Ecopsychology Science, Totems, and the Technological Species

by Kahn, Peter H.; Hasbach, Patricia H.

• ISBN13: 9780262517782
• ISBN10: 0262517787
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2012-07-20
• Publisher: The MIT Press

Summary

We need nature for our physical and psychological well-being. Our actions reflect this when we turn to beloved pets for companionship, vacation in spots of natural splendor, or spend hours working in the garden. Yet we are also a technological species and have been since we fashioned tools out of stone. Thus one of this century's central challenges is to embrace our kinship with a more-than-human world--"our totemic self"--and integrate that kinship with our scientific culture and technological selves. This book takes on that challenge and proposes a reenvisioned ecopsychology. Contributors consider such topics as the innate tendency for people to bond with local place; a meaningful nature language; the epidemiological evidence for the health benefits of nature interaction; the theory and practice of ecotherapy; Gaia theory; ecovillages; the neuroscience of perceiving natural beauty; and sacred geography. Taken together, the essays offer a vision for human flourishing and for a more grounded and realistic environmental psychology.

Author Biography

Peter H. Kahn, Jr., is Associate Professor in the Department of Psychology and Director of the Human Interaction with Nature and Technological Systems Laboratory at the University of Washington. His most recent book is Technological Nature: Adaptation and the Future of Human Life (MIT Press, 2011). Patricia H. Hasbach is a licensed clinical psychotherapist in private practice in Eugene, Oregon, and an adjunct faculty member at Lewis and Clark College and Antioch University Seattle.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. vii
About the Contributors	p. ix
Introduction to Ecopsychology: Science, Totems, and the Technological Species	p. 1
The Topophilia Hypothesis: Ecopsychology Meets Evolutionary Psychology	p. 23
A Nature Language	p. 55
What Is Ecopsychology? A Radical View	p. 79
Ecotherapy	p. 115
Building the Science Base: Ecopsychology Meets Clinical Epidemiology	p. 141
Ecovillages: Information Tools and Deeply Sustainable Living	p. 173
Can Architecture Become Second Nature? An Emotion-Based Approach to Nature-Oriented Architecture	p. 195
Psychological Discontent: Self and Science on Our Symbiotic Planet	p. 219
Psychoterratic Conditions in a Scientific and Technological World	p. 241
Beauty and the Brain	p. 265
Sacred Geography	p. 285
Afterword	p. 309
Name Index	p. 323
Subject Index	p. 335
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