Dancing at the end of the world? Psychoanalysis, climate change and joy.

This paper attempts to join the dots between psychoanalytic and post-psychoanalytic perspectives in relation to climate change and the ecological crisis and to begin a discussion on the role of joy in sustaining ourselves in the face of the global catastrophe. There is a vital expanding psychoanalytic literature addressing itself to the environmental crisis but a striking absence on joy and what stands in its way. This paper explores what psychoanalysis has to offer in the context of planetary emergency and also asks psychoanalysis to look beyond itself and reimagine what it can be. Joy involves a simultaneous affirmation of both our uniqueness and our togetherness, not only as humans but with all forms of life and the web of life itself. If we were to allow ourselves to actually enjoy our lives, we just might fight harder against our extinction.

Cet article tente d'établir une passerelle entre les perspectives psychanalytiques et post-psychanalytiques concernant le changement climatique et la crise écologique, et de lancer une discussion sur le rôle de la joie pour nous soutenir face à la perspective d'une catastrophe globale. Pendant que des régions entières sont soit en train de brûler soit en train de s'enfoncer dans les eaux, nous nous trouvons dans une faillite psychosociale généralisée, une folie à l'intérieur de laquelle il devient de plus en plus difficile de penser, et encore plus d'agir, alors même que notre survie en dépend. La psyché a besoin de guérison à tous les niveaux. La joie comprend l'affirmation simultanée de notre singularité et de notre lien à l'autre, pas seulement en tant qu'humains mais avec toutes les formes de vie et avec le tissu même de la vie. Je soutiens que nous devons développer une approche psychanalytique plus profonde de la joie et découvrir ce qui lui fait obstacle. Si nous nous permettions de vraiment savourer notre vie, peut-être que nous lutterions plus fort contre notre extinction.

El presente trabajo intenta integrar las perspectivas psicoanalítica y pos-psicoanalítica con relación al cambio climático y a la crisis ecológica, y comenzar una discusión sobre la función del júbilo para sostenernos a nosotros mismos frente a la catástrofe global. A medida que regiones enteras del planeta arden en fuego o se hunden en el océano, nos encontramos a nosotros mismos en una desintegración psicosocial generalizada, una locura dentro de la cual es cada vez más difícil pensar, y mucho menos actuar, aun cuando nuestra supervivencia de ello dependa. La psique necesita sanarse a todos los niveles. El júbilo conlleva una afirmación simultánea tanto de nuestra singularidad como de nuestro sentimiento de unidad con otros, no solamente humanos, sino con todas las formas vivientes y con la trama de la vida misma. Planteo la necesidad de desarrollar un abordaje psicoanalítico más profundo en torno al júbilo y descubrir aquello que se interpone en el camino. Si pudiésemos permitirnos a nosotros mismos disfrutar de nuestras vidas, podríamos luchar con más fuerza contra nuestra extinción.

The psychology of climate anxiety.

This paper focuses on climate anxiety and its role in the psychology of climate change, compared with responses to the COVID-19 global pandemic. Four psychological hypotheses for why we do not act on climate change will be reviewed, and the role of anxiety for each, as well as potential solutions. Different types of climate anxiety both inside and outside the clinic will be explored, along with associated defence mechanisms and treatment.

Minding the ecological body: neuropsychoanalysis and ecopsychoanalysis.

Neuropsychoanalysis explores experimentally and theoretically the philosophically ancient discussion of the relation of mind and body, and seems well placed to overcome the problem of a "mindless" neuroscience and a "brainless" psychology and psychotherapy, especially when combined with a greater awareness that the body itself, not only the brain, provides the material substrate for the emergent phenomenon we call mind. However, the mind-brain-body is itself situated within a complex ecological world, interacting with other mind-brain-bodies and the "non-human environment." This occurs both synchronically and diachronically as the organism and its environment (living and non-living) interact in highly complex often non-linear ways. Psychoanalysis can do much to help unmask the anxieties, deficits, conflicts, phantasies, and defenses crucial in understanding the human dimension of the ecological crisis. Yet, psychoanalysis still largely remains not only a "psychology without biology," which neuropsychoanalysis seeks to remedy, but also a "psychology without ecology." Ecopsychoanalysis (Dodds, 2011b; Dodds and Jordan, 2012) is a new transdisciplinary approach drawing on a range of fields such as psychoanalysis, psychology, ecology, philosophy, science, complexity theory, esthetics, and the humanities. It attempts to play with what each approach has to offer in the sense of a heterogeneous assemblage of ideas and processes, mirroring the interlocking complexity, chaos, and turbulence of nature itself. By emphasizing the way the mind-brain-body studied by neuropsychoanalysis is embedded in wider social and ecological networks, ecopsychoanalysis can help open up the relevance of neuropsychoanalysis to wider fields of study, including those who are concerned with what Wilson (2003) called "the future of life."