Why we see animals on sofas – and recognize ourselves in them

An animal on a sofa is more than just a picture – it's a reflection of our repressed nature. A profound, psychologically insightful essay by Brandhoek on the relationship between humans, space, and animals.

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Why we see animals on sofas – and recognize ourselves in them

Sometimes we only truly understand ourselves when we see the unfamiliar in our own spaces. An animal on a sofa acts like a mirror, forcing us to reconsider our relationship with nature. Brandhoek explores precisely this shift in perspective – at the intersection of art, psychology, and ethics.

Biology, Evolution & Mirror Neurons

Our brains react with alarm when something unexpected enters our familiar environment – ​​an ancient survival program. But animals activate far more than just this reflex in us: their movements, glances, and postures speak directly to our empathy system. We read them intuitively because our mirror neurons respond to them. Charles Darwin described in *The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals * how closely the emotional expressiveness of humans and animals is intertwined.

Depth psychology: The animalistic side of us

For Carl Jung, the animal was a symbol of the unconscious – the part of us that yearns for instinct, closeness, and authenticity. When an animal sits on our sofa, it touches this archetypal space within us: the memory of our own wildness.

In depth psychology, this is called projection: We often see in animals what we don't want to see in ourselves – freedom, anger, calm, independence. The animal becomes a silent mirror of our inner landscape. We interpret its behavior from a human perspective and forget that its gaze doesn't reflect us, but rather tests us.

Symbolism, myths and cultural interpretations

For centuries, animals have appeared in our stories, dreams, and spaces—as messengers, mirrors, and touchstones. In fairy tales, they embody moral extremes; in shamanic cultures, they are mediators between worlds; in modern art, they become political symbols. British author Melanie Challenger calls for animals to be "brought into the room" so that they can reappear in our language and ethics. This is precisely what Brandhoek does: her art brings animals back into spaces we have long defined as exclusively human.

Human-animal relationships today: research, ethics, and identity

How we perceive animals says a lot about us. Studies show that our moral values ​​– fear, control, protection, affection – directly determine how we treat the animal world. In this sense, having a pet on the sofa is an ethical test: How do we react when the unfamiliar becomes part of our everyday lives?

Recent research shows that animals experience emotions – joy, sadness, fear, curiosity. When they sit on our sofa, they occupy the same space as we do. This reveals how much our relationship with them is characterized by control and dependence – a silent but fundamental question of power.

Philosophers like J. Howard Moore and Peter Singer call for expanding the moral circle – from humans to all sentient beings. In this sense, the animal on the sofa becomes a symbol of co-existence: it represents the moment when boundaries dissolve.

Reflection: When the animal looks at us

Perhaps the real shock isn't that an animal is sitting on our sofa – but that it's looking at us. It's not looking to judge, but simply to exist. In that gaze lies a reminder of what we've forgotten: belonging.

Perhaps we ourselves are already sitting on a sofa that doesn't belong to us – in a world that looks at us and asks if we still understand it.

Brandhoek invites us to endure this gaze. Because every animal in the room changes not only the atmosphere, but also us.

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Author: Brandhoek ᛫ April 2022 ᛫ Cape Town

This work - Born to Listen - comes from an earlier Brandhoek collection from 2022 and is no longer available.

It remains part of the Brandhoek archival archive – a symbol of the beginning of a new perspective.

Further reading

• Charles Darwin: The Expression of the Emotions in Man and Animals

• Carl G. Jung: Symbols of Change

• Melanie Challenger: Animals in the Room , Emergence Magazine

• Psychology Today : The Emotional Lives of Animals

• J. Howard Moore: The Universal Kinship