Nov 29 2007
Nature and Madness
Nature and Madness is the provocative title of a 1982 book by Paul Shepard, referred to by some as the “godfather of ecopsychology.” The introduction begins like this:
My question is: why do men persist in destroying their habitat? I have, at times, believed the answer was a lack of information, faulty technique, or insensibility….At mid twentieth century there was a widely shared feeling that we only needed to bring businessmen, cab drivers, housewives, and politicians together with the right mix of oceanographers, soils experts, or foresters in order to set things right.
In time, even with the attention of the media and a windfall of synthesizers, popularizers, gurus of ecophilosophy, and other champions of ecology, in spite of some new laws and indications that environmentalism is taking its place as a new turtle on the political log, nothing much has changed. (Paul Shepard, Nature and Madness, p. 1)
I just love the part about “the new turtle on the political log.” I wonder if, 25 years down the line, Shepard would still have the same conclusion, with climate change on the front page and governments voted out over global warming (as recently happened in Australia). My sense is that he probably would still be saying “nothing much has changed.”
The book is tough sledding, even for someone with a decent education and a certain tolerance for ambiguity. As near as I can tell, though, Shepard’s main thesis applies even more today than it did in 1982. He traces the development of (Western, European) civilzation by looking at four major evolutionary changes:
- Hunter-gather societies transition to villages and farms
- The Judaeo-Christian world view emerges in the dry landscapes of the eastern Mediterranean
- Puritans search for victory over the messy physicalities of procreation and decay during the Protestant Reformation
- Crowded cities become the norm, and industrial economies emerge
The thoughtful person, looking at this list, can sort of guess where he’s going with it. Each stage along the way further distanced us from early exposure to the Otherness of animals, plants, and the natural world. From the psychological point of view, Shepard says, a person thus emerges into adolescence without the grounding, the perspective, the intuitive sense of connection provided by growing up in close contact with the wonder and brutality of nature. So it should be no surprise, he says, that we seek to destroy the very thing we have been so cruelly denied.
There’s so much more to say here, but I need to take this book back to the library or they’re going to come and put a lien on my house. Basically what I’m getting from Shepard at this point is: modern society’s behavior can all be boiled down to a case of arrested development. Those somber men in suits, our supposed leaders, who take without giving and then act like they’ve done us a big favor? Totally stuck at a pre-adolescent stage of development.
Well, that certainly explains a lot, doesn’t it? More on this soon.