The Global Sustainable Development department recently welcomed Dr Giovanni Bettini to present his research on ‘eco-anxiety’ and how it can be addressed collectively. The talk was organised following feedback from our current Global Sustainable Development Undergraduate SSLC, who had requested more academic discussions around the mental health implications and psychological impact of climate change.

The talk was presented by Dr Giovanni Bettini, a Senior Lecturer at Lancaster Environment Centre (University of Lancaster) and researcher of human migration in the face of climate and environmental change, the Anthropocene and the evolution of ‘green’ thought and movements, and digital environmental governance.

In his paper, Dr Bettini highlighted how the intense emotional distress caused by global warming is now widespread across society, impacting not just consumer choices and activism but appearing as a topic of discussion in personal therapy appointments. However, current ‘eco-psychology’ efforts aiming to address this growing anxiety have been problematic, and Dr Bettini argues why trying to ‘psychologise’ this source of distress can have severe implications on both the individual and society.

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.