Research and resources, shaped by those doing the work

From The Psychotherapist, Issue 40, Winter 2008-9, pp.31-33: Directly as a result of our influence, the ecosystems of the planet are becoming corrupted (in its original sense of rupture), broken down and disintegrated. It follows that the human psyche is the root origin, cause and catalyst of these changes. It is not so much the physical eco-systemic changes that are the 'problem', as usually presented - these are merely symptomatic of deeper causes rooted in the human unconscious, in unfulfilled desires and strivings, as expressed and acted out through everyday behaviour. These deeper dimensions of eco-systemic 'problems' have been neglected for decades by both the environmental movement and by psychotherapists.

From Journal of Holistic Healthcare (The Ecopsychology Issue): As human beings, we mostly use our capacities to invent ever more ingenious ways of satisfying desires through what can be called a 'consuming orientation'. We know that consuming is ultimately unsatisfying, but we persist as if there were no other route to well-being and mental health. The challenge for the human species in the 21st century is to have the will to live as part of a bigger context, of the bigger body of Earth of which we are members. Deeper, more mentally and emotionally sustainable meaningfulness and mental health can come more from seeking our true niche in the ecosystem than by trying to fill ourselves up by consuming it as a resource.

One of the most pressing needs of our times is to understand better the mutually constitutive relationship between nature and culture. I take 'nature' (from the Latin for 'to be born') to encompass both the inorganic 'building blocks' of life and the bio-ecological processes - mediated by living organisms and their interrelations - that sustain life on earth. 'Culture' is the domain where meaning and value(s), including those relating to nature, are constructed and represented. Humans and their constructions - such as economics, politics, religions, science, technology - embody meanings and values and are, in turn, informed and changed by them.

From the Encyclopedia of Forest Science (Elsevier, 2004): The purpose of this article is to provide an overview of how indigenous communities perceive and relate to the bio-ecological contexts of which they are part and on which they depend. The main message is that there is much more to learn from them than information about plant resources, or methods to enhance western style conservation management. Forest is only one such context and it is possible to discern principles that also apply in others.

From Linkingthinking: New perspectives on thinking and learning for sustainability (WWF Scotland, 2005, by Sterling, Maiteny, Irving and Salter): Although there is a strong argument for developing Linkingthinking ideas and skills in education, it is hardly yet recognised in current curricula and policy objectives. The writers, partners and WWF Scotland have developed this package in the belief that Linkingthinking is vital to help people cope with, understand and address the complex issues that increasingly dominate life, and is a perspective and skill that can be learnt and taught. The materials are designed to help develop the thinking skills - flexibility, resourcefulness, creativity, self-reliance and empathy - that citizens and professionals of tomorrow will require.

Working in ecological education and research since the late 1970s has often had a "Groundhog Day" quality about it - every few years, witnessing similar responses to peaks in anxiety about ecological breakdown. The particular psycho-spiritual dimensions of our species are the key to bringing ourselves out of this ecological breakdown, and provide vital signs that point to our role, as individuals and collective, in the planet's evolutionary future. The causes of our existential planetary crisis - ecological, social and personal mental health - are emotional and spiritual, rooted in our yearnings for meaningfulness in life and how we seek to satisfy them. Chapter 4 of 'Vital Signs: Psychological Responses to Ecological Crisis', ed. Mary-Jayne Rust & Nick Totton, Karnac, 2011.

Based on findings from the author's doctoral research about how the climate and ecological emergency (CEE) emerges in the therapy room, this chapter discusses revisioning therapy as a collective eco-psycho-social endeavour rather than a purely individualistic one. Implications for practice include the importance of holding hope, the need for therapists to process their own feelings, and being more proactive in responding to clients' cues, with the notion of a traumatised sensibility in relation to the CEE implied throughout.

A substantial extract of this essential book is available on google books.

In this 2021 interview with physician David R. Kopacz, Lifton unpacks the concept of the witnessing professional, which he developed alongside the idea of malignant normality: societal expectations that are deeply destructive yet rendered ordinary, legal and unquestioned. He argues that professionals retain the capacity to expose and resist malignant normality without abandoning their professional identity, and that doing so restores an ethical dimension to work that has become increasingly technicised and prone to psychic numbing. He traces this idea through his own history in the physicians' anti-nuclear movement, and connects it explicitly to the Daedalus special issue on witnessing professionals and climate change, in which his essay 'On Becoming Witnessing Professionals' appears. The conversation ranges into whether the capacity for ethical witnessing can be taught to medical trainees, the risks professionals face when speaking out, and Lifton's concept of an 'animating relationship' to death anxiety and guilt, in which suffering is transformed into a sense of responsibility rather than avoidance. He closes by linking this to his broader idea of the Protean Self - human beings' capacity for ongoing symbolic re-creation and change, which he sees as both vulnerable to totalist control and capable of resisting it.