Common Cause, inner and outer conflict…
December 29, 2010 § 1 Comment
Tom Crompton’s Common Cause report has struck a chord amongst NGO’s, particularly those working on climate change. The conference to discuss it in London on December 9th was massively over-subscribed. 100 people made it to the day. Another 100 were disappointed.
What’s it all about? Is it a new way forward for organisations who are tired and demoralised by the ineffectiveness of their campaigns? Or is it ‘catnip for campaigners’ as Solitaire Townsend of Futerra reportedly said, an approach which validates retreat towards a familiar comfort zone where NGO’s lecture others about what they ought to do? « Read the rest of this entry »
The psychology of waste: from the desirable to the rejected
November 28, 2010 § 3 Comments
Text of talk delivered in Cambridge, UK as part of European Waste Prevention week, November 25th 2010
I’d like to start with a quote from the economist Herman Daly:
“Man transforms raw materials into commodities and commodities into garbage” Herman Daly
– and then talk first about our pre-occupation with commodities and then about their transformation – the way they cross a line from the desirable to the rejected, from new to old, from clean to dirty and what that process involves. « Read the rest of this entry »
Great Expectations: how do people come to terms with ecological debt?
October 24, 2010 § Leave a comment
Over the summer I interviewed a number of people about their experiences of discovering ‘ecological debt’. The term is a useful shorthand for describing the unequal relationship between the ‘developed’ nations whose lifestyles use far more than a fair share of the world’s resources, and the countries, habitats and eco-systems that are devastated as a result. I also collected stories on the website What’s Your Pip Story? (If you want to add a story, please do.)
The complex systems that deliver us a t-shirt or a new tv obscure our indebted relationship to the biosphere. It’s not easy to connect a Saturday shopping trip or a longed-for holiday with ecological disaster. It’s a minority of people who are aware of the facts or who allow them more than a fleeting place in their mind.
I was curious about the psychological process people might go through first in letting such awareness in and then in managing to live with it. The resulting paper was presented last weekend (October 16h/17th) at a conference called Engaging with Climate Change, organised by the Institute of Psychoanalysis. « Read the rest of this entry »
Fragile selves and stuff we buy
July 15, 2010 § Leave a comment
Psychoanalysis has a complex view of the human psyche and its motivations. Its theories assume that we do not necessarily know ourselves well, that we hide our less worthy motives from ourselves, repress our unacceptable passions and that our sense of self may be contingent and fragile. How might such theories help us understand issues of identity in relation to climate change?
Spills, subterfuge and comfort: reflections on the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico
May 3, 2010 § Leave a comment
The recent disaster in the Gulf of Mexico is referred to in the press as an oil ‘spill’. We spill milk and wipe it up. Children spill out of school. A spill is an accident, easily rectified or exuberance that shouldn’t be contained. The language suggests that we should not be too worried. A spill is a mild occurrence. There is no need to cry over it.
The use of language to disguise is well-known in the military where ‘collateral damage’ means dead civilians, ‘body count’ stands in for the number of people killed and ‘neutralise’ is a euphemism for kill. The bland bureaucratic words provide distance from the reality and a screen for those responsible to hide behind.
Coping with Copenhagen
January 10, 2010 § Leave a comment
The Guardian’s January 1st promotion of the 10:10 campaign bore the headline “The politicians failed in Copenhagen – so now it’s up to you.” Psychologically, this rang alarm bells for me: emphasising small personal steps as an alternative to large-scale political failure is known to confuse and disillusion people. Coping with the fall-out from the hugely disappointing result requires more than exhortations to turn off the lights.
Loss and climate change: the cost of parallel narratives. An article that explores theories of loss in relation to climate change
November 1, 2009 § 3 Comments
Can psychoanalytic theories about loss help us deal with climate change? In a paper “Loss and climate change: the cost of parallel narratives” due to be published shortly in the online journal Ecopsychology I suggest that it can.
Climate change discourses present us with two parallel narratives, one about the problems of climate change, the other about the solutions. When media commentators discuss the problem of climate change, loss often features dramatically and terrifyingly in their stories but is located in the future or in places remote from Western audiences. In narratives about solutions – particularly in the discourse of government – loss is completely excised and we are encouraged to believe that ‘small steps’, technical wizardry or perhaps the pursuit of happiness will do the trick.
« Read the rest of this entry »
Facing climate change – report from a conference at the University of the West of England
April 10, 2009 § Leave a comment
Climate change poses an unprecedented threat to human life and yet the response, from national policy makers to individual consumers, remains tragically inadequate. The ‘Facing Climate Change’ conference on March 7th, organised jointly by Psychotherapists and Counsellors for Social Responsibility and the Centre for Psycho-Social Studies at the University of the West of England brought together 160 climate change activists, psychotherapists and social researchers to explore the human dynamics of our collective denials and failures to respond.
Rosemary Randall 
What happens when our unconscious fantasies play out in our campaigning materials? Thoughts on the 10:10 video
October 4, 2010 § Leave a comment
The recent short film from 10:10, rapidly taken down from their website, might encourage us to think more about the emotional experiences of those who work day in day out on climate change, whether as scientists or as persuaders and educators of the public. There is a personal toll in allowing oneself to be constantly in touch with traumatic events and potential catastrophes. Whatever else the film does, it perhaps opens a window into the state of mind of those who struggle to do a good job and manage the fear, frustration, anxiety and rage of the close proximity to trauma. « Read the rest of this entry »