The Voice of the Earth: An Exploration of Ecopsychology | 
|  | | | Title: | The Voice of the Earth: An Exploration of Ecopsychology | | Author: | Theodore Roszak | | Publisher: | Phanes Press | | Type: | Book / Paperback | | Publication Date: | December, 2001 | | ISBN / ISBN-13: | 1890482803 / 9781890482800 | | List Price: | $19.95 | | You Save: | $6.38 | | Amazon Price: | $13.57 | |
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Product Description
What is the bond between the human psyche and the living planet that nurtured us, and all of life, into existence? What is the link between our own mental health and the health of the greater biosphere? In this "bold, ambitious, philosophical essay" (Publishers Weekly), historian and cultural critic Roszak explores the relationships between psychology, ecology, and new scientific insights into systems in nature. Drawing on our understanding of the evolutionary, self-organizing universe, Roszak illuminates our rootedness in the greater web of life and explores the relationship between our own sanity and the larger-than-human world. The Voice of the Earth seeks to bridge the centuries-old split between the psychological and the ecological with a paradigm which sees the needs of the planet and the needs of the person as a continuum. The Earth's cry for rescue from the punishing weight of the industrial system we have created is our own cry for a scale and quality of life that will free us to become whole and healthy. This second edition contains a new afterword by the author.
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Customer Reviews:
• The Voice Of The Earth Is Desperately Calling Us 10 May, 2005
This book could easily be seen as one of the most profound wake-up calls for humanity published for the 21st century! This is the stage in our evolution that we'll either continue on our destructive, insane, parasitic and unconscious collective death-wish to oblivion, or we'll heed the loud call heard here to become aware of our life-sustaining, interconnectedness to all life and start to heal our riff not only amongst ourselves, but more importantly, with Earth. To give this outstanding book a 5-star rating is not enough- it deserves 10-stars!
For those who are not familiar with *Ecopsychology*, there is a good description and comparison of it to human-only psychology in the Epilog of this monumental work:
"Just as it has been the goal of previous therapies to recover the contents of the unconscious, so the goal of ecopsychology is to awaken the inherent sense of environmental reciprocity that lies within the ecological unconscious. Other therapies seek to heal the alienation between person to person, person and family, person and society. Ecopsychology seeks to heal the more fundamental alienation between the person and the natural environment." (p 320)
The current state of affairs in the human relationship with the earth is not only ambivalent and dismissive, it is destructive, parasitic and cancerous, and yet, Planet Earth is our only life-support system- our very reason for existence. One might then be inclined to see our current relationship with our home as outright insanity. And indeed, it is! "If we could assume the viewpoint of nonhuman nature, what passes for sane behavior in our social affairs might seem madness." (Preface, p 13) And, of course, our "social affairs", disregarding our relationship to Earth, is riff with pathology and psychosis.
Earth's voice is simply stated in: "The Earth's cry for rescue from the punishing weight of the industrial system we have created is our own cry for a scale and quality of life that will free each of us to become the complete person we were born to be." (p 14)
From the philosopher Mary Midgley in her book, "Beast and Man...": "[she]...finds the doctrinaire dismissal of the physical and biological worlds to be `the really monstrous thing about Existentialism.'" and, "...as if the world contained only dead matter (things) on the one hand and fully rational, educated, adult human beings on the other-as if there were no other life-forms. ...I am sure, not to the removal of God, but to this contemptuous dismissal of the biosphere-plants, animals, and children. Life shrinks to a few urban rooms; no wonder it becomes absurd." (p 66) Indeed.
With science leading us to an awareness of the dynamics of life and Earth's self-regulating life-support systems, we have: "If human conduct were governed by reason alone, what science has taught us about the great ecological patterns and cycles of the planet might be enough to reform our bad environmental habits." (p 95)
This, then leads us to the very fascinating chapter 5: "Anima Mundi: The Search For Gaia- The Many Faces of Mother Earth". In the Anima Mundi, earlier human civilizations felt the wonder and presence of Earth's majestic powers, so when did humanity start to loose it's sense of awe and respect for Earth? Perhaps the advent of citification, social class structures, and certainly, industrialization might have been that point. We became fixated on blinding human concocted regimes apart from the workings and acknowledgement of Nature.
In Part Three- "Ecology" (p 213), there is: "The New Cosmology and our deepening study of ordered complexity provide the raw intellectual material for a new understanding of human connectedness with nature. In time, with enough help from artists and visionary philosophers, this body of fact and theory may mature into an ecologically grounded form of animism. We will find ourselves once again on speaking terms with nature. Within this greater environmental context, sanity and madness take on new meanings."
We will hopefully begin to understand that: "Industrialism, with it's rapacious use of the environment as either raw material or dumping ground, has further entrenched the city's alienation from nature." (p 220)
Therefore, "...the environmental movement is trying to teach us that both economics and ethics must be contained within an ecological context." (p 248) This then, leads to a sane, life-enhancing, and rewarding human existence.
One could go on and on relating the plethora of thought provoking lines found all through this masterpiece of a call to education, realization, and return to sanity in our relation-ship with Earth, but that would be burdensome for a review and this is possibly too long as it is. I highly recommend this book to everyone on the planet, especially to industry, government, and all religious orders.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2FEASJRG91ZJA
• A Serious Transcendental Address Of Clashing Ideologies 11 April, 2002
The Voice Of The Earth: An Exploration Of Ecopsychology by Theodore Roszak is a compelling and thoughtful exploration of the interconnection between psychology, ecology, science, and nature. Individual chapters address such issues as the true essence of mother earth/Gaia, Psychology vs. Cosmology vs. Ecology, and much more in this serious transcendental address of clashing ideologies of the planet we know best. The Voice Of The Earth is strongly recommended for readers with an interest in the philosophy of nature and the impact of human psychology upon the ecological environmental.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A14OJS0VWMOSWO
• Revolutionary! 08 February, 2008
This book makes it crystal clear that as a society we are functioning beyond the bounds of (collective) sanity, and that this becomes truer the more aware we become of the mismatch between our way of life and the inherent limits of our biosphere. For individuals to be mentally healthy, we must leap the fences of conformity and help invent a group relationship to the biosphere that can nurture our grandchildren.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A23PARQ4M2Z0B6
• Elegant Exploration Of Contempory Potential For Eco-sanity 05 March, 2004
I re-read this book every few years, but it's only recently that I've come to appreciate Roszak's "exploration of ecopsychology" as a profound assessment of our "biospheric emergency" and a sure prescription for deep healing. In particular, his discussion of "plenitude" (evoking Mumford here), Roszak provides an elegant alternative to our current fascination with mindless surfeit.The Principles of Ecospychology are sketched in an Epilogue, rooted in the assertion that "the person is anchored within a greater, universal identity" than that which has been presented in earlier psychologies. Here the goal is to "awaken the sense of environmental reciprocity that lies within the ecological unconscious. Other therapies seek to heal the alienation between person and person, person and family, person and society. Ecopsycholgy seeks to heal the more fundamental alienation between the person and the natural environment."A very useful appendix, "God and Modern Cosmology," provides an annotated bibliography for continued study of the growing convergence between science and religion.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A2UTE5KQO9GNCR
• A Life-changing Book 28 August, 2008
Read it! This is THE book. The book that gives the explanations as to why we destroy this wounderous planet on which we are all dependent. This is also the book that gives you hope, a sense of meaning, and importance in this infinite universe. This is absolutely no "new-age"-book, but a serious, fact-filled investigation in our own position and role in the web of life on this planet. But this book, written by Theodore Roszak, a professor in history, could really be a starting point for a new age, the ecologically balanced age of a reinchanted world.
- Reviewed by customer ID: A28C34FQI3ADGH
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