When the needs of the planet are the needs of the person

Digging into the roots of ecopsychology 

‘In search of a greater sanity, [ecopsychology] begins where many might say sanity leaves off: at the threshold of the nonhuman world.’ 

So writes scholar and novelist Theodore Roszak (1933–2011) in 1992. Roszak is often credited with introducing the term ecopsychology, describing the study of the emotional bond between humans and nature. In his essay ‘The Voice of the Earth: Discovering the Ecological Ego’ he maintains ‘there is a synergistic interplay between planetary and personal well-being … the needs of the planet are the needs of the person, the rights of the person are the rights of the planet.’ 

And this statement is very much in tune with the Koala Eco approach. Our central message ‘More Nature, Feel Better’ may be interpreted in many ways. The more nature there is around us, the better we feel and the better nature feels to us; likewise, the more we go into and connect with nature the healthier we feel: spiritually, cognitively, physically, and emotionally.  Yet as Roszak reminds us: ‘once upon a time, all psychologies were “ecopsychologies.”’ 

Invoking the profound and enduring wisdoms of First Nations peoples worldwide, he observes: 

Those who sought to heal the soul took it for granted that human nature is densely embedded in the world we share with animal, vegetable, mineral, and all the unseen powers of the cosmos. Just as all medicine was in times past understood to be “holistic”—a healing of body, mind, and soul—and did not need to be identified as such, so all psychotherapy was once spontaneously understood to be cosmically connected.

Thus if we feel separate from nature we risk being severed from a fundamental part of ourselves. We are not mechanical. We are as much a part of natural living systems as a tuber underground, a river, the highest trees. 

Over 30 years ago Roszak suggested ‘the time is ripe for a new dialogue between scientific intellect and human need,’ implying ecopsychology could be the ontological and emotional bridge between the two. So let’s keep searching for ‘a greater sanity,’ personally and collectively, at ‘the threshold of the nonhuman world.’