This book seeks to confront an apparent contradiction: that while we are constantly attending to environmental issues, we seem to be woefully out of touch with nature. The goal of Ecopsychology, Phenomenology and the Environment is to foster an enhanced awareness of nature that can lead us to new ways of relating to the environment, ultimately yielding more sustainable patterns of living. This volume is different from other books in the rapidly growing field of ecopsychology in its emphasis on phenomenological approaches, building on the work of phenomenological psychologists such as Maurice Merleau-Ponty. This focus on phenomenological methodologies for articulating our direct experience of nature serves as a critical complement to the usual methodologies of environmental and conservation psychologists, who have emphasized quantitative research. Moreover, Ecopsychology, Phenomenology and the Environment is distinctive insofar as chapters by phenomenologically-sophisticated ecopsychologists are complemented by chapters written by phenomenological researchers of environmental issues with backgrounds in philosophy and geology, providing a breadth and depth of perspective not found in other works written exclusively by psychologists.

Explores environmental issues through wilderness retreats, naturalist's forest walks and organic gardening

Introduction.- Intimacy, Otherness, and Alienation: The Intertwining of Nature and Consciousness.- Mountain Reflections: Reverence for the Consciousness of Nature.- Diamond in the Rough: An Exploration of Aliveness and Transformation in Wilderness.- Intimate Responsivity As Our Shared Essence-Calling-Path-Fruition: Eco(psycho)logical Ethics Via Zen Buddhist Phenomenology.- The Naturalist¿s Presence: Notes Toward a Relational Phenomenology of Attention and Meaning.- Nomadic Dimensions of Education with the Earth-in-Mind.- A Phenomenology of Intimate Relating and Identification with the Whole(And the Tale of the Woefully Misguided Aspirations of the Common Land Barnacle).- The Who of Environmental Ethics: Phenomenology and the Moral Self.- Elemental Imagination: Deconstructive Phenomenology and the Sense of Environmental Ethics.- Geologic Soul: An Ethic of Underworld Force.- Climate Chaos, Eco-Psychology, and the Maturing Human Being.- Apocalyptic Imagination and the Silence of the Elements.- Eros of Erosion: The Shaping of an Archetypal Geology.- The Invisibility of Nature: Garbage, Play-Forts and the Deterritorialization of Urban Nature Spaces.- Lorecasting the Weather: Unhumanizing Phenomenology for Decoding the Language of Earth.