RE-VISIONING ECOPSYCHOLOGY 297 RE-VISIONING ECOPSYCHOLOGY: SEEING THROUGH DREAM ANIMALS TO THE REALITY OF SPECIES IN PERIL DEBRA MERSKIN Debra Merskin, Ph.D., is Associate Professor of Communication Studies in the School of Journalism & Communication at the University of Oregon. Her research interests include exploring the parallels between popular culture re-presentations of marginalized human beings and animals. She is also a third-year student in the Depth Psychology Program at Pacifica Graduate Institute. Animals of silence came out of the clear, untroubled forest, leaving their nests and dens, and it seemed that why they were so quiet was not from fear or craftiness, it was listening. Now howling, roaring, growling mattered little in their hearts. And where before there was hardly a hut to hold this listening— a lean-to of dimmest longing with shaky door-jambs at the entrance— you built temples in their hearing for them. Rainer Maria Rilke A nimals occupy our waking time and sleep dream hours. 1 Whether through hunting, wearing their skins and fur, eating their muscles and membranes, ecotourist viewing, or “pet”-