Ecopsychology

{{d*@*b}} · #1 (**permalink**) 04-21-2008, 06:42 PM

The good thing about New York City is when people are done with their books they leave them out on their stoop for others to pick up. Yesterday I stumbled upon a book called Ecopsychology Restoring the Earth Healing the mind by Theodore Roszack, Mary E. Gomes, and Allen D. Kanner. I felt so lucky. I haven't started to read it yet, but as far as I can tell, it has to do with how the mind affects the outside world and how we could heal worldwide epidemics like mental illness through modifying our environment to live in greater harmony with the natural world.I thought it would be an interesting discussion for I.S. So Discuss

{{d*@*b}} · #2 (**permalink**) 05-01-2008, 09:10 PM

Bomp boink bomp

cyberwraith · #3 (**permalink**) 05-02-2008, 08:44 AM

Actually, if I knew the books would be picked up and read by other people, I'd put my books out (and I love books as much as animals; just ask my friends... I am one person who NEEDS a library in his house...). It's much easier to let go of something if you know it's going to bring someone else as much happiness!

Anyway, Roszack is pretty well know among the psychology and sustainability crowds I've known. In both an overview course for psych and a sustainability course, he was suggested reading.

Ecopsychology is an interesting and growing field.

Start Here (with these two sites):
http://members.shaw.ca/jscull/ecointro.htm
http://clem.mscd.edu/~davisj/ep/ecopsy.html

(The Voice of the Earth is the better known book, I think...)

http://www.ecopsychology.org/
http://www.dennismerrittjungiananalyst.com/

I'm still trying to find the papers I printed for my sustainability class on ecopsychology. There was a really interesting one where a practitioner was brought in as a witness for a case involving some kind of property development to discuss the effects on the surrounding environment.

cyberwraith · #4 (**permalink**) 05-02-2008, 08:48 AM

You might also enjoy these:

http://ecopsychology.athabascau.ca/0597/law.htm -- collection of articles
http://thoughtoffering.blogs.com/ice...cal/index.html

The latter is a "collaborative blog by the international community for ecopsychology."

{{d*@*b}} · #5 (**permalink**) 05-02-2008, 09:21 AM

Thanks Cyberwraith for the info. I'm still trying to finish Ayn Rands Atlas Shrugged. So I haven't started the ecopsychology book yet, but to me already it makes so much sense. The cities we live in are the remnants of the industrial revolution and are based around the ideas of absolute productivity and efficience. They foster faced paced work oriented lifestyles which I believe in the new reality will not be as important as health and happiness.

The fact that people pass on books in such a way is directly related to that. After the big change has finished its course. Money will be replaced with information and Knowledge will be wealth. Wisdom will be equivelent to well invested money. Money probably won't be replaced entirely but it will have less importance. I think passing on a book is one of the best gifts a stranger can give, a real blessing. So far I've found Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut, Brave New World by Huxley, and the full collection of The hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. The book gods are looking down upon me these days.

psuedo-judo · #6 (**permalink**) 05-02-2008, 06:44 PM

I resonate with ur statement deeply my brother.

Monkeys go homo and smoke when caged....nuff said.

please post a rough outline of the book or some passages you think are particularly relevant.

{{d*@*b}} · #7 (**permalink**) 05-02-2008, 09:29 PM

HA HA I'll do my best.

{{d*@*b}} · #8 (**permalink**) 09-11-2008, 11:46 PM

bump
taken from wikipedia

Quote:

Ecopsychology connects psychology and ecology. The political and practical implications are to show humans ways of healing alienation and to build a sane society and a sustainable culture. Theodore Roszak is credited with coining the term in his 1992 book, The Voice of the Earth. This was a call for the development of a field in which Psychology would go out of the built environment to examine why people continue to behave in "crazy" ways that damage the environment, and the environmental movement would find new ways to motivate people to action, ways more positive than protest. Roszak expanded the idea in the 1995 anthology, Ecopsychology, which he co-edited with Mary Gomes and Allen Kanner. This book, with articles by each of the editors and many others who would become prominent voices in the field, is still considered by many to be an excellent primer on Ecopsychology. As mentioned by Roszak, there are a variety of other names used to describe this field: Psychoecology, ecotherapy, environmental psychology, global therapy, green therapy, Earth-centered therapy, reearthing, nature-based psychotherapy, shamanic counselling, sylvan therapy.
The basic idea of ecopsychology is that while the human mind is shaped by the modern social world, it can be readily inspired and comforted by the wider natural world, because that is the arena in which it originally evolved. Mental health or unhealth cannot be understood simply in the narrow context of only intrapsychic phenomena or social relations. One also has to include the relationship of humans to other species and ecosystems. These relations have a deep evolutionary history; reach a natural affinity within the structure of their brains and they have deep psychic significance in the present time, in spite of urbanization. Humans are dependent on healthy nature not only for their physical sustenance, but for mental health, too. The destruction of ecosystems means that something in humans also dies.
Contents [hide]
1 Practical benefits
2 Reasons to embrace nature
3 Cultures that embrace nature
4 Pain and delusions without nature
5 See also:
6 References
7 External links
7.1 Ecopsychology Education
[edit]Practical benefits
An important part of ecopsychological practice is to take psychotherapy out of office buildings and into the open. A simple walk in the woods, even in a city park, is refreshing, because that's what humans have over thousands of years evolved to do. The beneficial effects of natural settings, and even of looking at pictures of landscapes, can be measured. They have been verified in psychological studies.[citation needed]
Steps taken to accept and notice nature can sharpen the senses and give new skills. For example, the ability to track and navigate through a wilderness is improved if nature is noticed and accepted rather than feared. Sailors who appreciate the sea gain a keen sense for breeze directions, giving them speed over water. An appreciation for nature gives greater skills in its domain. While these survival skills may not be needed in modern society, they can have broader value by improving confidence and awareness.
[edit]Reasons to embrace nature
Ecopsychology explores how to make links and bonds with nature. It considers that this is worth doing, because when nature is explored and viewed without judgement, it gives the sensations of harmony, balance, timelessness and stability. Ecopsychology largely rejects reductionist views of nature that focus upon rudimentary building blocks such as genes, and that describe nature as selfish and a struggle to survive. Ecopsychology considers that there has been insufficient scientific description and exploration of nature, in terms of wildness, parsimony, spirituality and emotional ties. For example, parsimony is the best way to produce an evolutionary tree of the species (cladistics), suggesting that parsimonious adaptations are selected. Yet today, the brain is often seen as complicated and governed by inherited mind modules, rather than being a simple organ that looks for parsimony within the influences of its surroundings, resulting in the compaction in minds of a great diversity of concepts.
[edit]Cultures that embrace nature
In its exploration of how to bond with nature, ecopsychology is interested in the examples provided by a wide variety of ancient and modern cultures that have histories of embracing nature. Examples include aboriginal, pagan and Hindu cultures, and shamanism. This is not to say that such cultures are viewed without scepticism where appropriate. Of interest is how the self identity becomes entwined with nature, so that loss of those sacred places is far more devastating to indigenous people than often understood. Other lessons include how to live sustainably within an environment, and the self sacrifices made to tolerate natural limits, such as a nomadic existence that allows the environment to regenerate, or population control.
[edit]Pain and delusions without nature
Ecopsychology recognizes the escalating spread of pain and despair being felt by people in response to nature’s continuing destruction. It is disappointing to a human that this destruction occurs at the hands of his or her own species, which makes one doubt the quality of one's species, or the current degree (or delusion) of its wisdom. The destruction is not likely to end, until humans regain an identity and bonding with nature.
Ecopsychology recognizes that without the influence of nature, humans are prone to a variety of delusions. For example, they can become self-centered, alienated and insensitive. Wildness in nature is not controllable by humans, so can undo preconceived ideas. If nature is excluded, insights that could correct a deluded mind will occur more rarely.

RAIN1000 · #9 (**permalink**) 09-12-2008, 12:09 AM

Oh, that is interesting about the used books,
and ecopsychology, I have heard of it, and read a little,
wish i lived in NY lol,for the books, don't like the city much to live in though, been there, to loud and too many energies from people, drove me crazy,
guess I could stake out in a 10 x 10 foot apartment and read.
yes I wonder about the quality of the species, it is sad what they do to this world, I respect cultures that embrace nature, their wisdom is endearing,
the western world fails to understand so very much, it is despondent to me,

thanks again for the info, if you happen to stumble upon another one of those ecopsychology books, my postal address is,
lol

{{d*@*b}} · #10 (**permalink**) 09-12-2008, 12:21 AM

You probably went to manhattan
Different city within the same city

I live in brooklyn. Its quieter more industrial and residential. Especially where I live is kind of desolate and industrial in beautifully ugly blade runner way. Lots of pre civil war coffee wharehouses and factories and giant abandoned grain silos, art galleries, great laidback organic restauraunts that serve food from our neighboorhood garden. I go down the street to the park and watch soccer games in the grass and they have very authentic south american street food vendors. We even have a couple Community Supported Agriculture programs going on and 2 farmers markets.

Brooklyn is really mellow. Manhattan is like a tornado of assholes. My apartment is a 2 bedroom with a view and roof access. I no what you mean though Manhattan is like the great american scream machine. I try not to go there its all college students, the disgustingly wealthy and hordes of tourists.

Hearsekid · #11 (**permalink**) 09-12-2008, 12:27 AM

DB? isnt Indian Larry's motorcycle shop located on the east side of Brooklyn? have you heard about it? its in a long row of warehosue type shops next to the freeway which overlooks I guess down town NYC?

{{d*@*b}} · #12 (**permalink**) 09-12-2008, 12:39 AM

Thats where I live. I can see the highway behind my house as I am typing. The Brooklyn Queens Expressway (BQE). Indan Larry's place is in Williamsburg thats where my bands old studio was. I live south from there in Red Hook.

Hearsekid · #13 (**permalink**) 09-12-2008, 12:41 AM

YEAH YEAH!!! thats what im talkin about....lol..thats cool man, I have 2 Columbianos who live right around you, maybe on your block .

{{d*@*b}} · #14 (**permalink**) 09-12-2008, 12:51 AM

If they live by Indian Larry's they don't live on my block but yeah it's like a 5-10 minute taxi ride maybe 10-15 min bike ride.

Hearsekid · #15 (**permalink**) 09-12-2008, 12:53 AM

NO man, I meant where you live, i saw the freeway and the city lights from your vantage piont, Indian larrys is in a huge warehouse type place, red brick building, the industrial part ...are you around that Petrie building or that buildingthat starts with a "p">?

{{d*@*b}} · #16 (**permalink**) 09-12-2008, 12:59 AM

I mean the pedaly type bike

{{d*@*b}} · #17 (**permalink**) 09-12-2008, 01:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hearsekid

NO man, I meant where you live, i saw the freeway and the city lights from your vantage piont, Indian larrys is in a huge warehouse type place, red brick building, the industrial part ...are you around that Petrie building or that buildingthat starts with a "p">?

I think you got the aesthetic for around here I live near brooklyns largest projects. Maybe the projects are what you're thinging of. There is also a textile warehouse with a giant capitol R because it has an ancient broken neon sign with only one letter left. It is a landmarked building. I can't think of a building that starts with P. An R looks similar though.

Hearsekid · #18 (**permalink**) 09-12-2008, 01:08 AM

It might have been an R, hmmmmm, your like what 10 floors up or is it only like 5?

Hearsekid · #19 (**permalink**) 09-12-2008, 01:08 AM

or like the 14th floor

RAIN1000 · #20 (**permalink**) 09-12-2008, 01:11 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by {{d*@*b}}

You probably went to manhattan
Different city within the same city

I live in brooklyn. Its quieter more industrial and residential. Especially where I live is kind of desolate and industrial in beautifully ugly blade runner way. Lots of pre civil war coffee wharehouses and factories and giant abandoned grain silos, art galleries, great laidback organic restauraunts that serve food from our neighboorhood garden. I go down the street to the park and watch soccer games in the grass and they have very authentic south american street food vendors. We even have a couple Community Supported Agriculture programs going on and 2 farmers markets.

Brooklyn is really mellow. Manhattan is like a tornado of assholes. My apartment is a 2 bedroom with a view and roof access. I no what you mean though Manhattan is like the great american scream machine. I try not to go there its all college students, the disgustingly wealthy and hordes of tourists.

yeah, you right, it was Manhattan, lots of assholes, i noticed.
rude ones for sure, Brooklyn sounds cool, pity i didnt get to visit, I was watching a travel show on NY a while back and they covered Brooklyn and some of the vendors and market, it was a while back, memory is vague lol
cool, the organic restaurants sound interesting,
I'm from South Africa, just used to the big open blue skies,