Roszak, Theodore

The Trumpeter - Journal of Ecosophy (Athabasca University)

Trumpeter (1997)ISSN: 0832-6193Sanity, the Psyche, and the Spotted OwlTheodore RoszakCalifornia State UniversitySanity, the Psyche, and the Spotted Owl 2THEODORE ROSZAK is a cultural historian at California StateUniversity in Hayward, California. He is the author of numerousbooks, including Ecopsychology and Person/Planet.How often do we come across reports like this?”Washington D.C., March 8, 1997. Reviving a lawsuit over theNorthwestern spotted owl, a Federal Appeals Court cleared the wayyesterday for a new timber industry challenge to logging reductionsthat President Clinton ordered three years ago. Clinton’s plan wasintended to protect old-growth forests inhabited by the spotted owl,which was declared an endangered species in 1990.”Another hard-fought struggle to preserve a threatened natural beauty from de-struction. The environmentalists involved are of course fighting with whateverthey have, in this case the Endangered Species Act, the workhorse of the move-ment. But perhaps it is time to admit that the spotted owl has served theenvironmental cause beyond the call of duty - and not always in ways the publiccan appreciate. How many Americans understand that the species listed in theEndangered Species Act are not there as isolated animals, but as guardians ofentire ecosystems? How well have environmentalists done the job of showingthat assaults upon the remotest wilderness endanger human beings as muchas any other species? Physically, morally, and emotionally we are woven intothe web of life with old-growth redwoods and rainforests and dying lakes andpolluted rivers. We need them, not simply as a matter of intelligent resourcemanagement, but for the good of our souls. The same toxins that kill themrun in our blood, the ugliness of their suffering aﬄicts our eye, for all we knowimages of their dire fate haunt our dreams. And surely children who grow intolife without knowing wild nature will be less than fully human.If that seems hard to believe, find a copy of the remarkable photographic studyClearcut: The Tragedy of Industrial Forestry (edited by Bill Devall for SierraClub Books and Earth Island Press, 1993). Sit down with the book and readthrough as much as you can before your eyes fill with tears. Clearcut wasintended to be an environmental report. It is that, but it is also a psychologicaldocument. What you see in these heart-breaking photos of butchered redwoodsis a picture of the human soul. Perusing the volume, I was reminded of thefamous Oscar Wilde story The Picture of Dorian Gray, the tale of a youngman who kept himself beautiful by visiting his sins of debauchery and crueltyupon a portrait that he kept hidden in the attic. Clearcut is the portrait weare keeping hidden in our psychological attic.While ecopsychology certainly hasits place in the practice of private therapy, some of us in this movement arealso working toward a more public and political objective. What we seek isto integrate ecologists, psychologists, and therapists into a new profession thatCopyright 1999 TrumpeterSanity, the Psyche, and the Spotted Owl 3has a clear environmental purpose. When we say that we are out to redefinesanity, that goal may seem abstruse. It isn’t. ”Sanity” is a hard legal term.It is used in courts of law to prosecute, fine, issue injunctions, incarcerate orlet free. If environmentalists are to use the term with legal effect, we musthave a professional consensus as powerful as the consensus that has grown uparound the realization that ”dysfunctional families” can damage the mentalhealth of their members. That conclusion can now be taken into a court oflaw to warrant official intervention in families, even to the point of removingchildren from abusive parents.Thirty years ago, when the Scottish psychiatrist R. D. Laing was insisting thatthe corrupted ”politics of the family” was driving people crazy, he was con-sidered a maverick. Now his ideas and those of other family therapists arebeing used in court rooms across America - and can even be heard echoingthrough most of what the television talk-shows are telling the nation every dayabout abusive families. As tawdry and sensational as such tabloid materialcan become, it nevertheless represents a widely-shared insight into the broader,interpersonal context of mental health.Can the concept of dysfunctional environmental relations become similarly fa-miliar? Can we develop an environmentally-based definition of mental healthtight enough to find a place in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual - theAmerican Psychiatric Association’s official listing of neuroses?If so, we might make such a definition available to environmental activists andlawyers as a basis for legal action and to government as the basis for policy.For example, ecopsychologists might be able to argue persuasively that anyinstitution, practice, or policy that diminishes ecological biodiversity is a directassault upon the mental health of a neighborhood, community, bioregion, or thehuman species as a whole - and for that reason the activity must be stopped andan alternative found. The project could be made very specific. It would meanamending the Wilderness Act of 1964 to include the word ”psychological” inthe definition of ”wilderness” as any area that contains ”ecological, geological,or other features of scientific, educational, scenic, or historical value.”Here is an excerpt from the Dedication of Clearcut:This book is in memory of the plantlife, birds, insects, animals, andindigenous cultures that have been driven to extinction by the greedand delusion of human arrogance. All of us in the Industrial GrowthSociety must take the responsibility for this condition ... We musttry to visualize extinction and learn to understand accurately howcertain patterns of human behavior lead to the extinction of species.We do have the ability to enrich, not impoverish, our lives and theplanet wherein we dwell.Copyright 1999 TrumpeterNotice the language:”greed, delusion and arrogance ...”What are these but emotions that work at that secret level of the mind whichis the special province of psychotherapy?”to understand patterns of human behavior ...”Is that not what psychology was invented to do?The Ecopsychology Institute has been in touch with environmental lawyers whobelieve that having a hard, psychological consensus behind such legal categoriesas ”behavioral evidence” would be an invaluable contribution to their cause. Itmight be a better legal strategy than relying so exclusively on the EndangeredSpecies Act. There is reason to believe that the endangered species approach isproving to be less and less persuasive with the public, which often cannot see itsstake in the issue. Offering the environmental lawyers a body of well-researched,behavioral evidence would be the work of the academic psychologists; offeringthem a useful connection with the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual wouldbe the work of the therapists. Making an environmentally-based definition ofmental health work in the policy-making arena is the task of environmentalactivists and scientists. Getting the whole job done involves creating a professionthat commands respect when it speaks to both environmental and psychologicalissues. That profession is called ecopsychology.The contribution below is a small sample of the effort we have made to inspirea dialogue between ecopsychology and environmental law. It is a magisterialpaper by James Thornton, former senior attorney for the Natural ResourcesDefense Council, that comes close to being a definitive survey of the legal issuessurrounding environmental sanity. We hope it will lead to further discussion.Citation FormatRoszak, Theodore (1997) Sanity, the Psyche, and the Spotted Owl Trumpeter: 14, 3.http://www.icaap.org/iuicode?6.14.3.8Document generated from IXML by ICAAP conversion macros.See the ICAAP web site or software repository for details

Sanity, the Psyche, and the Spotted Owl

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Sanity, the Psyche, and the Spotted Owl

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The Trumpeter - Journal of Ecosophy (Athabasca University)