While elaborating on Freud’s notion of denial, Robert Firestone was the first to describe what is now known as fantasy bonding. Fantasy bonding is characterized by the psychological adjustment made by children when enduring physical, psychological or sexual abuse, and involves idealization of the abuser, denial of the abuse, and pseudo-attachment to the abuser. Often, the primitive bond to the abuser is the only hope the child holds for the warmth or nurturance typically promised through human connection.

While the phenomenon of fantasy bonding is now well understood in the therapeutic community, what is much less understood is that of fantasy bonding in horse-human relationships. Under these circumstances, the adult is experiencing the same dynamic of abuse that would be expected in the parent-child relationship where fantasy bonding occurs. That is to say, that the person looks to the horse for comfort, care, nurturance, and warmth, just as a child would a parent. Yet the horse acts in ways that endanger the person. He may, for example, bite, kick, buck, or run off with his human companion. However, like a child who denies his caretaker’s abuse and forms a fantasy bond that allows him to disconnect from the abuse and foster the fantasy of a nurturing caregiver, the person who forms a fantasy bond with the horse also denies both the maltreatment by the horse, as well as, the potential for danger.

While the person’s friends, family, trainers and coaches may express concern for his/her welfare, the person will repeatedly deny the dangerous behavior of the horse and offer alternative explanations, such as, “He was just in pain,” or, “He was scared; that’s why he bit me.” Obviously, the deleterious effects of this sort of denial are evident in the often successive injuries the person may suffer.

Continue reading Fantasy Bonding in Horse-Human Relationships, by Claire Dorotik →

Arriving at a prestigious mansion overlooking the picturesque Pacific Coast Highway, the Clinical Director quickly ushered me into her office, as I attempted to disguise my disbelief that this, of all places, housed some of humanity’s most psychologically challenged individuals.

“So,” she began slowly, “we have already purchased three horses for our equine therapy program.” She pointed out her sliding glass door at a small barn and white fenced pasture extending down the hill toward the house. “They have all suffered extreme trauma,” she paused again and turned toward me. “We thought that the clients would be able to connect with traumatized horses better.”

I looked out toward the three horses grazing on the hill, a buckskin gelding, gray gelding, and dark bay mare, and wondered if it is true that traumatized horses do make good candidates for equine facilitated psychotherapy programs.

Continue reading Do Traumatized Horses Makes Good Therapy Horses?, by Claire Dorotik →