Ecopsychology

The aim of ecopsychology is to study the relationship between the environment and the psychic state of the human being. A harmful context can cause all kinds of diseases, more than ever in the era of pollution. Ecopsychology studies not only the effects of the environment on psychological functioning, but also seeks the behaviours, mentalities and cultural values that are at the root of the ecological crisis.

Human ecogenetics, however, is taking one more step by distinguishing “progenetic” values, i.e. those which correspond to the genetic potential of human beings and other species, from “antigenetic” values, which subject organisms to conditions to which they are not genetically adapted. Modern concepts of evolutionary biology and psychology are thus taken into account and underpin more fundamental reasoning and heuristics.

References to psychoanalysis have been erased by current representatives of the approach. The principles applied by ecopsychology are reduced to the following:
– synthesis that emerges between ecology and psychology
– use of ecological data in psychotherapy
– emotional links between man and Planet
– integration of environmental criteria into mental health standards
– definition of a health encompassing that of man and that of the Planet.