Robin van Tine, Ph.D.
Saint Leo University Tidewater Center

First published in: Derek Hook, Kathryn Smith, Brett Bowman and Martin Terre Blanche (eds.), From Method to Madness: Five Years of Qualitative Enquiry, History of the Present Press, Department of Psychology, University of the Witwatersrand, Private Bag 3, WITS 2050, Johannesburg, South Africa, 1999.

Abstract:
The members of late 20th century industrial society suffer individually and collectively from a severe psychopathology characterized by both the destruction of their own natural life support systems (the ecosphere) and by a denial of that pathology despite its pervasiveness. I propose naming this psychological condition gaeaphobia (a form of insanity characterized by extreme destructive behavior towards the natural environment and a pathological denial of the effects of that destructive behavior). Some of its symptoms include: obsessive-compulsive disorder, violation of Freud's reality principle, autistic disorder, narcissistic personality disorder, obsessive-compulsive personality disorder, social phobia, denial, the tendency to "pathologize" deep emotions about the destruction of nature, psychic numbing, posttraumatic stress disorder, antisocial personality disorder, and paranoid type schizophrenia.

An ecopsychological expansion of the definitions of (1) ecomania (a form of insanity; obsession, compulsive disorder characterized by a morbid attitude toward the members of one's family and a domineering behavior at home), and (2) ecophobia (excessive fear or hatred of home life or surroundings) to include the interdependent family of life on earth and oikos -- the ecospheric home of all life on earth, is proposed. Part of our psychopathological ecocidal destructiveness may be due to an unnatural fear and misunderstanding of the "otherness" of the rest of nature.

My soul aches for the hurt of Earth. Do I need therapy? I hug trees and I feel the spirits of wind and wave and air and rock. Am I "crazy"? I look deeply into the eyes of "the others [1][1]" and feel their souls. Am I sick? Or -- Are those -- the many -- who do not feel the pain of Earth, who do not empathize with "the others", who do not feel the spirits of place and trees and mountains -- are they "crazy"? -- Do they need therapy to remove the scales from their eyes and open their perceptions? Could it be that it is normal and healthy to feel connected to all that is? -- To feel one with nature? Could it be that it is unhealthy and a symptom of psychological illness to "pretend" that we are separate from nature and all else? Could it be that our destruction of the source of our being and "all our relations [1][2]" is pathological? It may be that 100 years of psychotherapy to help us adjust to reality has actually been a "brain-washing" that has helped maintain a Western mass-hallucination of altered perceptions. Perhaps we are part of Earth and perhaps we are in relationship with the others and perhaps it is important to know that fact.

INTRODUCTION

We in contemporary Western society are in denial -- serious and deep denial. The life support systems of Earth -- our "Mother"-- are dying, due to our actions. Our "sister and brother" plants, animals and microorganisms are being driven to extinction by our actions at rates unprecedented in all of Earth's history. The air is foul and the waters impure, the soil depleted, eroded and poisoned while we wallow together in self-centered petty concerns. What kind of mental disorder is that? In this paper, I propose that we, the members of late 20th century industrial society suffer individually and collectively from a severe psychopathology characterized by the destruction of our own natural life support system -- the ecosphere. Since we are part of the ecosphere, and totally interdependent with it for every breath of air and each bite of food; since our bodies are made out of the soil and will return to the soil; since we are actually one with the ecosphere, this self-destructive behavior certainly qualifies as psychotic. We also suffer individually and collectively from the pathological denial of this destruction despite its pervasiveness. Additionally, I propose that we have become unnaturally estranged from the other creatures of Earth -- all of our relations -- with whom we have co-evolved and lived with in community for hundreds or thousands of millennia. I propose terming this mental disorder or psychopathology Gaeaphobia (Gaea - Earth, phobia - fear or hatred of): a form of mental disorder [1][3] characterized by extreme destructive behavior towards the natural environment and a pathological denial of the effects of that destructive behavior despite overwhelming scientific evidence of the self-destructiveness of that behavior. Associated disorders include Ecomania, Ecophobia, and Ecoalienation.

An Ecopsychological [1][4] expansion of the literal definition of Ecomania (Greek: a form of insanity; obsession, compulsive disorder characterized by a morbid attitude toward the members of one's family and domineering behavior at home) [1][5], usually found associated with Gaeaphobia, would include the interdependent family of life on earth and oikos -- the ecospheric [1][6] home of all life on earth. That is, Ecomania: a form of insanity; obsession, compulsive disorder characterized by a morbid attitude towards the more than human members of one's ecological and biological family and domineering behavior in the ecosphere. The definition of Ecophobia (Greek: excessive fear; hatred of home life or surroundings, including common objects in the home) [1][7] is expanded ecopsychologically to: Ecophobia: excessive fear; or hatred of one's biological habitat, biome or ecosystem, including the dominant flora, fauna, microorganisms, air, water, soil and other components of the system. Clinebell (1996) defines Ecoalienation as: seeking to distance oneself from our inescapable life-giving dependence on nature. Our psychopathological ecocidal destructiveness may be due to an unnatural fear and misunderstanding of the "otherness" of the rest of nature.

Other researchers who have suggested that Western Civilization or Industrial Society suffers from various psychological dysfunctions interrelated with our dysfunctional environmental relationship include human ecologist Paul Shepard, psychologist Ralph Metzner, psychologist Chellis Glendinning, historian Theordore Roszak, "Geologian" Thomas Berry, clinical psychologist Allen Kanner, psychologist Mary Gomes, clinical psychologist Sarah Conn, psychoanalyst-shaman Leslie Gray.

SYMPTOMS AND DIAGNOSES:

Schizophrenia Human behavior in the late 20th century could be diagnosed as psychotic: a gross impairment of reality testing [1][8] or distortions and exaggerations of inferential thinking: a violation of Freud's Reality Principle. Delusions, erroneous beliefs that usually involve a misinterpretation of perceptions or experiences (APA, 1994), characterize Schizophrenia -- a psychotic condition. Contemporary humans appear to be suffering under a persistent delusion that their impact on the Earth's life support system is benign and that they are not part of nature. This bizarre delusion of separation from nature has led to a severely dysfunctional relationship with the "more than human world" of which we are clearly and unambiguously enmeshed. According to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM IV), the handbook used to officially characterize, diagnose and name what our society considers to be abnormal, "Delusions are deemed bizarre if they are clearly implausible and not understandable and do not derive from ordinary life experiences" (APA, 1994, p. 275). This severe perceptual distortion (hallucination) of separateness from the other living creatures of Earth and our absolute failure in reality checking have led to a highly distorted and delusional view of the human relationship to the rest of nature.
 
 

DSM IV Diagnostic criteria for Schizophrenia (American Psychiatric Association, 1994):

A. Characteristic Symptoms: Two or more of the following:

(1) delusions\\tab

(2) hallucinations (perceptional distortions)\\tab

(3) disorganized speech\\tab

(4) grossly disorganized or catatonic behavior\\tab

(5) negative symptoms, i.e., affective flattening, alogia, or avolition\\tab

Note: only one Criterion A symptom is required if delusions are bizarre...

B. Social/occupational dysfunction: For a significant portion of the time since the onset of the disturbance, one or more major areas of functioning such as work, interpersonal relations, or self-care are markedly below the level achieved prior to the onset.

C. Duration: Continuous signs of the disturbance for at least 6 months

D. Schizoaffective and Mood Disorder exclusion

E. Substance/general medical condition exclusion

F. Relationship to a Pervasive Developmental Disorder

DSM IV Diagnostic criteria for 295.30 Paranoid Type Schizophrenia
(American Psychiatric Association, 1994):

A type of Schizophrenia in which the following criteria are met:

A. Preoccupation with one or more delusions or

B. None of the following is prominent: disorganized speech, disorganized or catatonic behavior, or flat or inappropriate affect.

It may be that our culture suffers from the developmental disorder, Autistic Disorder. The diagnostic criteria in the DSM IV (APA, 1994, pp. 70-71) include a combination of "failure to develop peer relationships to developmental level", "lack of social or emotional reciprocity", "marked impairment in the ability to initiate or sustain a conversation with others", "restricted repetitive and stereotyped patterns of behavior, interests and activities as manifested by...persistent preoccupation with parts of objects", and "Delays or abnormal functioning in ... social interaction ... or symbolic or imaginative play". If we consider reciprocal interactions and communication -- at some level -- with the other members of our ecosystems part of a healthy relationship with the world and healthy ontogenetic human development as exhibited by primal indigenous peoples, then members of contemporary industrial societies suffer a profound autistic separation from the others -- our colleagues in interdependency on Earth. What is the effect on our ancient genetically determined ontological development of our separation from and lack of communication with or imaginative play regarding all our relations? Paul Shepard addresses this issue extensively in several of his works, especially Nature and Madness (1982). Suffice it to say that for over 99% of the time that Homo sapiens has existed, young minds have developed in relation to the others and have included imaginative play deeply involving plants, animals, rivers, mountains, and spirits of place. How has the loss of communion and play with the rest of nature effected our development as individuals and as cultures? Has it made us autistic? Consider our tendency towards "persistent preoccupation with parts of objects" manifested in our glorification of reductionist science! Almost our entire scientific tradition and understanding of "reality" is based on a scientific " preoccupation with parts" as opposed to attempts to understand the whole. Is our scientific and technological tradition -- the basis of 20th century society -- autistic?

Obsessive - Compulsive Disorder (300.3)

Contemporary members of industrial society behave as if they have an unmanageable compulsion to obtain possessions -- often disposable and usually obsolete almost immediately. We must have the latest style, the newest type, the biggest and fastest -- despite the environmental consequences of the extraction of materials, the manufacture, distribution, use and disposal of the product. We appear obsessed with consumption. So obsessed are we with having the newest, biggest, fastest, best that we abandon our children to daycare centers staffed by underpaid and under qualified workers in order to earn the money to pay for more and more possessions. We work longer and longer hours and have less and less free time in order to be able to purchase ever more or newer or better "stuff". Why? Does it fulfill our deepest needs? Are we happier for it? Or, are the recurrent obsessions and compulsions symptomatic of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder?

The essential diagnostic feature of Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder -- "recurrent obsessions or compulsions that are severe enough to be time consuming" (APA, 1994, p. 417) is easily met if we consider the amount of life the typical member of Western Industrial Society spends working in order to be able to buy things, and the amount of time spent shopping. Significant interference "with the individual's normal routine, occupational functioning, or usual social activities or relationships with others" is another characteristic of the disorder. Obsessions or compulsions can displace useful and satisfying behavior..." (APA, 1994, p. 419). The time spent worrying (obsessing) about obtaining the latest consumer toy, the time spent working to pay for the latest consumer toy, the disruption of the parent-child relationship in two-earner families undoubtedly disrupts and diminishes the quality of the individuals "normal" life and relationships -- including their relationships with the more than human others.

The "Specifier", with poor insight is added to the diagnosis if "the individual does not recognize that the obsessions or compulsions are excessive or unreasonable" (APA, 1994, p.419). I diagnose our culture as suffering from Obsessive-Compulsive disorder with poor insight.

Obsessive-Compulsive Personality Disorder, a different and distinct psychological disorder, may also be a diagnosis for most members of contemporary Western Society. Those suffering from this disorder are preoccupied with orderliness, perfectionism and control. The 20th century may be remembered far into the future for its obsessive attempts to control most aspects of nature -- even the genome.

Antisocial Personality Disorder (Psychopathy, Sociopathy, Dyssocial Personality Disorder) (301.7)

Human society has recklessly destroyed thousands of species of creatures, habitats and ecosystems without thought or remorse for the sake of gain and selfish pleasure -- without regard for the others. Such reckless destruction of property and life and disregard for and violation of the rights of others is the essential feature of psychopathological and sociopathological Antisocial Personality Disorder (APA, 1994, p. 645). Deceit and manipulation are central features of this serious pathology. 20th century humans are masters of deceitful manipulation of the others. A history of Conduct Disorder, characterized by "a repetitive and persistent pattern of behavior in which the basic rights of others ... are violated" (APA, 1994, p. 646) is necessary for this diagnosis. Human society has at least a 10,000 year history of violation of the basic rights of the others. Repeated acts of destruction, harassment of others, stealing, disregard for the wishes, rights or feelings of others -- according to the DSM IV diagnostic guidelines -- characterizes Antisocial Personality Disorder. "They are frequently deceitful and manipulative in order to gain personal profit or pleasure ... Decisions are made on the spur of the moment, without forethought, and without consideration for the consequences to self or others .. they display a reckless disregard for the safety of themselves or others" (APA, 1994, p. 646). This certainly describes modern societal behavior with regard to resource depletion, global warming, over-grazing, soil depletion, habitat destruction, deforestation, and the list goes on. Reckless disregard for the others, for self -- destruction of the ecosphere which supports all life and life would fall within this category. Other characteristics of this pathology include aggression and commitment of acts of physical assault, little remorse for the consequences of their acts, indifference to or superficial rationalizations for having hurt, mistreated or stolen from others. They generally fail to compensate or make amends for their behavior (APA, 1994, p. 646). It is chilling that this diagnosis fits our society so well with regard to our pathological relationship to nature.

Narcissistic Personality Disorder (301.81)

The members of late 20th century western society certainly exhibit many symptoms of Narcissistic Personality Disorder. One of the hallmarks of our society's interaction with nature is its arrogant self-importance in relation to all other living things. We generally seem to regard humanity as more important than any other species and consider ourselves "special". We behave as if we are entitled as a species and culture to use any other living creature as we see fit with little or no regard for their wellbeing or for any other consequences to ecosystems, rivers, lakes, forests, mountains or other natural parts of the interconnected web of existence of which we are a part. We are "preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, and brilliance", believing that we can and will conquer all diseases, understand everything there is to understand about nature and the universe. We seem thoroughly convinced that Homo sapiens (wise man -- the name we immodestly give to ourselves) is the pinnacle of evolution and creation. We believe that we are "unique" and expect to be recognized as superior by all other creatures -- our domesticated animals, for example.

DSM IV Diagnostic criteria for Narcissistic Personality Disorder (301.81)
(American Psychiatric Association, 1994):

A pervasive pattern of grandiosity (in fantasy or behavior), need for admiration, and lack of empathy, beginning by early adulthood and present in a variety of contexts, as indicated by five (or more) of the following:

(1) has a grandiose sense of self-importance

(2) is preoccupied with fantasies of unlimited success, power, brilliance, beauty, or ideal love

(3) believes that he or she is "special" and unique and can only be understood by, or should associate with, other special or high status people (or institutions)

(4) requires excessive admiration

(5) has a sense of entitlement, i.e., unreasonable expectations of especially favorable treatment or automatic compliance with his or her expectations

(6) is interpersonally exploitative, i.e., takes advantage or others to achieve his or her own ends

(7) lacks empathy: is unwilling to recognize or identify with the feelings and needs of others

(8) shows arrogant, haughty behaviors or attitudes

Social Phobia (302.23)

Most urban dwellers -- who make up a growing majority of the population of developed countries -- have a "marked and persistent fear of social situations" (APA, 1994, p. 411) which involve interaction with the more than human others. Exposure to interactions with creatures in the wild "almost invariably provokes an immediate anxiety response" (APA, 1994). Therefore, most avoid contact with the others or "endure it with dread". So, considering our fear of relations with our extended social family -- all the other creatures of Earth -- it could be diagnosed that many of us suffer Social Phobia, with respect to our ecological society. Primal peoples do not suffer this malady.

Tendency to "Pathologize" Normal and Natural Human Behaviors

Deep emotions about the destruction of nature and its implications may be seen by contemporary society to be a failure to adjust to reality or a symptom of some underlying mental disorder or pathology when in actuality the expression of shock, anger, grief and other emotions are a justifiable and natural reaction to the harm being done to Mother Earth and all our relations. The pathology and disorder may be in the diagnosing and in the norms of the unhealthy society that "pathologizes" these healthy, normal, natural emotions and behaviors.

Separation Anxiety Disorder (309.21 DSM IV, APA 1994)

A disorder diagnosed for children if they have "difficulty at bedtime and may insist that someone stay with them until they fall asleep. During the night, they may make their way to their parents' bed; if entry to the parental bedroom is barred, they may sleep outside the parents' door" (APA pp. 110-111). Who has the mental disorder here? What is the "normal" natural, healthy behavior? All social primates cuddle their young closely most of the time -- as do social mammals. In most non-Westernized societies parents and children sleep together. I believe that the diagnosis is misapplied here: the parental behavior of locking the child away at night time and punishing the child for wanting to naturally be with the parent is the unnatural and perhaps pathological symptom of gaeaphobia or biophobia (the fear, distrust and/or hatred of the natural).

Attention-Deficit/Hypereactivity Disorder (314.xx)

A disease that I would characterize as a pathological "pathologization" of individuals whose natural way of being does not fit the factory model of education and occupation of late 20th century industrialized societal norms. The broad range of natural and normal human behavioral variations is part of nature's provision of multiple potential solutions to the problems of living on Earth.

Posttraumatic Stress Disorder (309.81)

What happens to our minds when we witness first hand, or realize the gravity of the destruction of nature by humans? Perhaps we experience the devastation of a forest clear-cut or the filling of a wetland to create a parking lot, or the brutality of factory pig farms or chicken farms. Or, maybe, we learn about the extinction of thousands of fellow species a year or a friend develops skin cancer as a result of excessive ultraviolet radiation due to ozone depletion. Perhaps we grasp the magnitude of the depauperate world that we are leaving to our children and grandchildren or witness starvation due to overgrazing, overpopulation and soil erosion from poor agricultural practices. How might these and other experiences and insights effect our psyches? Perhaps, with Posttraumatic Stress Disorder.\\tab

"The essential feature of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder is the development of characteristic symptoms following exposure to an extreme traumatic stressor involving direct personal experience of an event that involves actual or threatened death or serious injury, or other threat to one's physical integrity: or witnessing an event that involves death, injury, or a threat to the physical integrity or another person; or learning about unexpected or violent death, serious harm, or threat of death or injury experienced by a family member or other close associate" (DSM IV, APA, 1994, p. 424).
The DSM goes on to point out that, "Stimuli associated with the trauma are persistently avoided. The person commonly makes deliberate efforts to avoid thoughts, feelings, or conversations about the traumatic event and to avoid activities, situations, or people who arouse recollections of it... Diminished responsiveness to the external world, referred to as 'psychic numbing' or 'emotional anesthesia,' usually begins soon after the traumatic event. The individual may complain of having markedly diminished interest or participation in previously enjoyed activities, of feeling detached or estranged from other people, or of having markedly reduced ability to feel emotions" (APA, p. 425).
Could this explain some of the psychic numbing that is apparent in our society regarding the demise of much of the natural world around us? Could it explain some of the estrangement of contemporary Homo sapiens from the others -- our brother and sister creatures? Might the trauma of grasping the magnitude of the destruction that we are perpetrating on Mother Nature push us into a self-protective reduction in ability to feel?

"Otherness" and the More than Human

Contemporary human psychopathological ecocidal destructiveness may be due in part, at least, to an unnatural fear and misunderstanding of the "otherness" of the rest of nature. Indigenous peoples almost universally seem to relate to the other creatures of their environment, both plant and animal, as brothers and sisters, relations, even as shape-shifted versions of themselves or even parents or creator spirits. We members of 20th century industrialized and post-industrial societies appear to consider non-human creatures to be other and lessor -- not close relations that are part of our ecological and genealogical families. This unnatural sense of separation may lead to xenophobia and fear of these more than human others with whom we interact and are mutually interdependent. Since we consider the non-human members of the biotic community to be somehow basically different than ourselves it is difficult for us to live in respectful balance with them. It may be as in war when the enemy is usually demonized into "sub-human" categories so as to make them acceptable objects of hate, fear and destruction. If we humans are considered fundamentally different and superior, "more-advanced" or "more intelligent" or "special" compared to the others -- than it becomes acceptable and morally defensible to destroy them.

Conclusions

Our unnatural perceived separation from the rest of the natural world -- our hallucination of separateness, our reckless, destructive and selfish disregard for the living systems of which we are a part lead me to believe that our society behaves and acts in ways that could be considered pathological. If we study the suicidal and ecocidal actions and symptoms of our gaeaphobic, ecophobic and ecomanic society we are left with the conclusion that something is terribly wrong. What is it? I believe that some of the roots of the problem are due to a failure of socialization with the more than human others. Most members of 20th century society are raised surrounded by concrete and glass and steel and electronic devices in an ever expanding virtual environment. We are raised in isolation from our mother, Earth and from all our relations -- our brother and sister creatures with whom we have co-evolved for millions of years in an intricate dance of interdependence. We are animals embedded in the food chain and genetically programmed to respond to bird song heralding the approach of dawn. We are ancient flesh and blood creatures, made of dirt, air and water, whose genes carry even more ancient rules for interconnectivity with the others whom we are destroying at an ever escalating exponential rate.

What is becoming of our psyches as we separate ourselves into sterile climate controlled isolation from the "real world" of our brothers and sisters -- the world that we are destroying with reckless and selfish abandon without regard to ourselves or the others? When we come to the terrible realization that we have killed our mother and that we have raped all our relations, destroyed our only nest and robbed our children of their future because of our selfish obsessions and empty desires for control and dominance, who will be our therapist and what will be the therapy? Perhaps if we can learn to "... live within the understanding that we are nature, that we cannot be separate from nature, and that an interactive awareness of our 'naturalness' is the first step towards a vast range of wisdom now closed to us ... we can return to communion that this historic period of objectification has [denied] us". (Robert Greenway, pers. com.).

As Howard Clinebell (1996) puts it in Ecotherapy: Healing Ourselves, Healing the Earth, "Discovering, befriending and intentionally developing one's profound rootedness in the life-giving biosphere is the process that produces what is called healthy biophilia and ecobonding. Ignoring, denying or rejecting this inherent earth-rootedness is called ecophobia and ecoalienation. Ecobonding involves claiming and enjoying one's nurturing, energizing, life-enhancing connection with nature. Ecophilia is the love of life associated with this bonding with the earth. Ecoalienation involves seeking to distance oneself from our inescapable life-giving dependence on nature. Ecophobia is the fear of claiming one's dependence and bonding intimately with nature."

References

American Psychiatric Association (APA). 1994. Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th ed. Washington, D.C. American Psychiatric Association.

Berry, Thomas 1990. The Dream of the Earth. Sierra Club Books.

Clinebel, H. 1996. Ecotherapy : Healing Ourselves, Healing the Earth. Fortress Press.

Conn, S. 1995. When the Earth Hurts, Who Responds? In, T. Roszak, M.E. Gomes, A. Kanner (eds.), Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, healing the Mind. Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, pp. 156-171.

Glendinning, C. 1994. My Name Is Chellis & I'm in Recovery from Western Civilization. Shambala, Boston & London. 240pp.

Gomes, M. and A.D. Kanner. 1995. The Rape of the Well-Maidens: Feminist Psychology and the Environmental Crises. In, T. Roszak, M.E. Gomes, A.D. Kanner (eds.),

Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, healing the Mind. Sierra Club Books, San Francisco pp. 111-121.

Gray, L. 1995. Shamanic counseling and ecopsychology. In, T. Roszak, M.E. Gomes, A. Kanner (eds.), Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, healing the Mind. Sierra Club Books, San Francisco, pp. 172-182.

Greenway, Robert. 1999. Personal communication, 7/29/99.

Metzner, R. 1999. Green Psychology: Transforming Our Relationship to the Earth. Park Street Press. Rochester, Vermont. 229pp.

Miller, G.T. 1999. Living in the Environment: Principles, Connections, and Solutions, 11th ed., Brooks/Cole Pub. Co. (ITP). Pacific Grove.

Roszak, T. 1992. The Voice of the Earth. Simon & Schuster, N.Y.Roszak, T. 1996.

The nature of insanity. Psychology Today 29(1): 22-25.

Shepard, P. 1982. Nature and Madness. Sierra Club Books, San Francisco. 178 pp.

Shepard, P. 1996. A Paul Shepard Reader: The Only World We've Got, Paul Shepard (ed.), Sierra Club Books, San Francisco. 330 pp.

Shepard, P. 1998. Coming Home to the Pleistocene. Island Press/Shearwater Books, Washington, D.C. 195pp.

Stratton, P. and N. Hayes. 1988. A Student's Dictionary of Psychology. Edward Arnold (Hodder & Stoughton). London. 216pp.

van Tine, R.F. 1999. The Emerging Interdisciplinary Field of Ecopsychology. Biennial Conference of the International Society for Theoretical Psychology, Sydney, Australia, April 25-28, 1999.

Winter, D.D. 1996. Ecological Psychology : Healing the Split Between Planet and Self. Addison-Wesley Pub. Co. 314pp.
 

[1][1] I use the terms, "the others" or "the more than human" to refer to all the other species of life with whom we share the planet.
[1][2] Translation of the term used by many Native American indigenous peoples for the other living organisms with whom we share Earth.
[1][3] The DSM-IV (APA, 1994, p. xxi) defines Mental disorder as, "a clinically significant behavior or psychological syndrome or pattern that ... is associated with present distress or disability or with a significantly increased risk of suffering, death, pain, disability, or an important loss of freedom."
[1][4] Ecopsychology brings together aspects of ecology, environmental science, environmental activism, anthropology, environmental ethics, ecological philosophy and psychology in an integrated attempt to both heal the human mind and spirit from its perceived unnatural separation from nature, and to seek to understand and modify the psychological roots of the ecological crisis. These two aspects of ecopsychology -- personal healing and planetary healing -- are seen as interconnected and mutually causal (van Tine, 1999).
[1][5] John G. Robertson. 1999. Focusing on Words Newsletter, Latin-Greek-English Cross Reference Search. Senior Scribe Publications, http://www.focusing-on-words.org/#Focusing on Words, http://www.focusing-on-words.org/search/htm/d0002157.htm
[1][6] Ecosphere: Earth's collection of living organisms interacting with one another and their non-living environment throughout the world (Miller, 1999).
[1][7]Jones, op. cit. http://www.focusing-on-words.org/search/htm/L-Gk-phobia-E.htm
[1][8] A fundamental human tendency to check out one's understanding of the real world, particularly one's role in, and influence on, both physical and social reality. A failure to make the distinction...is taken as an indication of psychosis (Stratton & Hayes, 1988, p.155).
[1][9] Note how the contemporary use of the English language transforms nature and living creatures into inert material.