Environmental psychology
Proposed to be offered next in 1998
Dr Peter Cock
8 points
* 2 hours per week
* Clayton
* Prerequisites:
none
Synopsis There are three dimensions of environmental education `educating about the environment, in the environment, for the environmental' (Robottom, 1987). This course explores our place in nature from the perspective of being in nature for our well-being: nature as a teacher for our psyche. Recognition of our dependency on nature for our psychological and spiritual well-being is seen as a requisite to caring for nature in a holistic way. The course experimentally works at the edge of thought and practice for western socialised individuals. It is explicitly concerned to address our personal alienation from nature and how this can be healed to become a mutually enriching connection. The course draws on the experience of the first peoples of the world, the hunter-gatherers, particularly in Australia and America. It examines how their experience with nature can reveal to us - the possibility of a mutually enriching relationship between western socialised humans and Gaia. In addition, the work of deep ecology, eco-feminism, creation spirituality and Jungian psychology will be drawn from to explore the conceptual and practical potential to draw on different environments as a source of psychological insight and well-being; examine ways by which we can reconstruct our connections with Gaia to become partners for our mutual regeneration and well-being; regenerate consciousness to experience ourselves as part of Gaia, nature as kin. The course will examine the effect on our psyche of the built environment compared with natural environments. How do I interact with the particular places I inhabit? How am I personally affected by this environment? We will compare the psycho-social effects of being in a square room, a high-rise building and a concrete street, with that of experiencing a forest and being by the ocean. To what extent do we become different individuals in different environments? The course will involve a bi-weekly class to explore the connections between the literature and our own environmental psychology; two weekend field trips, one to the mountains and one to the sea. There will also be exercises to be undertaken in the suburban and urban environment.
Assessment Written (4000 words): 50%
* Seminars and exercises: 50%
(to be confirmed)
Prescribed texts
Chatwin B The songlines Pan Books, 1988
Recommended texts
Roszak T The voice of the earth Simon and Schuster, 1992
Suzuki D and Knudtson P Wisdom of our elders Allen and Unwin, 1992
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