Can awe and the awful provide a forward edge for the climate crisis? A discussion of Sperry’s “Getting beyond ourselves: The transformative potential of awe”

ABSTRACT

Through personal reflections and current cultural references to climate-related issues, the author questions whether awe, in conjunction with the awful aspects of climate change, can provide a forward edge to the climate crisis. In acknowledging the tension between creation and destruction - life and death – the author speaks to a kind of quickening which can serve as a signal for impending change and transformation that need not only be apocalyptic.

KEYWORDS:

• Awe
• awful
• climate crisis
• ethics
• forward edge
• open future

Disclosure statement

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

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Elizabeth A. Corpt

Elizabeth A. Corpt is a psychoanalyst, supervising analyst, faculty member, and board member at the Massachusetts Institute for Psychoanalysis, and is Co-Chief Editor of PSC. She has written and presented on clinical generosity, relational ethics, and social class, and maintains a private practice in Arlington, MA.