Radical Ecopsychology

Psychology in the Service of Life

By Andy Fisher
Foreword by David Abram

Subjects: Environmental Psychology
Series: SUNY series in Radical Social and Political Theory
Paperback : 9780791453049, 328 pages, February 2002
Hardcover : 9780791453032, 328 pages, February 2002

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Table of contents

Foreword by David Abram

Preface

Acknowledgments

PART I. GROUNDWORK

1. THE PROJECT OF ECOPSYCHOLOGY
The Terrain of Ecopsychology • Getting a Handle on the Project:Four Tasks • A Naturalistic and Experiential Approach

2. THE PROBLEM WITH NORMAL
Discursive Problems • Between the Human and the Natural • In Praise of the Not-So-Normal: The Hermeneutic Dimension • The Symbolic or Metaphorical Nature of Reality and the Discursive Primacy of Rhetoric

PART II. NATURE AND EXPERIENCE

3. BEGINNING WITH EXPERIENCE
"Returning to Experience" • Talking About Experience • Experiential Destruction and Ecological Crisis

4. FROM HUMANISTIC TO NATURALISTIC PSYCHOLOGY
The Irony of Humanistic Psychology • On Nature and Human Nature

5. NATURALISTIC PSYCHOLOGY: A SKETCH
"If We Truly Experience Needs . . . " • Naturalism • Life as a Hermeneutic Sense-Making Journey • Nature and the Human Life Cycle

6. MAKING SENSE OF SUFFERING IN A TECHNOLOGICAL WORLD
Technological Progress: The (Paved) Road to Happiness? • Suffering Under Technology • Contesting the Pattern: Counterpractice • On Bearing Pain and Suffering

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Shows the psychological roots of our ecological crisis.

Description

Personal in its style yet radical in its vision, Radical Ecopsychology offers an original introduction to ecopsychology—an emerging field that ties the human mind to the natural world. In order for ecopsychology to be a force for social change, Andy Fisher insists it must become a more comprehensive and critical undertaking. Drawing masterfully from humanistic psychology, hermeneutics, phenomenology, radical ecology, nature writing, and critical theory, he develops a compelling account of how the human psyche still belongs to nature. This daring and innovative book proposes a psychology that will serve all life, providing a solid base not only for ecopsychological practice, but also for a critical theory of modern society.

Reviews

"…a provocative look at the philosophical concepts (and conceits) that underlie what truly is a radical new form of social thought. " — Utne

"Offering the most conceptually robust and complicated analysis of ecological psychology available, Fisher poses a challenge to mainstream psychology. If psychology is to be relevant to a world desperately seeking sustainability—and sanity—the challenge cannot be denied. Psychologists, indeed, all thoughtful people, will find much within to provoke and stimulate altered ways of thinking and feeling. " — Robert Romanyshyn, author of The Soul in Grief: Love, Death and Transformation

"Fisher succeeds in synthesizing and integrating a rich, diverse, and extensive amount of material. His emphasis throughout on the experiential—our bodily felt, lived-through experience—brings to light a woefully neglected dimension in the ecology/environmental discourses and debates. " — David Michael Levin, Northwestern University