Newsgroups: bit.listserv.biosph-l
Date:         Sun, 8 Nov 1992 08:28:22 PST
Reply-To:     "Energy and Climate Information Exch" <ecixdy@IGC.APC.ORG>
From:         "Energy and Climate Information Exch" <ecixdy@IGC.APC.ORG>
Subject:      The original Roszak article

For those who missed it in sci.environment because they do not
have access to Usenet, here is Gary S. Trujillo's original post
on Theodore Roszak's article about psychiatry and
environmentalism.  Also, readers should note the academic study
center which is taking a closer look at these ideas described
later in this post.

Dan Yurman  aka  ecixdy@igc.apc.org


** Topic: Theodore Roszak article on "Ecopsyc **

** Written  1:45 am  Nov  3, 1992 by gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us in
cdp:sci.environment **

In today's U.S. snail-mail, I received a copy of the latest issue
of the newletter of the Center for Psychology and Social Change
(formerly known as the Center for Psychological Studies in the
Nuclear Age).  I find the article thoughtful and well-done, and
hope that it might serve to stimulate further discussion on the
topic.

The newsletter is called _Center Review_ [Vol 6, No. 2 - Fall
1992].  Contact information for CPSC is given at the end of the
present article.

Theodore Roszak is the author of a number well-known books,
including _The Making of the Counterculture_ and _Person/Planet_.
He teaches at the California State University campus in Hayward,
California, I believe.

 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

               Ecopsychology:  The Birth of a New Profession
                            by Theodore Roszak

In the post-Earth Summit era it is becoming clear  that  the  environmental
movement  will have to find a new way forward if it is to achieve its ambi-
tious agenda for change.  The Earth Summit succeeded in clearly  establish-
ing  one fact:  We are all--literally all--in one planetary boat.  The liv-
ing standard of the rich has been maintained largely off natural resources,
labor, and the unwilling compliance of the poor.  Now the poor demand their
share, and we see that there is no benefit the rich nations enjoy that poor
nations  cannot deny them or destroy by the reckless "development" of their
resources.

Unique in human affairs, environmentalism is a movement whose audience is a
global  Symposium  of the Whole; it must address itself to all people, must
persuade all listeners.  There is no one environmentalists can afford *not*
to  be  on speaking terms with, from the bureaucrats in suits who make far-
reaching decisions in the metropolitan centers to  the  earth's  indigenous
peoples.  Needless to add, the dialogue must even (especially?) include the
nonhuman realm that now is making its ethical  and  empathic  claim.   Yet,
despite  the  scope and urgency of the crisis, the movement's familiar rhe-
toric of shock-and-shame shows signs of being  less  and  less  productive.
"Green  guilt"  has lost its ethical sting; in its place is a growing anti-
environmental backlash in the developed countries  that  identifies  ecolo-
gists as bullying prophets of doom.

It is time for the movement to draw up a  psychological  impact  statement.
It  must find a way to connect with what is generous, joyous, freely given,
and noble in people everywhere and at all levels.  It must touch that  eco-
logical  depth  of  the human personality that is reborn to us in the spon-
taneous experience of children, in the great art of all ages, in  the  lore
of indigenous people.

But where is the movement to turn to find the new psychological paradigm it
needs?   The  psychiatric  mainstream of contemporary society has little to
teach us about our place in the natural environment;  it  is  as  alienated
from  the  living  planet as the rest of our society.  Its role for genera-
tions has been to soothe the anguish of the urban-industrial psyche.

*Psychology needs ecology; ecology needs psychology.*  From  this  partner-
ship a new profession can be born:  an ecopsychology that combines the sen-
sitivity of the therapist with the expertise of the ecologist.   The  value
of such a new body of professionals reaches well beyond individual healing.
Just as past therapies have achieved wide-ranging,  cultural  influence  by
redefining the roles that sexuality, aggression, family ties, and spiritual
alienation have in human nature, ecopsychology, too, has a greater cultural
task:  to redefine the relationship of the natural environment to sanity in
our time.  The political implications of such a transvaluation of human na-
ture should be clear.

A likely first step toward this goal might be to issue a call for the crea-
tion of a new profession.  The call itself would dramatize the idea and the
need; and there is good reason to believe that it would be heeded.  A  ris-
ing  generation of therapists is seeking new directions for its ethical en-
ergies.  Many  Freudians,  Jungians,  Gestaltists,  Transpersonalists,  and
Humanists  are  ready  to  reexamine  the teachings and techniques of their
schools in search of a task that binds them to something greater than  eth-
nocentric  social  forms and the usual repertory of modern, Western values.
There are indications that many now wish to speak for the planet,  for  its
imperiled  species,  for  primary  people, for the long lost *Anima Mundi.*
Psychiatry has grown by constantly expanding its context;  it  has  reached
beyond  the  intrapsychic  mechanisms to the family, the society, the work-
place, the culture.  The planetary environment would seem to be the largest
of  all  imaginable contexts for the healing of the soul, especially if one
finds within that context intimations of the sacred.  Similarly, there  are
environmentalists  who  want to present a different face to the world audi-
ence than that of scolding puritans and scowling ideologues.

Implicit in this project is the need for a scientific paradigm  that  gives
life and mind a new central status in the universe.  Building that paradigm
as part of an ecopsychology would  make  the  effort  more  than  a  merely
academic exercise; it would become part of a practical healing mission.

Issuing a call for such a new profession is concrete, specific, timely, and
deeply imaginative.  Its object is to heal both psyche and planet as a sin-
gle, continuous project.

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

The following article appears on the back page of the latest issue of the
newletter.  I include it here to give a bit more background on the Center
for Psychological Studies in the Nuclear Age:

Center Developing Environmental Project

A Center working group is currently developing a project to bring  together
activists  and  researchers  who  study  the principles of effective social
change.  These two communities remain relatively uninformed of each other's
work:  activists  with work pressures often lack the time or forum in which
to reflect theoretically about social change; researchers, for their  part,
are not always sufficiently aware of the kinds of questions activists would
like answered, and  the  relevance  and  generalizability  of  researchers'
theories are not often tested by those who have the most immediate and sus-
tained contact with the realities of activist practice.  The  Center  hopes
to build ongoing and productive bridges between these two groups.

Currently the planning group is soliciting advice and suggestions from  ex-
emplary  researchers on activism, from activist organizations, and from in-
dividuals around the country.  The group is also establishing ties with lo-
cal  environmental  activists who would like to participate in this process
and maintain sustained contact with the Center.

This collaborative project will serve as the basis  for  an  ongoing  study
group,  will be used as a model for further events, and will serve to build
the Center community's knowledge about effective social change.

Anyone interested in suggesting local environmental  groups,  or  exemplary
activism  researchers,  or  in participating in the workshop should contact
Melissa Everett at the Center.

--Yaakov Garb

- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

Lastly, here is a statement from literature received from the Center earlier
which indicates the orientation of this organization toward thinking about
environmental issues:


              THE PSYCHOLOGY OF ENVIRONMENTAL RESPONSIBILITY

The  Center's  evolving  environnmental  program  builds  theory,  sponsors
research, and supports interventions to encourage environmentally responsi-
ble behavior at all levels of society.  Members of the Center's network are
breaking  new  ground  as  they bring tools and insights from their various
backgrounds to address the psychological and cultural factors  contributing
to  environmental  destruction.   Although  much of the Center's program in
this new area of inquiry is in the development  or  theory-building  stage,
work  has already begun in the Corporate Leadership project (which includes
environmental issues in its analysis) and in other projects and related ac-
tivities described in the Fall 1990 _Center Review_.

CPSC is an affiliate of Harvard Medical School at The Cambridge Hospital.

     Center for Psychology and Social Change
     1493 Cambridge Street
     Cambridge, MA 02139
     United States of America

     Phone: 617-497-1553
     FAX:   617-497-0122

(I have no affiliation with the Center, but I do hope to encourage them to
become directly involved in electronic discussions, and will do what I can
to provide them with assistance with the technical aspects of doing so.)

Gary
--
    Gary S. Trujillo                            gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us
Somerville, Massachusetts              {wjh12,bu.edu,spdcc,ima,cdp}!gnosys!gst
--

READERS OF BIOSPH-L should note Gary's email addres forss for replies.
Beware the autoreply reflect!x !

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