Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan said that cats, which he described as "honorable animals", smell love and become attached to their owners.
Psychiatrist Prof. Dr. Nevzat Tarhan, who instills animal love in his students with his work, stated that cats, which he described as "honorable animals", smell love and get attached to their owners.
Tarhan, who adopted the kittens his son found on the street 2 years ago and named them "Pamuk" and "Yumak", built a hut for his cats, who like to move freely in the open in the summer months, to shelter in the garden.
Tarhan, who gave the kittens her cats gave birth to last year to her friends and adopted them as well, is closely involved in the care and feeding of her cats, whom she enjoys spending time with.
In addition to his home, Tarhan prepares huts for cats with his students at the South Campus of Üsküdar University, where he is the rector, and enables them to establish a warm relationship with animals.
Answering the questions of the AA correspondent about the place of cat and animal love in human psychology, Tarhan stated that if a person loves an animal, the animal will love him, and the way to achieve this is to approach the animal with warm and positive emotions.
Prof. Dr. Tarhan said, "The cat smells love, this is how it gets attached to the person." He noted that the hormone oxytocin is secreted in people who love animals, and that scientific research has shown that people feel peaceful when they love animals.
"FEEDING AN HONORABLE ANIMAL IS MORE SUITABLE FOR OUR CULTURE"
Tarhan attributed the reason why the cat is more preferred in Turkish society to the fact that it is an "honorable animal" and gave the following information about the psychological aspect of cat and dog love:
"Especially in Western societies, there is more love for dogs than cats. Unlike the cat, the dog is an animal that glorifies loyalty. The cat is a more honorable animal. It is difficult to put a cat in a car and take it away because it is tied to geography and is uncomfortable leaving it. But the dog is attached to the person and goes in the car. This is an interesting difference in terms of animal behavior. Keeping an honorable animal is more in line with our culture. One of the reasons why women especially prefer cats is that they want to satisfy their sense of attachment due to motherhood. It is like a medicine for loneliness. Keeping an animal at home is considered a solution. The person relieves loneliness, talks to it, takes care of it. A situation that both parties enjoy arises. Cats are also preferred because they are cleaner."
Pointing out that caring for animals also provides psychological support, Tarhan said that they encourage animal love as an auxiliary value in the treatment of autistic individuals who experience emotional blindness and deafness due to the separation of emotion transfer, and that autistics' establishing a love relationship with animals is a sign of improvement.
"WE TREAT ANIMAL FEAR WITH VIRTUAL REALITY"
Prof. Dr. Tarhan also touched upon the causes of fear of animals and explained that this condition is usually caused by childhood traumas and shock experiences related to animals.
Stating that there are treatment methods to overcome this, Tarhan continued as follows:
"First of all, we put pictures of animals that the person is afraid of in their room, desensitizing them. Previously, we used to take them to a large area and put them in contact with the animal. Now, with virtual reality glasses, they see the images of the animal they are afraid of in 3D, they reach out their hand and touch them. At the same time, we measure brain waves, skin resistance and temperature with electrodes. When the person is scared, their values also increase. As he becomes desensitized, he sees that the beta waves in his brain waves no longer increase, and his skin temperature and resistance do not change. The person overcomes fear because he sees that his bodily sensations also improve as he overcomes his fear. Depending on the situation, it is solved in 3-5 sessions if the person wishes. We can treat people whose only problem is fear of animals with virtual reality."
"ANIMAL LOVE DISTANCES PEOPLE FROM SELF-CENTEREDNESS"
Prof. Dr. Tarhan stated that individuals who grow up with childhood traumas, who grow up with weak feelings of love, compassion and pity, enjoy inflicting violence and torment on animals and said, "There are those who tie tins to cats' tails at a young age and enjoy it when they scream. We look at these people, there is violence in the family or they are subjected to violence. They inflict the same violence on animals. In other words, he compensates by saying, 'If a strong person inflicts violence on a weak person, I am also strong against animals, I can inflict violence against them'. Children who use violence as a method of problem solving, satisfaction and pleasure, and who grow up in environments dominated by uneducated or malicious emotions can take this as an example."
Stating that this situation is caused by mislearning, Tarhan underlined that emotions such as compassion, pity and animal love should be taught to individuals from an early age.
Emphasizing the importance of instilling animal love especially in children between the ages of 0-6, Tarhan said, "During these periods, some parents who are afraid of animals do not let their children touch the animal at all. These children are deprived of this beauty and become self-centered in the future. Animal love distracts people from self-centeredness, self-interest and the idea that 'we are the only ones in nature'."
Tarhan added that people who are prone to psychological and physical violence act with the feeling that "violence can be applied against the powerless" in his evaluation of the ideas that people who are prone to psychological and physical violence first apply violence on animals.