There is no doubt that human society is living in times of profound crisis. Both Black Lives Matter and Climate Change protests have been taking place throughout the world. As a result, the radical ecopsychologist, Andy Fisher argues that we need to not only find a way of re-entering into a relationship with life but also of exploring those ways that capitalism, colonialism, and industry is failing the earth so that we can create helpful change. It is only by exploring how social and ecological injustices have created harm to both human and non-human communities that we can work towards liberation for all beings. 

How does a liberation ecopsychology model view our current world?

Liberation psychology explores how the past has shaped the present, taking into account how this impacts all of life. Social injustice shapes our current world. Derrida shares the need to be reflexive about our liberal democratic society in his work Spectres of Marx. Explaining that repressed aspects of our history remain with us, shaping the present, he points out that this has lead to high levels of violence against women and children, racism, famine, starvation, and genocide, along with the destruction of animal life. When specters of the past unfold into the present they have the power to disrupt the future.

However, reality is not fixed, static, or ‘out there,’ separate from us. James Hillman (1996) explains that we ‘live in psyche’ or soul. All that is around us has life and meaning. There is no single truth or static reality. Instead, we are changing, evolving, and constantly creating. Living consciously brings the possibility of shaping a different world. 

Robbins argues the importance of cultural therapeutics, bringing unconscious but unresolved aspects of society into awareness and dialogue as a way of creating healing for all members of our more than human world. Andy Fisher shares that by working with our hearts, with our love for the earth, and not just with our fears, we might work towards change. 

The role of liberation ecopsychology in the environmental crisis

Although the environmental crisis has only recently become a deep concern for western humanity, ecopsychologists argue that all people have a genuine need for the wonder and reverence of life. It is the divided self, created by modernity, which has left us isolated from each other and the world around us.

Voices that add to liberation ecopsychology

Ecosocialism

In exploring what it means to be a person in society, ecosocialism emphasizes the role of the economy and capitalism in particular, in shaping the world we live in. Capitalist society has to devalue life to continue exploiting both land and people to thrive. Also, globalization and imperialism are seen to play a role in the destruction of nature. 

Andrea Smith explains that colonial-capitalism created destruction because it saw no value in simply being. Instead, it only saw value in both land and people when they were put to work and able to produce. This lead to large-scale monoculture farming and mining. Only those people who had their work recognized were given value within this system.

Andy Fisher focuses on the shame manufactured by capitalist society, pointing out that capitalism can only survive if it keeps people striving for new achievements. Capitalism keeps people searching for happiness in goods and products. Once people have attained new products, they soon become outdated and there is a need for new ones. These goods or products keep people unaware of how unhappy they are as well as the exploitative practices used to produce them. 

Naomi Klein explores the role big business and marketing efforts play in creating both human exploitation and environmental destruction. She shares that the need for clean air and water is a need all beings share. She points out that while both social justice and environmental activists have called for change, capitalism has gone out onto the streets. By creating products that seem to affirm identity or offer cleaner energy sources, capitalism maintains its destructive position in the world. Klein exposed the exploitative practices within the global fashion industry, which she explains abuses both garment workers and the environment to produce trendy items which are quickly disposed of. 

Ecofeminism

While many ecopsychologists explore the disconnection between people and earth, ecofeminism takes this further, exploring the role of hegemonic masculinity in environmental destruction. Ecofeminism explores social hierarchies and the implications these have for both people and earth. Ecofeminism calls for social hierarchies to be broken down to create collaboration. There are many different thoughts within the ecofeminist movement, and many diverse voices add new dimensions of insight. The ecofeminist movement has been critiqued because it is said to hold very rigid beliefs about women. However, by exploring how social structures devalue both women and ecology, they provide important political insights into ecopsychology. 

Decolonized voices

Decolonized voices within the ecopsychology movement focus on the impacts colonialism have had upon indigenous cultures. From introducing anthropocentrism to land losses, decolonized perspectives look at how the residues of colonialism continue to create social and ecological injustices within the present. 

David Abram explains the very negative impact that development has had upon Aboriginal communities in Australia, pointing out that this community used songlines to access food and water as well as travel the terrain. By changing the shape of the land, development is driving aboriginal communities out of their minds. He challenges colonialist definitions of development and asks for us to recognize the value earth has to indigenous communities. He also shares the importance of ‘coming to our senses’ and recognizing the value of the more than human world. 

Gloria Anzaldua shares that colonialism brought huge land losses for Mexican people. Not only were people forced off their land, but colonialism denied the soulfulness of earth. Anzaldua explains that while she can sense her ancestors in the movements of the wind, and can feel the life force within all of nature, colonialism sees nature to be made up of objects. She challenges the anthropocentrism of colonialist belief systems. 

Linda Tuhawai Smith explains that while many colonialist beliefs may hold romantic perspectives about nature, there is no real understanding of how indigenous populations gave meaning to space. Intimate knowledge of nature meant survival for indigenous communities. Stories have also been told about place. These stories include indigenous names. When colonialism gives new names to place, indigenous children lose the stories told by their ancestors. 

Leeann Simpson challenges the superficial relationship that capitalist society has to land. She explains that land is seen to be a resource within a capitalist-colonial system. While people may search for solutions to climate change because this would be beneficial to human societies, this misses a deep and spiritual relationship to the land needed for true healing to take place. She argues that a return to land-based knowledge is an important step in deconstructing colonialist structures and working towards embracing indigenous knowledge systems. 

Robin Wall Kimmerer uses storytelling to speak about reestablishing a relationship to land, the wisdom of indigenous knowledge, and the social injustices faced by Native American communities. She shares the importance of giving back to the land. She also shares the destruction of both human and more than human communities by colonialist practices. She calls for a movement that would revalue both native science and the earth. Instead of speaking of sustainability as ‘reducing harm’ she stresses the importance of building a deep and spiritual relationship with the land. 

How can we embrace the liberation movement within ecopsychology?

Re-connecting with the natural world can inspire us and provoke our deep imagination, helping us to see the dignity and integrity of the world around us (Sacks & Zumdick, 2013). And when we are aware of this, Abram (1996) explains that we become aware of the magic, the majesty, and the miracle of what it means to be alive and to live with others different from us. As we begin to think and question the world around us, we can, as Carl Anthony suggests, work towards a multi-cultural self that can give value to all beings. The ecopsychology movement has sometimes been criticized for not paying enough attention to the struggles of marginalized groups of people. Andy Fisher, therefore, points out the importance of developing a political literacy that enables a movement towards social and ecological transformation. 

References

• Abram, D. (1996). The Spell of the Sensuous: Perceptions and language in a more-than-human world. New York: Vintage.
• Anthony, C., & Soule, R. (1998). A multicultural approach to ecopsychology. The Humanistic Psychologist, 26, 155–162.
• Anzaldua, G. (1987). Borderlands: La Frontera. San Francisco:
• Spinsters/Aunt Lute Book Company.
• Birkeland, J. (1993). Ecofeminism: Linking theory and practice. Ecofeminism: Women, animals, nature, 13-59.
• Derrida, J. (1999). Ghostly Demarcations: A Symposium on Jacques Derrida’s Spectres of Marx (Vol. 33). Verso.
• Fisher, A. (2013). Radical ecopsychology: psychology in the service of life. Suny Press.
• Fisher, A. (2013). Ecopsychology at the crossroads: Contesting the nature of a field. Ecopsychology, 5(3), 167-176.
• Gaard, G. (1993). Ecofeminism. International Encyclopedia of Ethics, 1-10.
• Hillman, J. (1996). In Search: Psychology and religion. Spring Publications.
• Kimmerer, R. (2013). Braiding sweetgrass: Indigenous wisdom, scientific knowledge, and the teachings of plants. Milkweed Editions.
• Klein, N. (2014). This changes everything. London: Allen Lane.
• Robbins, B. D. (2005). New organs of perception: Goethean science as a cultural therapeutics. Janus Head, 8(1), 113-126.
• Simpson, L, B. (2002). Indigenous Environmental Education for Cultural Survival. Canadian Journal of Environmental Education, 7(1).
• Simpson, L, B. (2014). Land as Pedagogy: Nishnaabeg intelligence and rebellious transformation. Decolonization: Indigeneity, Education and Society. 3 (2): 1 – 25.
• Smith, A. (2014). Humanity Through Work. In Borderlands 13(1): 1-17.
• Smith, L. T. (1999). Decolonising Methodologies: Research and indigenous people. London: University of Otago Press.