Ecopsychology: Another Legal Tool? Essay by Valerie Harms
Ecopsychology: Another Legal Tool? Essay by Valerie Harms
Ecopsychology: Another Legal Tool? Essay by Valerie Harms
Ecopsychology, the field that unifies nature and psyche in the Grand
professionals now exists to potentially allow its use in court as a cause for
www.csuhayward.edu/ALSS/ECO.
and use our naturual resources comes from people’s consumption patterns.
But, the compulsion to buy new things, even when not needed, is an
rampant.
consequent need to dominate it. It can be cut down, moved around, and
paved at will. Exploitation of the Earth’s resources and the habit of seeing
nature solely in economic terms have been evident since the domestication
more productive to focus on our common needs for the life support systems
species) of resources critical for our survival as well as nature’s beauty and
recreational value. Many of us feel guilty about the state of the world,
anxious about not knowing whether or not or just how badly our health is
threatened, and even despairing about the prospects for future generations.
patients are bringing to therapists their deep grief about the loss of
wilderness and the deterioration of the planet. Some therapists believe that
notion of self to include what is going on around us.” She believes that
bonding with nature can empower people to cope with the problems, and
2
Environmentalists have long known that the health of people and
habitats are threatened by pollution of air, water, and soil. We have known
that people who live in poor neighborhoods - often black and Hispanic - bear
on a week’s trip in the Rockies. He said, “I was convinced these boys could
not unleash themselves from their pasts until they escaped the city and
discovered their own ties to the Earth...I believe that many social and
the land. Remarkably, no one got sick. The boys did not complain, argue,
or worry about life back home. Each day, I could see the pace slow, the
facial muscles relax. I watched problems slide away.” Gary Ferguson in his
new book, Shouting at the Sky, vividly documents the effect of being in
3
Change, an affiliate of Harvard Medical School at The Cambridge Hospital.
Roszak would like to see professionals trained half in the hard sciences and
half in psychology, regretting that “there are no such people in the world
today.”
Ecologists need psychologists, and vice versa, in order to pin down the
diagnose the impacts of destruction and loss of wildlife and habitat. Roszak
stopped.”
**********************
the United Nations for her work in depth psychologoy and journals. A
graduate of Smith College, she has taught workshops for 2 decades on the
4
north and west coasts, Vancouver and Greece. The urge to study other
cultures has taken her so far throughout the Caribbean, Europe, Mexico,