Primatology, Ethics and Trauma

Primatology, Ethics and Trauma offers a critical re-examination of the research conducted into the linguistic capabilities of the Oklahoma chimps and uncovers the historical reality of this research project without fabrication.

Robert Ingersoll (BSc, MS) has been a tireless champion of captive chimpanzees since the 1970s. He entered the world of primates as an undergraduate student at the University of Oklahoma's Institute for Primate Studies, where the research focus was on cognition, language, and interspecies communication between chimpanzees and humans, using American Sign Language. He quickly came to see the chimpanzees as friends rather than as research subjects. After several productive years, funding for the program was cut by the university, and the chimpanzee colony was sold to a medical research laboratory for invasive research. This led Robert to a crusade to free his chimpanzee friends that has lasted decades. Anna Scarnà (BSc Hons, DPhil, PGCTHE, PGCert, CPsychol) is a psychologist and neuroscientist with expertise in language, personality and psychological disorders. Her Doctor of Philosophy was on the composition of the monolingual and bilingual lexicon, and she explored the factors that affect object naming and reading. She has conducted award-winning research into non-drug treatments for dopamine in bipolar disorder and schizophrenia at Oxford University, United Kingdom, where she runs courses in brain and behaviour/neuroscience, personality, and psychological disorders covering topics including personality traits, addiction, and social behaviours. She teaches various international tutorial courses, and has been running the popular Oxford University online Introduction to Psychology course.

1. Acknowledgment 2. Chimpanzee Family Trees 3. Introduction 4. Chapter 1: 50 Years Later 1.1 Fifty years since language experiments on chimpanzees 1.2 When we swap chimpanzee for child 1.3 A biography of Washoe 5. Chapter 2: Narratives for Flourishing 2.1 Why language and Noam Chomsky for Nim Chimpsky? 2.2 The introduction of language to a chimpanzee, order of the signs, and human parallels 2.3 Age of acquisition, order of acquisition 2.4 Trauma and language 6. Chapter 3: One of Us 3.1 Humans' need for a healthy upbringing and the needs of a chimpanzee 3.2 Washoe in her enclosure, existing not living, and self efficacy in humans 3.3 Survivors: The effects of trauma on the brain in humans: the Romanian orphanages and the Holocaust 3.4 "Man is the master of animals": the morality behind the authoritarian model over chimpanzees 7. Chapter 4: The Truth About Washoe 4.1 Washoe's preparation for mothering. What do good mothers do? 4.2 The true story of the death of Sequoyah 4.3 Was Washoe abnormal? Definition of abnormality in humans and in chimpanzees, with use of the DSM-5 4.4 Parental narcissism in humans and in chimpanzees: a sense of self worth, parental neglect, and chimpanzee trust 8. Chapter 5: Post Traumatic Chimpanzees 5.1 Did Washoe have complex PTSD? Living conditions and the turning of James Mahoney 5.2 Finding and building sanctuary 9. Chapter 6: When All The Chimps Have Gone 6.1 How do we look to the future? 6.2 How not to repeat history. Existing models of good practice 6.3 How to honour the memory of Washoe and the other Oklahoma chimpanzees 6.4 The last word