{"id":89,"date":"2009-03-27T22:15:47","date_gmt":"2009-03-27T22:15:47","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/?p=89"},"modified":"2011-10-01T13:10:36","modified_gmt":"2011-10-01T20:10:36","slug":"defining-ecopsychology","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/defining-ecopsychology\/","title":{"rendered":"Defining Ecopsychology, Part 1"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>by Robert Greenway<\/em><\/p>\n

There is no common definition of “ecopsychology” —\u00a0 to many,\u00a0 in and out of academia,\u00a0 it has come to mean any or all of the following:\u00a0\u00a0 a kind of “pop psychology” or quasi therapy that helps ease fears about the decline of “the natural world”;\u00a0\u00a0 just about any kind of environmental-social or environmental-political topic;\u00a0\u00a0 gardening, hikes in the wilderness,\u00a0 fishing —\u00a0 anything having to do with “humans” and “nature”\u00a0 (with “nature” usually meaning something separate from humans).\u00a0 Etc.
\nPerhaps it’s all good —\u00a0 keeping an urgently needed conversation going about the human-nature relationship —\u00a0 but such usually superficial eclecticism prevents the depth necessary to fully understand the deep psychological dynamics of how humans became such adversaries of Nature,\u00a0 prevents the incredible overlaps between human’s
\nnatural processes and “nature’s” natural procvesses —\u00a0 where we overlap, etc. —\u00a0 and it prevents (as does “green washing”) the crucially-needed in-depth healing of the relationship.<\/p>\n

“Ecopsychology” could,\u00a0 and should in my opinion,\u00a0 be the field,\u00a0 the instigator,\u00a0 and guide for a genuine re- orientation of human culture —\u00a0 an orientation that is not damaging to
\nnatural processes —\u00a0 could begin to occur.\u00a0\u00a0 So far,\u00a0 this promise has not been realized.<\/p>\n

****************<\/p>\n

I take ‘ecopsychology” to be an articulation —\u00a0 an accurate depiction —\u00a0 of the human-nature relationship (or, “HNR”). It must be based on experience,\u00a0 but couched in language, perhaps “deepened” by ritual and art.\u00a0 It must be founded on the deepest meanings of “relationship”,\u00a0 “mind”,\u00a0 and the functioning of the “natural world”.<\/p>\n

The rapid expansion of this “field”,\u00a0 meaning so many different things to different people,\u00a0 reducing coherence and depth, has diminished EP’s usefulness.\u00a0\u00a0 This,\u00a0 coupled with
\nincreasing confusion and anxiety about the rapid decline of “natural processes”,\u00a0 plus a yet-to-be articulated linkage between “nature” and “economic practices”\u00a0 diminishes
\nthe hope that EP will have the time, space (now seemingly a luxury) to help human civilizations alter their courses towards a “sustainable” future.<\/p>\n

************<\/p>\n

Definitions<\/strong><\/p>\n

EP is a set —\u00a0 in some kind of language —\u00a0 of core assumptions and principles about the HNR,\u00a0 drawing from ANY field of knowledge,\u00a0 but primarily (or initially) from various psychologies, ecology, and biology.<\/p>\n

AND, EP is drawn from experience-in-nature —\u00a0 and from awareness of one’s own “intrinsic human nature” (the “inner wilderness” ….)<\/p>\n

EP-as-language is ALSO drawn from political attempts that deal with the HNR —\u00a0 such as the creation of Earth Charters (cf., Thomas Berry),\u00a0\u00a0 attempts to stop devastation of the earth via political and local means —\u00a0 and these,\u00a0 and many other sources (i.e., farming and organic farming,\u00a0 the local food movement,\u00a0 tree planting, etc.)\u00a0 —\u00a0 all these activities feed
\ninto the core language at the heart of EP.\u00a0\u00a0 (Note that these activities should not be confused with EP per se —\u00a0 but a source of language for EP\u00a0 (This would help remove a huge amount of confusion about the parameters of EP-as-field. Obviously I advocate a “field” bounded by certain boundaries,\u00a0 so a focus — and thus effective usage —\u00a0 can
\nbe found.)<\/p>\n

Such a language can support all the above activities,\u00a0 and contribute to a personal\u00a0 healing of the HNR and a turn towards social, educational and political patterns that will help create a clear, potent, in-depth “pattern” that will help create a context by which real healing of the HNR can take place,\u00a0 etc.<\/p>\n

**************<\/p>\n

EP can be seen as the inter-relating of psychological processes and natural processes (“mind” and “nature” interacting) —\u00a0 and it can be seen as an umbrella for anything having to do with human activities and “nature” (meaning “nature” is “over there” —\u00a0 away from where humans are ….\u00a0 a place to “get into”,\u00a0 or “travel to …”,\u00a0 thus ignoring or diminishing the reality that humans are,\u00a0 in fact (now and always) an intrinsic part of nature).\u00a0\u00a0 This keeps EP superficial.<\/p>\n

Seen as language,\u00a0 embracing a set of core assumptions, EP-as-field becomes a strong, deep, and clear —\u00a0 a diagnosis as it were —\u00a0 of the underlying dynamics by which humans can expand their natures,\u00a0 can relate to nature as it exists,\u00a0 can join with (rather than attempt to manage and dominate) the processes of evolution\u00a0 (or at least include these processes in human evolutionary programs (i.e.,\u00a0 the Internet,\u00a0 the harnassing of “sustainable” forms of energy,\u00a0 etc.)).<\/p>\n

Seen as language,\u00a0 embracing a set of core assumptions, EP-as-field could deal with the serious and growing dis-junction between “urban psychology” and “natural psychology”
\nthat seems to be distorting the HNR —\u00a0 to the degree that the earth herself is in serious peril.<\/p>\n

***********<\/p>\n

“Ecotherapy”,\u00a0\u00a0 of which wilderness work is a paradigm,\u00a0 is a rapidly emerging aspect of EP,\u00a0 focusing on diagnoses (which are often —\u00a0 usually —\u00a0 hidden) of the HNR,\u00a0 of the
\npsychology within the HNR —\u00a0 the pathology —\u00a0 and especially activities which are meant to heal the HNR.\u00a0\u00a0 (The “deeper dynamics”\u00a0 of the HNR —\u00a0 often very theoretical\u00a0\u00a0 —\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 of just how “minds”, “brains”, “neurophysiology’ etc. interact with simpler but highly complex interactive systems — remain largely unexplored by both “ecotherapy” and “ecopsychology” —\u00a0\u00a0 and this is where the true benefits of EP remain hidden.<\/p>\n

For more on this subject, read Part Two<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n

by Robert Greenway<\/em>
\nfor Esalen Workshop on Ecopsychology, 2007
\nsuperficially revised,\u00a0 March, 2009 for Thomas Doherty<\/p>\n


\n<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Robert Greenway There is no common definition of “ecopsychology” —\u00a0 to many,\u00a0 in and out of academia,\u00a0 …Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,45],"class_list":["post-89","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-articles","tag-definitions","tag-robert-greenway"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p4azYr-1r","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89"}],"version-history":[{"count":12,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":91,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89\/revisions\/91"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ecopsychology.org\/gatherings\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}