Tuesday, March 24, 2009

The well-being of the planet affects our own

For The Valley Advocate, Alan Bisbort writes about ecopsychology in "The World This Week: Ecopsychology 101 — James Hillman and the pain of community loss":
"Ecopsychology, as propounded by James Hillman, a therapist based in northeast Connecticut, seeks to redefine the goals of psychology by paying heed to the health of one's environment just as one would the pathology of one's family. As Hillman wrote in the foreword to Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind, "Psychology, so dedicated to awakening human consciousness, needs to wake itself up to one of the most ancient human truths: we cannot be studied or cured apart from the planet."

Ecopsychology is on the level — the community level, that is. That's where and how Hillman has felt it in his own town, where he has been active on environmental issues and open space acquisition. I talked to Hillman at his house some time ago, and he touched on the psychological effects on the community of environmental "crime scenes.""
Bisbort mentions the Master of Arts program in Ecopsychology offered by Naropa University.

Re-vision in London, England offers a new Ecopsychology program in October 2010 with an introductory session this autumn. Themes include:
- from mastery to mystery
- ecological alienation and collective rites of passage
- disconnection and reconnection as complementary
- relational disorders and cultural narcissism
- the ecological unconscious and dreaming the change
- experiential work for client practices and natural observations

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