Ecopsychology provides a powerful new dimension to the environmental movement, suggesting that by living in greater harmony with the natural world we should not only help to save our planet from ultimate destruction but also improve our mental health and be happier and more fulfilled human beings. – Jane Goodall

I'm two thirds of the way through this book and have found it overall thought provoking and interesting. There's a wide selection of essays. However one author actually made me quite angry. He, (Terrance O'Connor) seemed to belittle people's personal problems in relation to the crisis facing the earth. I think this rather foolish if you're a therapist. I agree some people may get caught up in petty problems but there are others who have been damaged or traumatised and who can greatly benefit from therapy without bringing in the crisis of the planet. So I regarded his essay with a certain degree of distain. Stupid man.
There's a danger too, that these "superior" 'ecopsychologists' will just exit up their own intellectual arses. ( )

This anthology provides a good grounding in the emerging field of ecopsychology. Each writer provides insight into how our relationship to the earth can and does effect our psyschological health. I would highly recommend that anyone who reads this book also reads "Last Child in the Woods: Saving our Children from Nature Defecate Disorder" ( )

Full review located at http://paganbookreviews.com/2008/10/06/ecopsychology-edited-by-roszak-gomes-and-...

This collection of 26 essays by leaders in the new field of ecopsychology is in three parts: (1) Theoretical Perspectives, (2) Ecopsychology in Practice, and (3) Cultural Diversity and Political Engagement. While the topics covered are numerous and eclectic, and the collection of writers diverse, it seems that the whole book is geared toward reaching the final third. That is to say, the intent of the book is intensely political, in the sense of using ecopsychology to contribute to protection of the Earth. The writers featured include such luminaries as Theodore Roszak, Lester Brown, Paul Shepard, Joanna Macy, David Abram, and our own Universal Pantheist Society board member William Cahalan. Some are environmentalists, but perhaps most of the authors are clinical psychologists.

One essay that stood out as being important to Pantheists was "The Ecology of Grief" by Phyllis Windle. Windle points out here that mourning is a psychological necessity to recover from grief. Just as funerals provide support and guide the needed reorganization of life, so ritual expression of mourning is important to the lovers of the land and life. Windle suggests that ecologists and others perform rituals to cope with the loss of species and natural places.

Also on the subject of grief, Joanna Macy's essay "Working Through Environmental Despair" argues that just as grief work helps bereaved persons unblock their energies by acknowledging and grieving the loss of a loved one, so do we all need to unblock our feelings about our threatened planet. Macy observes that by knowing about the interconnected-ness of life and all other beings, knowing that "our lives extend beyond our skins, in radical interdependence with the rest of the world," not only may bring us pain, but also power: "Through the systemic currents of knowing that interweave our world, each of us can be the catalyst or 'tipping point' by which new forms of behavior can spread."

The closest approximation to any pantheist philosophy in the book may be in Laura Sewall's "The Skill of Ecological Perception" and John Mack's "The Politics of Species Arrogance." Sewall, a perceptual psychologist, argues that only by reawakening our senses can we renew our bond with the Earth. By understanding the ecological self, in which the division between inner and outer worlds becomes an arbitrary and historical distinction, we can manifest empathy and identity with family, friend, lover, community, humanity, and the nonhuman world.

Similarly, John Mack deals with the prevailing attitude of Western and industrialized nations that the Earth is "a thing, a big thing, an object to be owned, mined, fenced, stripped, built upon, dammed, plowed, burned, blasted, bulldozed, and melted to serve the material needs and desire of the human species," an attitude which contrasts sharply with the "pragmatic, live-and-let-live, and reverential relationship with nature" common to indigenous leaders, who "recognize our complete interdependence with the Earth and the need to live in balance and harmony with nature." Mack calls for more than individual efforts to reanimate our connection with the Earth, contending that we need "a psychology of the environment that addresses powerful institutional, structural, and systemic realities." ( )