Lewis & Clark Graduate School Adjunct Faculty Member Thomas Doherty and his students discuss the effects ecopsychology can have on the human psyche and the healing powers of nature.
Archive for June, 2009
Therapy with a Dose of Nature
June 30th, 2009Ecopsychology Journal Interview • Joseph Reser
June 3rd, 2009
Joseph Reser
Joseph Reser is a social and environmental psychologist at Griffith University in Australia. American born, Dr. Reser has had an international career and been instrumental in developing environmental psychology in Canada and Australia. This interview focused on topics including Dr. Reser’s background, his thoughts on ecopsychology, including the context of his seminal 1995 review of ecopsychology “Whither Environmental Psychology: The Transpersonal Ecopsychology Crossroads,” and his views on opportunities for ecopsychology today. Dr. Reser also described his recent involvement with the severe bushfires in Southern Australia and shared his thoughts on coping with global climate change. The text was adapted from e-mail correspondence and a phone conversation between Ecopsychology editor Thomas Joseph Doherty and Dr. Reser, speaking from his home in Tallai, Queensland.
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June 2009 • Joseph Reser. Ecopsychology: 57-63
Ecopsychology Journal Book Review Book Review • Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything
June 2nd, 2009
Ecological Intelligence book cover
In Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything, psychologist and science journalist Daniel Goleman draws on Howard Gardner’s (1983) theory of multiple intelligences to propose ecological intelligence (EI). In his conception of EI, Goleman combines naturalist intelligence with emotional intelligence: EI melds pattern recognition skills with empathy for all life. At times using language evocative of a holistic, ecopsychology perspective, Goleman describes EI as an “all encompassing sensibility” (p. 44) that reveals the interconnections between human actions and their impacts on the planet, human health, and social systems.
Although Goleman proposes an important, ecologically valid way to think about the construct of intelligence, Ecological Intelligence is not primarily a psychological work, in the sense of clarifying the infl uences or abilities that make one ecologically smart. The content focuses on the transformative role of information technologies in the marketplace. Goleman argues that information about product impacts from the new field of industrial ecology, readily available on websites such as Goodguide.com and Cosmeticsdatabase.com, will create “radical transparency” (p. 79) allowing shoppers to know the environmental, health, and social consequences of what they buy. He envisions a world where shoppers use point-of-purchase ecological comparisons (accessed through in-store displays or downloaded on cell phones) to guide their purchases, shifting market share to healthier and more socially and environmentally benign products. Along the way, Goleman does provide some interesting speculations on ways to understand EI, along with associated cognitive processes such as active attention and mindfulness, and the neuropsychology of emotions involved in making purchasing choices.
A psychologist and former New York Times science journalist, Daniel Goleman is perhaps best known for popularizing psychology research on emotional intelligence (Goleman, 1995). He has also written about the psychology of self-deception and meditation, and published dialogs with the Dalai Lama on healing and destructive emotions.
Ecological Intelligence spans multiple subjects and falls under the heading of what may be called popular scientific psychology (e.g., Gladwell’s Tipping Point and Gilbert’s Stumbling on Happiness), a genre Goleman’s own work helped to create. Ecological Intelligence is also at home with more recent works on neuroeconomics (e.g., Thaler & Sunstein’s Nudge), other nonfiction focusing on environment and health (Steingraber’s Having Faith), and the back story on the food system (Schlosser’s Fast Food Nation). Given that it is also written about and is appropriate to sustainability-minded entrepreneurs and advertisers, Ecological Intelligence also caters to business audiences.
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June 2009 • Book Review: Ecological Intelligence: How Knowing the Hidden Impacts of What We Buy Can Change Everything | Daniel Goleman | by Thomas Joseph Doherty. Ecopsychology: 100-103
Ecopsychology Journal Editorial • Leading Ecopsychology
June 1st, 2009
Ecopsychology Journal
The Personal and Planetary
Ecopsychology holds the promise that the promotion of human potential and healthy ecosystems can coexist and pairs self-discovery with ecological responsibility. In fact, a synergy is seen between personal and planetary health: development at a scale that promotes human health, promotes the health of the natural environment and our kindred species (Roszak, 1978). As I attest with my recent call for”second generation ecopsychology” (Doherty, 2009), the person/planet connection is not simply an abstraction, romantic ideal, or countercultural concern. It is a reality, worldwide. There is a consensus on humanity’s physical connection to the biosphere, whether through restorative effects (Kahn, 2001) or health threats such as those posed by endocrinedisrupting chemicals (Diamanti-Kandarakis et al., 2009) or global climate change exposures (IPPC, 2007). There is growing acceptance of psychological impacts of global environmental issues whether through the stress of continuous exposure to representations of global issues in electronic media (Stokols, Misra, Runnerstrom, & Hipp, 2009) or the loss of security and well-being associated with a disrupted sense of place (Connor, Albrecht, Higginbotham, Freeman, & Smith, 2004). The ideal of an ecologically intelligent scale underlies the global movement toward sustainability.
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June 2009 • “Leading Ecopsychology” in Ecopsychology: 53-56
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