Beyond Zoochosis explores the impacts of captivity on Animals and ourselves and how we can liberate us both.

Zoochosis is the disease of captivity, a term coined for nonhuman Animals held captive in zoos, aquaria, and other exploitative confinements. Tigers, Elephants, Seals, Parrots, Snakes, Octopuses, and other Animals in these prisons show symptoms of profound distress, for example, self-harming and stereotypy, repetitive acts such as head bobbing, swaying, and incessant pacing. These are desperate attempts to cope and grasp onto a shred of sanity. Human prisoners show similar symptoms.

In light of trans-species psychology (which names what science documents, but avoids admitting for psychological and economic reasons), brain structures and processes of humans and other Animals are comparable. Animal have the conscious capacities to think, feel, and dream like we do. Zoochosis is a term for Complex Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder (C-PTSD) used to bring attention to the institutions that cause this harm.

But the same holds for modern humans, the majority of whom live unnatural lives and in a form of captivity that bears no resemblance to those of our earthcentric ancestors. Without participating in our own evolved connections with the natural world, we have developed our own abnormal, repetitive, and self-harming behaviors.

In Beyond Zoochosis, we explore the theoretical underpinnings of these ideas and investigate how we can individually, and as a culture, through ecotherapeutic practices, learn to liberate our minds and bodies simultaneously with the liberation of Animal and Plant kin.