to use his own words, "are very curious enigmas to which we very rightfully compare to the fair sex. Cats are capricious and independent, suddenly abandoning what just appeared to please them most, following those who flatter and caress them, only suddenly to turn away again. They neither possess the attachment nor the qualities of dogs, which, thorough associating with man, have contracted some of man's faults – for instance, they lack sincerity.
"Cats are anarchists among animals. They make no concessions or only such as please their temper of the moment. To me they are little less than divinities, little more than animals. Unlike my friend Dr. Phillippe Marrechal, I do not support the theory that animals are superior to man, but by instinct, they make fewer mistakes than man in his researches and in his efforts. Generally speaking, we might train them as collaborators, learning better to utilize their associations and ideas, making ourselves understood through educative means. What has been done with men could be done with them, raising them from rank timid slaves to intelligent auxiliaries."
The article: Psychologist Finds Cats Are Anarchists
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Date: 2015-03-31 02:27 pm (UTC)Though the part about cats being anarchists is dead I'm afraid.
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Date: 2015-03-31 05:08 pm (UTC)I'm not sure which part offends me more: the part about women being capricious or the part about man lacking sincerity.
Or I could just laugh the whole thing off and make sure my doors are locked tight. You know, just in case those cat-anarchists get any ideas.
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Date: 2015-04-01 01:02 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2015-04-01 11:45 am (UTC)Anarchists were political bogeymen in the 1920s. So calling cats anarchists and then saying they're like women... Oy!