Is our consumer culture a form of psychopathology?
Has the city become the implacable enemy of nature?
Can modern industrial societies recapture the ecological insights that lay buried in their indigenous past?
What is the role of the churches and of pastoral counseling in the environmental crisis?
Can environmental law protect the sacred in nature?
What is the best way to introduce ecopsychology into the universities?
These are some of the questions that came under discussion at Ecopsychology: Theory and Practice 1994, an invitational conference sponsored by the Ecopsychology Institute and held at Esalen Institute in Big Sur, California from June 26 to July 1, 1994. In the following pages we offer a brief summary of the main issues and insights that emerged at this event, where a group of environmental writers, activists, ministers, therapists, poets, media specialists, scholars and teachers met to explore how our individual and collective psyches interact with what David Abram called the "more-than-human world." This report may be more useful in raising questions rather than providing answers. But that is in the spirit of the gathering. Participants came with a commitment to using the unstructured, leaderless format of the meetings primarily as "invitations to dialogue."
No single conference can do the whole job of defining a field of
inquiry, but we feel we can recommend these questions as significant
items on the ecopsychological agenda. We offer them as an invitation
to a still wider dialogue among all those who believe ecopsychology
may provide a hopeful new beginning for the environmental movement.
Jeff Golliher and Rachel Bagby pointed out that urban restoration is beginning to happen from within the city itself often at the initiative of people of color in search of environmental justice. Inner city populations recognize that we cannot abandon the city to urban decay but must transform it into something that is more in touch with the natural cycles.
Theodore Roszak observed that, "suburbs, with their urban sprawl, are often a failed attempt to escape the city." If we don't find ways to honor the gods of the city, then we lose the city as one of the liveliest forms of human habitat. Less than a century ago, people had many more non-urban living options. Today most of us are left with a choice between inner city and suburbs. Along with biodiversity, the diversity of our human habitat is disappearing. By creating healthy cities we may save rural life as well; we will decrease the desire to flee the city that now creates urban sprawl. But how do we create cities that fit into the local ecosystem and revitalize them as places of cultural creativity? Can the city become an extension of organic values rather than a denial of them?
Consumer addiction becomes more pervasive in cities, where people
do not have undeveloped land with which to interact. As a result they
often feel resigned to, or even trapped in, a shopping mall culture.
Consumerism also gives people the illusion that they are
participating in the sophisticated technological process that created
the product. Technology is a major component of science and has become
viewed as the highest achievement of humanity. But because few of us
can be engineers or scientists, consuming their products becomes a way
to feel involved with this highly valued process. On the other hand,
the more in tune people are with their local ecosystem, the less
likely they are to fall prey to the blandishments of consumerism.
Kanner asked: "How as therapists, can we address consumerism as
a form of psychopathology?"
There was a strong feeling that ecopsychology curricula need to
include courses from environmental studies and ecological science.
There was also great concern that ecopsychology not lose its
political bite, experiential character, or spiritual dimension in
order to be integrated into mainstream academia.
While many ecopsychology courses are now being taught, there is
as yet no full curriculum in the field. Mary Gomes agreed to oversee a
curricular clearinghouse. She will collect materials and answer
inquiries through the Psychology Department, Sonoma State University,
Rohnert Park, CA 94928.
The Gollihers believe that we are asking people to re-define
"home," expanding its meaning both experientially and conceptually.
Most people are sincerely concerned about the environment, but the
global scale of the issue is too overwhelming to deal with. On the
basis of on-going work in small groups in community settings, it
appears that the bioregional scale is the appropriate level on which
to work. The household is too small the nation is to large. This
focus helps familiarize people with their local ecosystem, about
which they are often surprisingly ignorant. Jeff Golliher mentioned
that "watersheds and mountain ranges are inherently
non-anthropocentric; they are larger than any institutional ego." The
more communities begin to feel that these natural areas are their
"home," the smaller the gap will be between nature and culture. Home
should also include the mosaic of cultures one finds in bioregional
community; it should be a place for a diversity of viewpoints.
In building an environmental ministry at the Cathedral of St.
John the Divine, Jeff Golliher is asking churches to re-examine how
they are addressing the ecological crisis. "How do we negotiate being
in the world ourselves, in terms of our relation to institutions? Are
institutions currently effective as vehicles for facilitating the
emergence of an ecological way of being?"
The historical movement from oral speech to the written word has
impoverished this soundscape and limited the meanings available to us
through the senses. When we perceive meaning only in the written word,
the world becomes less magical. James Hillman noted that the moment we
start seeing natural things as "dead," "we need to look and look
again, which is the root meaning of `re-spect'." Must our deep
psychological investment in literacy (the written word) censor our
capacity to experience the animate and magical in nature?
Conference Conveners: Mary Gomes, Allan Kanner, and Theodore Roszak
The conference was organized by the Ecopsychology Institute,
California State University, Hayward, Hayward, CA 94542-3045. At this
point, the Institute has no instructional function. Its sole purpose
is to produce the Ecopsychology Newsletter under a grant from the
Goldman Environmental Foundation.
Please send questions or comments to ecopsy@csuhayward.edu
Brian Bates, a scholar of European shamanic traditions reminded us
that all cultures were originally "indigenous." He then described the
way of wyrd, recommending it as a source of ecopsychological insight
for Europeans and Euro-Americans. He explained that the root of the
word "weird" comes from the Anglo-Saxon wyrd, the sacred
unexplainable force of existence. Within pre-Christian tradition,
nature was often illustrated by the image of a web. The web of nature
was invisible to ordinary consciousness, but was revealed in altered
psychological states. This image presented the universe as a network
of fibers, where any movement anywhere affected everything else. The
image of the self in turn, was perceived as a life- force in touch
with guardian spirits. When one was out of balance with the natural
order these spirits became inaccessible. Bates suggested that we can
find remnants of an ecologically-based worldview in pre-Christian
European traditions. Is it still possible to connect with our
indigenous past? Can we create new rituals and meditative practices to
re-vitalize the prehistoric sensibility?THE ALL-CONSUMING SELF
Allen Kanner noted that the two most ecologically destructive
forces on the planet today are consumerism and overpopulation.
Moreover, consumerism is increasing due to highly sophisticated
advertising that convinces us that we are inadequate unless we by an
endless array of consumer goods and services. Although modern
advertising is the largest single psychological project ever
undertaken by humankind it is mostly ignored by western psychology.
Jerry Mander descried how advertising takes advantage of the fact that
inanimate objects such as toasters and fax machines, gain appeal and
aliveness in the two-dimensional field of TV and billboards, while
animate objects such as plants and people, lose their aliveness.
Advertising makes technology seem superior and necessary. Mander
observed: "we are co-evolving with the creations of our own minds in a
sort of intra-species incest."APPLYING AN ECOLOGICAL WORLDVIEW TO PSYCHOTHERAPY
The trauma of being displaced from the natural world is finally
beginning to emerge as an issue in the field of psychology. One of
the roles of ecopsychology is to establish the importance of this
issue in clinical work. Ralph Metzner reviewed several forms of
psychopathology, including autism, post- traumatic stress disorder,
amnesia, and addiction, that each captured a distinct component of
the modern alienation from nature. Common to many of these disorders
is the psychological defense of disassociation, which Metzner
believes describes the current relationship of the American psyche
to the natural world. He mentioned that exploring ecological
consciousness necessitates that we recognize the "numbing process" of
industrial society, which manifests in the psychological process of
disassociation. We all agreed on the importance of overcoming psychic
numbing by recognizing and expressing the pain below the "armor" of
society. In this sense depression and grief must be valued as signs
of profound human concerns. Can clinical psychology begin to pay
attention to the urban habitat and how clients are psychologically
affected by the ecological crisis? Which of the standard diagnostic
categories used in psychotherapy helps illuminate our cultural
condition? TEACHING ECOPSYCHOLOGY
Mary Gomes gathered together a group of undergraduate and graduate
teachers, wilderness guides, and therapists to discuss a full
ecopsychology curriculum. Everyone mentioned that students are hungry
for courses and experiences that include an explicit emphasis on the
human relationship to the natural world. However, there are also
difficulties encountered in teaching ecopsychology. Instructors need
to be prepared to help students deal with the strong feelings that
arise when previously held cultural values are questioned or when
grief, despair, and anger over the environmental situation come to
the fore. Facilitating ecological awareness may require holding
classes out of doors or scheduling wilderness trips so that students
can experience both the richness of different ecosystems and the
damage that industrial development has done to the landscape.
Teaching that encourages ecological awareness should be based on
experiential and interdisciplinary models of learning. Teachers need
to share with students their honest concerns about environmental
problems and make space for students to voice theirs. OUR BIOREGIONAL HOME
Jeff and Asha Golliher raised the question, "when we set out to
change people's environmental habits so that they will become more
ecologically sensitive, what are we actually asking them to do? WORDS ON THE WIND
<
Drawing upon his studies in the phenomenology of language, David
Abram asked, For them, the visual counterpart to spoken language is
the land itself and not the written word. Their cultural histories
are stories embedded in the land. Land is text, and meaning is found
everywhere, through movement, gesture, sound, rhythm. When you drive
traditional people of the land, you drive them out of their mind." THERAPY, LAW, AND ECOPSYCHOLOGY
In a lively panel discussion that was opened to the whole Esalen
community, James Hillman, Patricia Cummings, Mary Gomes, and Theodore
Roszak offered sharply contrasting views of our environmental
condition. Their assessments were both sobering and hopeful.
James Hillman warned that our civilization may well be a "sinking
ship" that leaves us with little choice beyond "going down with
dignity, a largely forgotten virtue." He felt that the dark side of
our situation needs to be frankly faced before we search for easy
consolation. Patricia Cummings confessed that her many years of work
as an activist left her deeply uncertain that the major environmental
organizations have the leadership or moral force to solve the most
urgent, global problems. Mary Gomes offered a more optimistic
possibility. Environmental sustainability may indeed require this
particular ship called "industrial society" to sink, but perhaps,
with the help of ecopsychology, we can find better, saner ways "to
live in the water." Theodore Roszak pursued another ecopsychological
insight. Is it possible that the self-regulating planet itself is now
playing a major restorative role in defending life on Earth? Might
this be the deeper reading of the controversial "Gaia Hypothesis?"
Instead of asking "What are we going to do about the environmental
crisis," perhaps we should ask, "What is the environmental crisis
already doing about us?" He wondered if the more-than-human world
may not be at work now, reshaping the human psyche to the needs of
"the ecological unconscious." If so, where do we see signs of an
emergent new form of sanity in the everyday lives of people? PARTICIPANTS:
David Abram, ecophilosopher, author of forthcoming The Sensuous Mind:
Perception and Language in Ecology
Allan Hunt Badiner, editor Dharma Gaia
Rachel Bagby, performer, director Outta The Box
Anita Barrows, ecopsychologist, Wright Institute, Berkeley, California
Brian Bates, Shamanic Psychology Program, University of Sussex,
Steve Beck, Esalen Lands Manager
Andre Carothers, environmental writer and activist, Greenpeace, E
Catherine Caufield, environmental writer, author of the award winning
Patricia J. Cummings, environmental lawyer, activist
Martin Davidson, organizational psychologist, Dartmouth Business
Jeff Golliher, Rene Dubos Consortium for Sacred Ecology, Cathedral of
Asha Golliher, yoga instructor, Cathedral of St. John the Divine, New
York
Mary Gomes, Psychology Department, Sonoma State University, co-editor
Steven Harper, director Earthways Wilderness Journeys
James Hillman, co-author of We've Had a Hundred Years of
Allen Kanner, Wright Institute, Berkeley, co-editor of Ecopsychology:
Jerry Mander, author of In the Absence of the Sacred, director, Public
Margot McLean, environmental artist, New York
Ralph Metzner, president, Green Earth Foundation, California Institute
Melissa Nelson, director Cultural Conservancy, editor Ecopsychology
Theodore Roszak, author of The Voice of the Earth, director
Betty Roszak, ecofeminist, poet, co-editor Masculine/Feminine
Jyotsna Sanzgiri, director Organizational Psychology Program,
Laura Sewall, psychologist, Ecopsychology Program, Prescott College,
Brother David Steindl-Rast, co-author of The Ground We Share
Sharon Thom, Chief Executive Officer, Esalen Institute
Philip Williams, founder International Rivers Network, San Francisco
Conference Report Editor: Melissa Nelson
Conference Report Art: Christopher Castle (hands image based on Esalen
Indian picograph)
Assistant: Mara Freeman
Funded by grants from the Nathan Cummings Foundation, the Rockwood
Fund, Esalen Institute, and private donations.
All mail should be addressed to: The Ecopsychology Newsletter, Box
7487, Berkeley, CA 94707. Subscriptions to the newsletter are $12
through 1997. Back numbers are $4 each and are in limited supply.
Printed copies of this report are $3. Checks should be made out to
The CSUH Ecopsychology Institute.
