Eco-psychology: a critical paradigm in the climate emergency

ABSTRACT

This paper presents an argument that mainstream psychological practice is not equipped to respond to distress associated with the climate emergency. This is because the field focusses on individual pathology, rather than ecological context. It remains reticent about activism and politics and is ontologically aligned with the Anthropocene, a new era in which the human species is creating an observable effect in the geological record, to the detriment of the planet and its life forms. An introduction is provided to ecopsychology, a movement that has sought to subvert and transform mainstream psychology over the last three decades. Ecopsychology still offers an opportunity for mainstream psychology to alter its approach in the face of the climate emergency.

Key Points

What is already known about this topic:

1. Clinical psychology is focussed on intrapsychic processes and indiivdual therapy.

2. Psychology is typically hesitant about including political activism in clinical theorising or practice.

3. New conceptualisations of both the psyche and practice are required in the Anthropocene.

What this paper adds:

1. Eco-psychology provides a framework for psychology in the climate crisis.

2. The history of eco-psychology has ontological implications for traditional psychology.

3. Interventions need to consider human distress as tied to the distress of non-human others.

KEYWORDS:

• Eco-anxiety
• climate
• eco-psychology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Data availability statement

Data sharing is not applicable to this article as no new data were created or analysed in this study.