Following discussion among the Global Sustainable Development Undergraduate SSLC, this talk has been organised as part of a series to promote conversations and reflections on eco-anxiety. For any questions on this series, please contact Dr Gioia Panzarella (GSD Director of Student Experience).

This talk has been funded by the School for Cross-faculty Studies as part of the Nurturing Hope Speaker Series.

Abstract

While until recently the spectre of global warming haunted only a few (scientists and activists), the climate emergency has now become a cause of intense emotional distress for many – not only nudging their consumer choices and at times taking them to the streets, but also agitating their dreams and popping up in their therapy/analysis.

While the distress experienced by many is as such unquestionable, it is less clear how to understand this new state and status of climate change, and how to address it collectively. This paper reflects on how mainstream ‘eco-psychology’ has tried making sense of the growing distress and anxiety linked to climate change. Noting the centrality of imaginary relations and the ego in many of the ‘recipes’ proposed, the paper discussed the risks of a ‘psychologization’ of such distress, which goes hand in hand with forms of ‘depoliticization by pathologisation’ that inhibit transformative action able to address the contradictions climate change stems from and entails.

Speaker

Dr Giovanni Bettini

Dr Bettini is a Senior Lecturer at the Lancaster Environment Centre (Lancaster University) working at the intersection of Political Geography, Environmental Humanities, Critical Development Studies and Political Theory.