Abstract/Details

Nature and Experience: A Radical Approach to Ecopsychology

Fisher, Andy.   York University (Canada) ProQuest Dissertations Publishing,  2000. NQ56227.

Abstract (summary)

Ecopsychology is a confluence of ecological and psychological understanding. I propose an approach to ecopsychology which is naturalistic, in that it aims to link the claims and limits of human nature to the claims and limits of the larger natural world; experiential, in that it uses bodily felt meaning as its touchstone and makes thematic the natural ordering of our experience; and radical, in that it locates itself within critical currents within both psychology and ecology. Its method is interpretive and rhetorical, both because it seeks to understand the human-nature relationship in a way that normal science cannot and because it argues for concerns that go counter to those of the dominant social order.

My own version of ecopsychology, which I call ‘naturalistic psychology,’ asks what it means to take seriously that we too are nature. It asserts that to be claimed by the natural order means to belong to it, to be limited by it, and to feel its demands within our bodily experience. Naturalistic psychology advocates fidelity to nature, being in service of nature, and cultivating our inherent relations with a more-that-human world. It also asks what it means to take our experience seriously. Naturalistic psychology pays attention both to our experience of nature and to the nature in our experience; and suggests that to recover our experiencing is to better hear the voice of the life process.

Practically speaking, my approach calls for a countering of the dominant pattern of our technologized and economized society, exactly because this pattern involves the violation of (human) nature and the impoverishment of our world-relations. It argues that the general advance of technology leads not to the fulfillment of our nature but to a natural rebellion that the ruling powers of our society must constantly turn to advantage, administer, or out-maneuver. The radical task is to recognize the suffering intrinsic to the modern enterprise and to create loving contexts for the bearing of this suffering. Thus may we both discover what our suffering means and work toward a society more congruent with and respectful of our nature and our experience.

Indexing (details)


Subject
Psychology;
Environmental science;
Social research
Classification
0621: Psychology
0768: Environmental science
0344: Social research
Identifier / keyword
Health and environmental sciences; Social sciences; Psychology; Ecopsychology; Experience; Nature; Suffering; Technology
Title
Nature and Experience: A Radical Approach to Ecopsychology
Author
Fisher, Andy
Number of pages
343
Degree date
2000
School code
0267
Source
DAI-A 81/1(E), Dissertation Abstracts International
Place of publication
Ann Arbor
Country of publication
United States
ISBN
978-0-612-56227-1
Advisor
Campbell, Mora
University/institution
York University (Canada)
University location
Canada -- Ontario, CA
Degree
Ph.D.
Source type
Dissertation or Thesis
Language
English
Document type
Dissertation/Thesis
Dissertation/thesis number
NQ56227
ProQuest document ID
304642210
Copyright
Database copyright ProQuest LLC; ProQuest does not claim copyright in the individual underlying works.
Document URL
https://www.proquest.com/docview/304642210