Categories Archives: The Problem: Civilization » Alienation & Mental Health

Alienation & Mental Health

Fight Back: An Ecopsychological Understanding of Depression

Deep Green Resistance News Service 10 Comments
One human language is much too small to convey the ever unfolding meanings at play in the world.      by Will Falk / Deep Green Resistance I am an environmental activist. I have depression. To be an activist with depression places me squarely in an irreconcilable dilemma: The destruction of the natural world creates … Continue reading Fight Back: An Ecopsychological Understanding of Depression →
Alienation & Mental Health, Building Alternatives

An Economy of Meaning – or Bust

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     by John Boik, PhD / Local Futures It’s not often that a scientist gets to use the words love, creativity, and wisdom in a paper, especially when writing about economics. Perhaps that’s because economics, the dismal science, is obsessed with dismal systems – make that abysmal systems, relative to need. To be clear, I’m not … Continue reading An Economy of Meaning – or Bust →
Alienation & Mental Health, Human Supremacy, Listening to the Land

Waiting For Death: Ecopsychology as Human Supremacism

Deep Green Resistance News Service 6 Comments
So many indigenous people have told me that the levels of sustainability their traditional cultures achieved prior to the arrival of colonizers were based on lessons learned from non-humans. Implicit in these lessons is the truth that humans depend on non-humans. This dependence is not limited to the air we breathe, the water we drink, or the food we eat. This dependence sinks into our very souls. ... Continue reading →
Alienation & Mental Health

The Destruction of Experience: How Ecopsychology Has Failed

Deep Green Resistance News Service 11 Comments
I do not remember the first time I saw my mother’s face, though I know she remembers the first time she saw mine. It was the very beginning of my life, my birth. I do not remember the first time I saw my mother’s face, but, I do remember the first time I saw my mother’s face at what would have been the end of my life after I tried to kill myself.

This is what I’m thinking about as I hold my fifteen-month-old baby nephew Thomas while he falls asleep. ... Continue reading →

Alienation & Mental Health

Positive Thinking in a Dark Age

Deep Green Resistance News Service 1 Comment
I recall a Buddhist parable involving a stick that appears from a distance to be a snake, causing fear to rise in the perceiver. As the perception shifts upon closer examination, the fear subsides and the relieved hiker continues down the path. Understanding and awareness have a lot to do with how we feel and how we act. As hosts to the dominant cultural mindset (our collective understanding of who we are in the universe), our minds play a critical part in both perpetuating our dominant way of life and also in shifting away from it. ... Continue reading →
Alienation & Mental Health, Listening to the Land

Layla and the Owl’s Eyes: Ecopsychology and Being Human

Deep Green Resistance News Service 2 Comments
Recently walking up Main Street in Park City, Utah, I saw in the Visitor’s Center doorway what looked like a man holding a great-horned owl surrounded by children. As his voice carried across the street, I heard the man explain that this owl had been found with an injured wing after being struck by a car. I love owls. I love the haunting sound of their hoots in the darkest hours before dawn. I love the joy that accompanies the lucky sight of a splash of brown feathers against newly-fallen snow when an owl makes the rare decision to reveal herself in winter daylight. I love how owls’ mysterious nature have made them omens in so many cultures’ imaginations. So, when I saw what I thought was a great-horned owl, I automatically crossed the street with a feeling of anticipation. ... Continue reading →
Alienation & Mental Health, Listening to the Land

Listening to The Land Saves My Life

Deep Green Resistance News Service 4 Comments
     by Will Falk / Deep Green Resistance This first appeared on Jason Howell’s Howlarium. Special thanks to Jason for his graphics.  From Jason: “Where it’s not uncommon for contemporary writers to root their work in mining—lived experience, the depth of the canon, the cultural moment, whatever—Will Falk, poet, lawyer, and environmental activist from Park … Continue reading Listening to The Land Saves My Life →
Alienation & Mental Health

Optimism and the Apocalypse

Deep Green Resistance News Service 14 Comments
How our cognitive defence mechanisms are condemning us to death By Sebastien Carew-Reid / Deep Green Resistance Australia Most rational people with even a basic understanding of the scientific process will acknowledge that something is seriously wrong. From climate change and the mass extinction of species, to factory farming and the global violations of human … Continue reading Optimism and the Apocalypse →
Alienation & Mental Health

Direct Action Journal: The Wound of Perpetual Guilt

Deep Green Resistance News Service 3 Comments
By Will Falk / Deep Green Resistance If fear is the mind killer, guilt is the heart killer. Experiencing guilt creates a wound. The wound is healed when the behavior producing the guilt is rectified. The scar that forms over the wound serves as a reminder to guide future behavior. Living in a state of … Continue reading Direct Action Journal: The Wound of Perpetual Guilt →
Alienation & Mental Health

Direct Action Journal: Overcoming Fear

Deep Green Resistance News Service 2 Comments
By Will Falk / Deep Green Resistance Another episode with anxiety knocks me to my bedroom floor. Rational thought forsakes me. My body shakes with the strangled sobs of a man ashamed of his tears. Alicia bends over me. Her dark brown eyes – normally calm with the consistent rationality characterizing her personality  – are … Continue reading Direct Action Journal: Overcoming Fear →