Chapter 10

1. Chapter 10 ~Holistic Approaches~ Gestalt and ecopsychologyAmber GilewskiTompkins Cortland Community College

2. Holism • The whole is more thanthe sum of its parts • Environmental problems best approached by considering the system in which they are created Reductionism: • Seeing the world as consisting of separate elements • The modern worldview, which emphasizes individualism and scientific inquiry, is reductionistic

3. Gestalt psychology • Gestalt: • A German word that is roughly defined as form, whole, structure, or meaning • Gestalt psychology: • Wolfgang Kohlerdescribes learning as perceptual reorganization • Insight learning: • A sudden perceptual reorganization • Environmental problems are less a crisis of technology and more a crisis of insight

4. Gestalt therapy • Laura and Fritz Pearls • Defensiveness results from fragmentation of various parts of the psyche • Awareness brings about an integration of those dissociative parts so that people can experience their full range of feelings without blocking off parts of their consciousness

5. Mindfulness- Reducing internal chatter and raising awareness of present experience • Mindful practices in natural settings: • Enhance people’s experience of the present moment • Enhance their felt connection with surrounding ecosystems Mindfulness practice: VIDEO • Reduces the impact of consumer culture on overconsumption THE DHAMMA BROTHERS • Reduces materialistic values • Increases ecologically friendly behaviors • Lowers ecological footprint

6. Empathy • The cognitive and emotional understanding of another’s perspective • Being identified with nature, people are more likely to protect it as they would protect themselves • Laboratory research suggests people increase the strength of their ecological self by increasing empathy ECOLOGICAL EMPATHY?

7. Ecopsychology • The study of the synergistic relations between planetary and personal well-being • Bridges the outer world of the natural environment with the inner world of the psyche • Posits that animism represents an earlier and wiser stage of cognitive development that should be cultivated rather than dismissed

8. Ecopsychology’scontribution to clinical psychology • Ecotherapy: • Expanding the practice of psychotherapy to places outside offices and hospitals into gardens and wilderness settings • Human being are distressed when ecosystems are distressed • Clinical psychologists are urged to take client’s anxiety about ecological problems seriously, rather than assuming that it is displaced anxiety

9. “All things in the biosphere have an equal right to live and blossom and to reach their own individual forms of unfolding and self-realization within the larger Self-realization. This basic intuition is that all organisms and entities in the ecosphere, as parts of the interrelated whole, are equal in intrinsic worth.” (Devall& Sessions, 1985, p. 67)

10. Emotional dimensions of ecopsychology • Emotional affinity results from positive experiences in wilderness settings, especially in the company friends and close relations • Emotional connectionto nature combined with: • Righteous anger concerning insufficient protection • Guilt over one’s own inadequate efforts equals people who are more likely to vow to protect the environment IF A TREE FALLS

11. The ecopsychology of place • A deep sense of belonging, love, andperfection in a particular place • Place theory – Some places provide deep meaning and emotional bonding, accompanied by feelings of stability and security, a sense of mystery and connection, and anger or grief when the place is threatened • Sacred places – Spiritual experiences in special places often occur in wilderness settings, where people feel a sense of perfection, meaning, and connection with something larger than themselves