photo by Rolf Hicker at hickerphoto.com
Last June I ran an international webseminar on psychology and the environment. During the first week, people sent in their observations of what was taking place in their localities. While many individual observations seemed small, their number and intensity impacted me. It seemed like people everywhere were noticing something. I am trying to broaden what transpired in that seminar by asking a wider audience of people to share what they know.
What is your environmental story? Is your physical environment important to you? Have you noticed transformations in the physical landscapes where you grew up or now live? Have you observed any signs of climate change or environmental pollution? I’m interested in people’s stories about their relationship to nature, to their ecosystem (even urban ones), and to the earth: what you see, think and feel, as well as what you remember. And if you don’t have a story but know people who do, please share this link. Feel free to back channel susanbodnarphd at gmail.com.
Ordinary Earth ™ 
Psychoanalysis, Psychology and the Environment
May 28, 2010image from http://www.huffingtonpost.com
Begininng Tuesday June 1 – Friday June 25th IARPP will be hosting an online seminar: Psychoanalysis, Psychology and the Environment: A Dialogue. Given what has transpired in the Gulf Coast, this topic couldn’t be more timely. The seminar ($10.00 fee) is open to all IARPP members ($135.00 membership fee). During that time period this blog will report on what transpires during this seminar.
Description: As the recent Gulf oil spill makes clear, denial, dissociation, trauma, anxiety, and depression play a role in the climate change story. And, as the limits of technology to deal with the oil spill become more apparent (and hence the idea that science will rescue us becomes more tendentious), an international conversation about psychoanalysis and the environment is timely. The goal of this seminar is to generate a dialogue among professionals who think about how the changing environment influences the mind and how the mind is responding to the ever increasing threat. The hope of this seminar is to develop both a network and a body of thinking that can anchor and connect the many people working on this issue. The panelist faculty (Glenn Albrecht, Susan Bodnar, Thomas Doherty, R.D. Hinshelwood, Paul Hoggett, Renee Lertzman, Rosemary Randall, Andrew Samuels, Nick Totton, Sally Weintrobe) will present some of their thoughts about this topic, using an eclectic reading list as a jumping off point. The seminar participants can share their own thinking, ask questions and respond to the readings. As we think and dialogue together we hope to consolidate some form of coherence out of the ideas generated by this dialogue. Among others, we will examine how concepts like solastalgia, embodiment/disembodiment, dissociation, object relations, repression of the unconscious, and concepts borrowed from human geographers can enhance the now international dialogue about mental and emotional processes and the environment. Panelist bios after the jump.
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Tags:andrew samuels, ecopsychology, Ecopsychology UK, ecospsychology Australia, Glenn Albrecht, Gulf Coast oil spill, Nick Totton, Paul Hoggett, pschological aspects of climate change, psychoanalysis and the environment, psychological comments on Gulf oil crisis, psychological response to Gulf Coast oil spill, psychology and the environment, R.D. Hinshelwood, Renee Lertzman, rosemary Randalls, Sally weintrobe, solastalgia, Thomas Doherty
Posted in climate change, ecopsychcology, environmental disaster, global warming, personal environmentalism | 4 Comments »