Review and Reader Comments
Animal Fantasies

Miller, Sally, (1993),
Animal Fantasies Synergy Press.

Review by Tammy Cole

Animal Fantasies is one of the more recent sociological undertakings into this aspect of societally suppressed sexuality. Sally’s many years as a therapist and sex counselor are evident in her approach to zooerasty, Kraft-Ebing’s term for sex with animals. Many psychiatrists prefer to use this since etymologically it has a more definitive meaning, as in non-reproductive as opposed to “unnatural” sexuality. Homosexuality was once viewed as unnatural sex until Boswell’s re-analysis in 1980 which led to the removal of the term from psychiatric journals, the Psychiatric Dictionary, and from the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-III-R, 1989) as a Gender Identity Disorder.

With the preeminent respect meant, I see Ms. Miller as the grandmotherly prototype, who has treated this subject and her clients with compassion, empathy, sensitivity and grace, as is evident throughout her book. Her case histories are entitled by the descriptive “The Deer,” “The Pig,” “The Cat,” “The Hyena (with apologies to the hyena researchers at Berkeley),” “The Swan,” and “The Dog” to name only a few of the topics covered.

Sally does not condone nor criticize the activities she reports on as many clinician would do, whatever may be the motivation, and cautions that bestiality is illegal in many localities and may be considered abnormal or taboo. It has had a powerful influence in the arts since the beginnings of the human experience, as we find in “Beauty and the Beast” and “Lady Godiva” in literature and film from the past to the present. Many would consider the subject matter to be contrary to nature and may judge it to be repugnant or otherwise unacceptable, and quoting Boswell: … “especially when difficulties beset a population already inclined to value conformity for its own sake, those who are perceived as…different are apt to be viewed not only as mistaken or unnatural but as potentially dangerous…” A sort of situational ethic or “politically correct” dichotomy.

Back to Animal Fantasies

Back to Adult Catalog