The Voice of the EarthIn his latest book Theodore Roszak searches for the environmental dimensions of sanity where conventional psychology leaves off: at the threshold of the nonhuman world. He writes: "The sanity that binds us to one another in society is not necessarily the sanity that bonds us companionably to the creatures with whom we share the Earth. If we could assume the viewpoint of nonhuman nature, what passes for sane behavior in our social affairs might seem madness. But as the prevailing Reality Principle would have it, nothing could be greater madness than to believe that beast and plant, mountain and river have a 'point of view.'" The Voice of the Earth seeks to bridge this centuries-old split between the psychological and the ecological. A true "ecopsychology", Roszak insists, sees the needs of the planet and the needs of the person as a continuum. In a sense that weaves science and psychiatry, poetry and politics together, he shows that the ecological priorities of the biosphere are coming to be expressed through our most private emotional and spiritual travail. The Earth's cry for rescue from the punishing weight of the industrial system we have created is our own cry for a scale and quality of life that will free us to become the whole and healthy person that more and more members of our species are coming to believe we were born to be. |
Contents
Preface ECOPSYCHOLOGYA RECONNAISSANCE | 13 |
MODERN PSYCHOLOGY IN SEARCH OF ITS SOUL | 48 |
A SPECULATIVE | 74 |
Copyright | |
12 other sections not shown
Other editions - View all
Common terms and phrases
anima anima mundi animal animistic Anthropic Principle atoms become believe Big Bang biological biosphere body Books called century chance collective unconscious complexity consciousness cosmic cosmology cosmos creation culture Deep Ecology deep systems Deism Earth Ecofeminism ecofeminists ecological economic ecopsychology entropy environment environmental Erich Jantsch Errol Harris ethical evolution evolutionary existence experience feminists Freud Freudian Gaia goal Goddess healing human idea industrial instincts intellectual intelligence John Gribbin Jung living Lovelock madness Martin Rees matter meaning mental metaphor mind modern science mother mysticism narcissism nature neurosis nonhuman object once organic philosophical physical physicist planet planetary political possible psyche psychiatry psychology quantum radically random realm religion religious role sanity scientific scientists sense sexual Sigmund Freud social society soul species spiritual structure survival theology theory therapy things tion traditional tribal unconscious University Press women words York