Journal of Humanistic Psychology

In attempting to understand the dynamics of what distinguishes humans as a unique species, the author argues that humanistic psychology has limited itself to too narrow a definition of the human experience. From its beginning, it struggled with separation from the ideology of humanism and the question as to whether the transpersonal experience is a valid inquiry within its domain. Now it is time to tackle a different aspect of being fully human—our psychological relationship with our environment. This article attempts to explicate how the principles of humanistic psychology—self-actualization, awareness, responsibility, and authenticity—can address our environmental crisis through the concepts and practice of empathy, unconditional positive regard, and a wider identification beyond humankind to include the natural world. An ecological-humanistic psychology and worldview includes humans as part of the environment, not separate from it.

The central theme of ecological psychology is interdependence or connection that serves to sustain the balance of life on the planet. The lack of interdependent orientation is clearly seen in a report of a comparative risk assessment process used to rank environmental dangers. Combined emphases on self-development and objective indicators give psychology too little capacity to address ecological concerns. Ecological psychology shares with some indigenous Native American cultures a mode of thought in which interconnection and its psychological counterpart, caring, are predominant. The underlying beliefs of ecological psychology provide a new paradigm in which the work of psychologists can be a constructive response to dire environmental challenges.

Eating disorders, which involve the misuse of vast quantities of food by millions of people, are described as a direct threat to the environment. Eating disorders are also suggested as a metaphor for the psychopathology underlying our environmental crisis. In this article, the scope of the problem, its psychological and economic roots, its similarity to the environmental crisis in general, and possible solutions are described.

Can beauty help us adapt, evolve, and cope with environmental crisis? This article challenges the longstanding Kantian view that beauty is “disinterested,” while linking Kant’s view of the sublime with chaos theory and the fractal forms of nature. We humans participate in beauty as open systems in ongoing process, coevolving with all of existence. Beauty offers us conscious awareness and resonance with deeper life patterns. We sense our interconnection and the “bounded infinities” of potentialities related to chaotic “strange attractors.” A study of aesthetic preference not only supports preference for the fractal forms of nature but suggests, tentatively, that creative persons prefer forms of even higher “dimensionality.” Beauty can open up our vision in an endangered world—while yielding intimacy and delight, not isolation and fear. Caring can become natural for the greater whole we all cocreate. As humanistic psychologists, we can be concerned with no less than this totality.

This article connects the psychological concepts and philosophical insights of Jung with some of the basic postulates of ecopsychology. The thesis of the article is that Jung’s depth psychological approach is a relevant hermeneutic device for understanding and dealing with the psychic roots of the modern world’s ecological problems. Using the concepts of archetypes, the collective unconscious, repression, archaic consciousness, personal and collective shadows, and individuation, the article demonstrates how each has implications for the advancement of an ecopsychological approach to the psyche and our understanding of the world. Perhaps most important, the article exemplifies how Jung’s psychological research allows us to envision the interpenetration of psyche, nature, and spirit, thus bridging the modern epistemological gap that has developed between them in the Western world.