Saw a video I can’t find of a cat missing both front legs playing energetically with a kitten. Kinda amazing how animals seem to easily cope with what would be severe body image trauma in humans. Anyone been with a pet that’s been through an amputation? How quickly do they adapt?
-
-
Even more impressive when you remember that their bodies mean a lot more to them since they don’t have as much of a mental life. Their identities are not invested in writing novels or signing petitions or winning elections.
Show this thread -
I’ve been hearing more and more about body integrity dysphoria (BID) lately. It sounds like phantom limb syndrome in reverse. I wonder if animals can have this or it requires a primate+ level brain capable of having a body image at all. Mirror test etc. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Body_integrity_dysphoria …
Show this thread -
This is kinda my folk theory of this sort of thing. X-axis: increasing brain complexity. Y-axis: increasing abstraction of identity and associated glitch conditions. From phantom limb and sleep paralysis on the low complexity end to gender dysphoria on the high end.
Show this thread -
The mirror test, if you think about it (the recognition test not the phantom limb therapy) implies a primitive self model that can get arbitrarily complex and abstract and incorporate verbally coded theories of self for verbal species.
Show this thread -
In general, this cat represents an aspirational state (ht
@selentelechia for finding video) for me, in terms of capacity to handle trauma. How can humans heal mentally this efficiently without giving up higher brain capacities? https://twitter.com/onewalleee/status/1279647375552897028?s=21 …https://twitter.com/onewalleee/status/1279647375552897028 …
0:28Show this thread -
That said animals can of course get mentally traumatized and show long-term effects. We had one cat that was super scared and high strung all his life, from the day we got him. Really fragile. Hid under the bed for days when we first brought him home. Hid from all visitors.
Show this thread -
He was a year old when we got him, 11 when he died. Never really healed. Overate, got obese, was super needy. But could relax and play when he felt secure. Saddest cat ever. Always had a bit of a stressed, hunted look. Tended to stay ground level instead of climb high.
Show this thread -
We never did figure out why. We got him from the shelter at age 1, but he’d apparently lived outdoors before. Maybe he was abused or got bullied by other cats.
Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.

