Ecopsychology and Socio-technological Systems
I've been exploring texts from the initial reader of the Fruška Gora “Forest University” (Serbia). I previously wrote about this "entity" in the context of its neighbours. The text below is also available in Russian.
Ecopsychology and the Elephant
My "digging" (reading isn’t easy) began with the work "Ecopsychology as Decolonial Praxis" (2019). Canadian Andy Fisher is considered the founder of ecopsychology. My understanding of this field is that it works to shift the current view of the psyche as a "thing-in-itself" interacting with the "external environment" to a perspective where the psyche is a phenomenon that emerges and exists primarily as a result of interdependencies and interactions, both human-to-human and "more-than-human."
Fisher views ecopsychology as a radical project to integrate the psychological with the natural and social. To illustrate, he presents a triangle, showing that in current scientific and practical models, the connection between psyche, nature, and society is more broken than organically present.
By capitalizing all three terms, Fisher reminds us that these are abstractions about which he has many questions. Abstractions that have emerged as a result of the alienation of originally deeply intertwined, interconnected phenomena. Similar questions about the "fragmentation" into the components of "science," "education," "media," and "art" of some single phenomenon-process I asked 13 years ago through the parable of the elephant and the blind men.
The Multiplicity of Worlds and Two Decolonizations
In the middle section of his work, Fisher delves into the concept of political ontology. He argues that different peoples and ethnic groups across the globe hold diverse worldviews, giving rise to a multitude of "worlds." This notion resonates with my own realization that by letting go of the relentless pursuit of improving our current world, we can begin to perceive and engage with alternative "worlds" or at least "world models."
In the latter part of Fisher's essay, he explores the potential of ecopsychology for decolonization. He emphasizes the significance of acknowledging the "multiplicity of worlds" to challenge the Western model of the "one-correct-world." This Western model, rooted in colonial theories and practices, positions the enlightened Christian West in contrast to the inhabitants of Africa and the Americas, whom they viewed as belonging to the realm of "nature" and could be treated as "natural resources."
Colonialism and the Exploitation of "Developing" Societies
This one-world model extended to later colonial practices, such as the Soviet Union's treatment of indigenous peoples in the far north and the relationship between first and third-world nations. In these cases, the "developed" society declared the exploited ones as "developing" societies and imposed order based on their own model of the world. Regardless of whether this model was capitalist or Soviet, it justified the extraction of "natural resources" in the name of scientific and technological progress, including in recent times rare earth metals for solar panels and batteries.
Fisher further distinguishes between the colonization of indigenous peoples by "civilized" societies and a more general phenomenon: the colonization of the Living World by the System. He stresses the importance of recognizing that, rather than attributing our predicament to specific groups of powerful individuals (as conspiracy theories suggest), we are likely facing the actions of evolutionary forces of a species-level beyond humanity. Critical to our survival as a species is the ability to perceive these forces rather than getting fixated on identifying "ant-conspirators" in an anthill or "bee-Rockefellers-reptiloids" in a hive.
In 2018, I speculated that we may have already transitioned from homo sapiens to "homo systemus" (in Russian) as a collective (biomass).
One clear example of the colonization of ourselves by social networks, I see in the short text ‘Colonization with Love’ by Vladan Joler, a professor at the Department of New Media at the University of Novi Sad and a contemporary artist.
Taking advantage of the proximity, I met with him earlier this year to discuss possible cooperation between the university and local eco-initiatives in rural areas in the Balkans.
Questions
What I’m interested in here about practice is whether there are already practicing eco-psychologists or even eco-psychotherapists?
If so, how does their work differ in practice from “ordinary” colleagues? And, say, if a school graduate is thinking about going to the psychology department or a person with experience wants to improve his qualifications, then where (to whom) should he go, what should he read, etc.?
