Ecopsychology
Ecopsychology, a term popularised by Theodore Roszak’s The Voice of Earth: An Exploration of Ecopsychology, covers both the suffering of the Earth as a result of human misbehaviour and the pain of humans as a result of the suffering of the Earth.
Our spirits are indeed related to nature, but we need the natural surroundings to reveal what has been concealed by the bustle of the modern technological world in which we live. Grimm-Greenblatt argues in a Binghamton University honours thesis in environmental studies that if we comprehend the significance of nature to ourselves and society, we may better respect all kinds of life.
However, without this knowledge, we will ruin our natural resources and ourselves, as we are part of nature. The “self” frequently explored in psychology includes the individual and the surrounding environment.
Theodore Roszak (1992) defined eight general concepts of Ecopsychology, as referenced by Price (2018).
- As with other therapies, the critical developmental stage for Ecopsychology is childhood. The ecological unconscious is reborn, as though as a gift, in the magical vision of a child. Ecopsychology aims to recover the naturally animistic nature of experience in “sane” individuals.
- The ecological ego develops a sense of ethical responsibility for the world that is as vividly experienced as our duty toward other individuals. It aims to integrate this duty into social relationships, and political decisions.
- Among the essential therapeutic efforts in Ecopsychology is reevaluating some compulsively “masculine” personality qualities that permeate our political power systems and lead us to govern nature as though it were an alien and unjust universe.
These principles can be tracked in Avatar: The Last Air Bender series. It starts from the representation of the series’ world and how it is a coming-of-age story of four young children since the critical developmental stage for Ecopsychology is childhood, as pinpointed by the first principle.
