By Steven Gimbel, Ph.D., Gettysburg CollegeEcopsychology explains that humans can enhance their psychological and physical well-being through respecting their connection with nature. (Image: asife/Shutterstock)
Humans are altruistic because caring for the group they lived in was an efficient way of surviving. Out of the 2,50,000 years that humans have been around, they have lived 2,38,000 years of it in nature, as a part of its interconnected network.
Ecologists see evolution as a foundational principle in a systemic sense. Combining this approach with evolutionary psychology has created a new branch called ecopsychology.
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Ecopsychologists believe that the human brain did evolve into what it is today, but it is not centered on a selfish notion of survival. Humans do not want to pass on their genetic code at any cost because the brain evolved as part of an ecosystem and the complex web of interconnected species in nature.
Why do we feel so good when we are in nature? Ecopsychologists explain that it is due to the human mind inherited from our ancestors. What we see and feel is a connectedness to the universe and nature. No wonder why people escape from their homes in the cities to nature to get restored and rejuvenated.
The sounds of nature are also soothing, even if the person has never been in the source of the sounds in reality. Theodore Rozsaks famous book, calledThe Voice of the Earth, is built around the same notion.
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The connection to nature does not mean a natural love of hiking and camping. Rather, it means our neural system is a part of a universal neural system, where hurting nature would be reflected back on us. The ecological damage around us affects us on a cognitive level.
Ecopsychologists argue that a deeper pre-cognitive effect results from damaging the environment. Physical harms, such as asthma and cancer, are results of the harm to nature, just like the psychological ones, such as lower mental stability.
The idea was the foundation of the 1982 filmKoyaanisquatsi: Life out of Balanceby Godfrey Reggio and Ron Fricke. The film is an aesthetic realization of the ecopsychology beliefs, with not even a single word and only interspersed landscapes and time-lapse footage of both natural and human-made surroundings.
What is the difference between ecopsychology and evolutionary psychology in practice? It seems like they both have the same foundation.
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The 1968 classic,Planet of the Apes,is a good example of evolutionary psychology. Three astronauts crash land on a planet 2000 years after a long space voyage in deep hibernation. The planet hosts different kinds of apes, including humans. However, it is the gorillas that have evolved to have language, culture, religion, and government.
Only one of the astronauts survives what they go through, and the gorillas are surprised by his capability of speech and complex thought. The apes believe in a Great Chain of Being where humans are lower than them.
However, the human astronaut began to prove everything wrong, and the apes did not want the societys beliefs to rattle. They have even taken a region of the planet that holds provocative remains of an old human culture and placed it off-limits, even to the scientists. They punish those who would hypothesize different worldviews and reserve even harsher sanctions for those who produce empirical evidence.
George Taylor, the astronaut, eventually manages to escape. He then finds out the planet 2000 years away from Earth is, in fact, Earth itself in 2000 years after a thermonuclear war. Almost all humans are dead, and the apes reign. The entire film is based on the notion that psychological aspects are features of evolution.
Humans in the movie need to evolve into what their pre-Stone Age ancestors were like to survive. In the meantime, apes find the opportunity to develop complex thinking and psychology.
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In another movie, Avatar, humans also travel to another planet. This time, they want to take resources and destroy the network of nature there. The inhabitants of the new planet, Pandora, are called Navi and have kept their deep connection to their home planet, or mother goddess Eywa. In the end, the human hero, Jake Sully, connects to the natural system of Pandora and defeats humans with human violence. He adopts their ecopsychological viewpoint to do so.
Ecopsychology believes that peoples physical and psychological health are bound to nature. If we hurt the environment, we hurt us.
Ecopsychology believes that people are a part of nature and should live as part of it to be healthy and happy.
Avatar was a modern movie based on ecopsychology. It showed how humans are a part of the network of nature and how they are bonded with it.
Ecopsychology believes in a deep pre-cognitive effect that damaging the environment has on humans. We harm ourselves when we harm the Earth, and this harm is inflicted both physically and psychologically.
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The Difference between Ecopsychology and Evolutionary Psychology - The Great Courses Daily News
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