What does "their core essence has not been damaged" mean? Could you explain it to me? When people face real adversity — disease, unemployment, or the disabilities of age — affection from a pet takes on new meaning. A pet’s continuing affection becomes crucially important for those enduring hardship because it reassures them that their core essence has not been damaged. Thus pets are important in the treatment of depressed or chronically ill patients. In addition, pets are used to great advantage with the institutionalized aged. In such institutions it is difficult for the staff to retain optimism when all the patients are declining in health. Children who visit cannot help but remember what their parents or grandparents once were and be depressed by their incapacities. Animals, however, have no expectations about mental capacity. They do not worship youth.