Psychoanalysis and Ecology: The Unconscious and the Environment

Psychoanalysis and Ecology explores the mutual co-determination between individual traumatic stories and positive or negative environmental attitudes, shedding light on pathological defenses and the role of hope in a damaged world.

Format: Paperback / softback
Length: 148 pages
Publication date: 01 April 2022
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Ltd

The IPA Climate Award has been awarded to Cosimo Schinaia and Psychoanalysis and Ecology for their groundbreaking work in understanding the complex relationship between mental health and the environment. In their book, Cosimo Schinaia and Psychoanalysis and Ecology delve into the question of how our enormously modified environmental conditions determine our subjective mental changes and vice versa. The authors acknowledge the gravity of the environmental crisis, but also note the emotional difficulty in comprehending the present reality and its future consequences.

The book explores the mutual co-determination between individual traumatic stories and positive or negative environmental attitudes exhibited by patients. Through clinical vignettes and dispatches from the collective imagination, the authors shed light on the confused affective investments and anxieties that propel pathological defenses such as negation, suppression, intellectualization, displacement, and disavowal. The final chapter concludes with notes on the role of hope in a damaged world and the importance of integrity within the psychoanalytic field and beyond.

This book is a valuable resource for psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, psychiatrists, anthropologists, environmentalists, and ecologists. It provides a comprehensive understanding of the complex interplay between mental health and the environment, and offers insights into how we can address the challenges posed by climate change and other environmental crises. By exploring the relationship between the individual and the collective, Cosimo Schinaia and Psychoanalysis and Ecology offer a new perspective on the psychoanalytic process and its potential to contribute to a more sustainable and just world.

Weight: 276g
Dimension: 156 x 233 x 23 (mm)
ISBN-13: 9781032114828