I, Mammal: How to Make Peace With the Animal Urge for Social Power

Awesome!Thank you, Thank you, Ms. Breuning!Ms. Breuning's insights expressed in "I, Mammal" are on par with the most influential evolutionary psychologists. Progress in psychology and related fields have been sorely slow and excessively abstract with limited practicality. As a student of human behavior for decades, I have observed a lack in psychology and related fields to offer an understanding of the impetus of behaviors. If I may be excused for a judgmental opinion, I believe this book has more value than Sigmund Freud's contributions because it offers us useful insights rather than abstract observations.Humans like the idea of being evolved and place excessive emphasis on environmental influences, that is, influences that are believed to supersede natural selection. Much attention has been placed on environmental influences, however, these influences on humanity are but one influence of behavior. The reptilian and mammalian mind influence has been largely unacknowledged in evolutionary psychology. So little has been revealed regarding the influences of natural selection on behavior, including our imbued beliefs, e.g. territoriality, egotism, and social antipathy. The precise elements of human destructiveness have not been comprehended and articulated, yet are the root cause of social conflict. The U.N. adopted the "2030 AGENDA FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT" without a grasp of the root causes of human destructiveness. It's absurd, and discredits the U.N.'s 2030 target for the accomplishment the 17 goals set by the 2030 agenda. Ms. Breuning's insights are a critical piece in the comprehensive understanding of human destructiveness, which is the single most important knowledge base required for human's most constructive evolution. Although "I, Mammal" has yet to be recognized as a landmark book, I believe it is a monumental step forward, much like "Small is Beautiful". Further, it provides the reader with practical, applicable tools to grow one's quality of life today!Ms. Breuning's wisdom is not obvious because "I, Mammal" is written with deep humility. She fails to demonstrate the profound ramifications of her insights. Humanity's path is to "Sustainably grow equitable quality of life with all life", Ms. Breuning's insights provide a critical understanding required to align humanity's focus toward our common purpose.With the deepest gratitude, Thank you Ms. Breuning.

On the one hand, I don’t strive to be the alpha – it’s not worth it. As soon as you achieve alpha status in any hierarchy, you fear the bad feeling of losing it. That bad feeling consumes much more of your time and energy than the serotonin gained from alpha status, and increasingly so as you habituate to the alpha-status serotonin. You will constantly be scanning for deference and invariably run into letdowns from challengers real and imagined as well as letdowns from indifference shown by others who don’t even recognize the rules to your game. Instead of seeking the alpha position, I feel okay with being somewhere in the middle where I can enjoy a higher ranking than some and at the same time not spend too much capital maintaining an alpha status. It is easier to laugh and point from the sidelines and you may find some good serotonin to scoop up there too. But at the same time, there is the lure of the admiration given to the man in the arena daring greatly. Reason has so many prolonging rabbit holes, but intuition can decide in a flash. And in each moment the equation is different based on the present point of view. The mammal brain’s intuition is much more efficient in deciding, but sometimes needs help with dysfunctional circuits rooted in myelin. We use both types of thinking because it is adaptive for survival. See this neuroplasticity explained plus exercises in her other books, Habits of a Happy Brain, The Science of Positivity, and Anxiety: What turns it on. What turns it off.

My favorite Loretta Breuning book covering the way our neurotransmitters and triggered emotions are the language of our several million year old mammal brain and how our more recently developed cortex doesn't speak that language so fluently, even on our best days. Understanding these few, simple, most practical aspects of neuroscience is going to be a game changer for anyone who wants to understand why we all interact the way we do. It's the truth and it's not what we think. Reading this book was like taking the red pill from the matrix. No turning back now!

I came across this book almost by accident, when researching some info, and I am delighted that I did. Loretta Breuning's theories about the similarities between our behaviours and those of our mammal cousins are extremely well thought out and presented. Loretta keeps her explanations simple and undramatic, which adds in my opinion to some fantastic ideas about how we behave both individually and in groups. Every now and then Loretta adds anecdotes some from her own experiences and from relevant cases, as well as details of empirical research, though without over-complicating matters.I can see a lot of overlap between some of the theories in this book, and some of the work written by people such as Daniel Kahneman, for example Kahneman's recent book `Thinking Fast and Slow', which talks about humans as almost two separate entities, instinctive and impulsive on the one hand, and deliberate and calculating on the other. When looked in light of 'I mammal', one can almost see the root causes of Kahneman's findings.One can also see many other examples in this book of potential causes of what are labelled,'biases, heuristics, and self-defeating behaviors' in the fields of the behavioral sciences.An excellent book with some very interesting and plausible theories that I hope gets a wider audience, I do hope that more people read this and come to understand and appreciate themselves and our society better.

Like me you probably think "status, pah, status doesn't mean anything to me"!But we *all* are at the mercy of our inner chemicals and mammalian brains, which determine why (mostly unconsciously) status actually is a PRIME DRIVER of many of our behaviours. This book explains in very simple and engaging language, how to get to grips with our "inner mammal" and recognise how we are hijacking our own happiness. Just gaining an insight by reading this book could be all you need to flip yourself from hijacked mammal, to piloting your own destiny and happiness.

great book

Dans "Vos Hormones du Bonheur en Lumière: Dopamine, Endorphine, Ocytocine, Sérotonine" l'auteur a montré comment ces hormones nous influencent. Mais il s'agit des pulsions animales les plus primitives, et ici elle nous convie à accepter cette part de l'animal en nous qui veut du pouvoir social. Loretta Breuning a une longue expérience de contact avec les animaux sauvages et en particulier nos cousins les mammifères.