This PowerPoint presentation explores the causes of ecological crises from a range of social and psychological perspectives. It compares these ways of understanding our ecological problems with the ones currently used in environmental education. Solutions for an integrated approach to positive ecological change are suggested. Dr Werner Sattmann-Frese is a psychotherapist, social ecologist, and senior lecturer at the Jansen Newman Institute (Think Education Group) in Sydney.

1. Learning for Sustainable Living
Psychological Perspectives of
Ecological Crises
Werner Sattmann-Frese PhD
February 2011

2. I am currently working as a Senior
Lecturer and Program Co-Manager at the
Jansen Newman Institute – Think
Education Group in Sydney.
To share your feedback, please contact
me at slse@bigpond.net.au

3. The need for a paradigm change
“The historical mission of our time is to
reinvent the human - at the species
level, with critical reflection, within the
community of life systems, in a timedevelopmental context, by means of
story and shared dream experience.”
Thomas Berry

4. A Paradigm is really a paradigm
“A scientific account of the world is no
more and no less than an explanation
proffered at a particular place and time
that is judged by a particular community of
researchers to be true” (Oelschlaeger,
1995, p. 4).

5. Issues affecting the health and well-being of the
web of life

6. Social and ecological crises
Our present environmental crises are coarising together with many other
unsustainable practices and systems,
such as our psychosomatically illiterate
medical system, from a crisis of the
egocentric consciousness that has
become the normal self-experience in
western societies.

7. Causes of ecological crises
Our views on causes of our ecological crises and our
approaches to change are emotionally and socially
constructed.
Useful approaches to making sense of our crises and
creating positive change include:
o Behaviourist psychology views
o Cognitive psychology views
o Depth psychology views
o Social psychology views
o Somatics and ecospirituality views
o Technological approaches to change
o Management approaches to change

8. Technological approaches to change
o People adhering to technological approaches to
o
change commonly believe that technological
solutions and innovations will suffice to solve our
ecological (environmental and social) problems.
Technological approaches are important but not
the whole story.

9. Technological approaches to change
Quick fixes are sometimes appropriate because
they work sufficiently well and/or buy time to design
longer-term solutions.
Opposition to fundamental solutions stems from
four sources that must be dealt with: lack of
understanding of ecological mechanisms, failure to
recognize the gravity of the problem, vested
interests, and absence of institutions to address
public goods and intergenerational choices
effectively
(http://www.efdinitiative.org/research/publications/pu
blications-repository/quick-fixes-for-environmentalproblems-part-oft-he-solution-or-part-of-theproblem).

10. Management approaches to change
Environmental management is the process by
which environmental health is regulated. It does
not involve managing the environment itself, but it
is the process of taking steps and behaviors to
have a positive effect on the environment.
Environmental management involves the wise use
of activity and resources to have an impact on the
world.
http://www.wisegeek.com/what-is-environmentalmanagement.htm

11. Limitations of the environmental
management approach
Environmental management systems operate on
the assumption that it is possible to create a
sustainable society through clever management
of resources, production processes, and
consumption behaviours.
Such a purely rational approach to change is
consistently sabotaged by psychological
scenarios that undermine the political will needed
to teach or enforce more sustainable behaviours.

12. A need for new progress indicators
For the last century we have pursued increased
well-being and quality of life through more and more
economic growth, as measured by the Gross
Domestic Product (GDP) - the headline indicator of
progress.
But the side-effects of economic growth cause many
key aspects of ecological deterioration. GDP takes
no account of increasing inequality, pollution, or
damage to people's health and the environment.

13. Progress indicators (continued)
“It treats crime, divorce and other elements of social
breakdown as economic gains. This current model of
'progress' is cheating on ourselves, other countries
and future generations.
We need to redefine progress, and replace GDP with
new indicators of progress, which measure how our
national policies truly deliver a better quality of life for
all”.
http://www.foe.co.uk/community/tools/isew/replace.ht
ml

14. Addressing institutional failures
“We live in a time of massive institutional failure,
collectively creating results that nobody wants.
Climate change. AIDS. Hunger. Poverty. Violence.
Destruction of communities, nature, life – the
foundations of our social, economic, ecological, and
spiritual well-being”.
C. Otto Scharmer: Addressing the blindspot of our
time: an executive summary of the new book by Otto
Scharmer, Theory U: Leading from the Future as it
Emerges

15. Ecological philosophy
Ecological philosophy is
concerned with our ways of
perceiving the relationships
between humans and the
other-than-human
environment. It is
particularly concerned with
definitions of the notion of
environment and the
question as to whether it is
justified to allocate an
elevated position to
humans.

16. Behaviourist psychology:
This approach to environmental change is based
on the assumption that our behaviours are
maladapted to the requirements of the
environment in which we live. People at this level
of eco-consciousness are likely to:
accept the authority of specialists who claim to
have identified certain behaviours as
inappropriate and unsustainable
agree to being persuaded or coerced into
adopting more sustainable behaviour, and
respond positively to behaviourist interventions
such as incentives and disincentives.

17. Cognitive psychology:
Environmental education and education for
sustainable development are based on the
assumption that sustainable development and
sustainability can be achieved by:
changing people’s behaviours through providing
knowledge and insight into ecological issues
teaching people to use practices such as
recycling and the wise use of resources
applying a socially reformist approach to
ecological change that does not question the
mainstays of the current paradigm, such as
economic growth.

18. Social psychology
The social psychology approach to environmental
crises explores the relationship dynamics that leads to
ecological deterioration. These include in particular:
the need to ‘impress the Joneses’ through the new
car and the extension to the house
the dynamics that stop people, communities, or
whole countries from being the first ones to
implement environmental legislation (“If we
introduce the Emissions Trading Scheme, we will be
unfairly disadvantaged in the international market
place”).

19. Depth psychology:
Depth psychology is concerned with four profound
human needs: the needs for emotional integrity,
happiness, freedom, and belonging. It recognises that
many people experience severe frustrations because
these core needs are often neither met during their
childhood nor during their adult lives.
Many of us unconsciously satisfy these human needs
then symbolically by employing mechanisms such as
addictive compensatory consumption (‘retail therapy’).
These practices prevent us from finding healing and
inner peace and keep our ecologically unsustainable
economies going.

20. Somatics and ecospirituality:
Somatics and ecospirituality are concerned with
creating a form of self-experience that is often also
called ecstasy, enlightenment, satori, or grace (Watts,
1961; Moore, 1996). It is based on our ability to
experience ourselves as interconnected and
energetically ‘streaming beings’ (Boadella, 1987).
These knowledge disciplines conceptualise that many
key aspects of our ecological crises are based on our
difficulty with experiencing an embodied sense of
person-planet unity.
This lack of unity experiences are usually the result of
early developmental traumas, but also of strong
emotional conflicts and fears caused by exploitation in
our present lives.

21. Mental health and sustainable living
Environmental sustainability is intrinsically
interconnected with physical and mental
health.
Holistic thinking suggests that mental and
physical health are dependent on our ability to
lead physio-emotionally, psychosocially, and
environmentally sustainable lives.
These three notions are explained in the
following slides:

22. Physio-emotional sustainability
The concept of physio-emotional sustainability can
be employed to denote our ability to have a
friendly and nurturing relationship with our bodies,
to understand their signals, to experience pleasure
through them, and to cope with life’s demands
without resorting to compensatory, and often
destructive, behaviour such as consumerism
(Sattmann-Frese & Hill, Learning for Sustainable
Living, 2008).

23. Physio-emotional sustainability denotes our
ability to:
understand and flow with our natural body needs
understand the signals of our body and use them
as important guides and mechanisms of selfregulation
understand the meaning and purpose of our
physical illnesses, and
experience a high degree of body-mind unity and
to cope with life’s demands without having to
consume excessive food, alcohol, nicotine and
other drugs.

24. Psychosocial sustainability
The term ‘psychosocial sustainability’ can be
employed to describe the emotional and
structural features and mechanisms governing
the relationships between human beings.
Relationships are psychosocially sustainable
when they provide support, nurturing, emotional
holding, and emotional and spiritual growth for
everyone involved (Shem and Surrey, 1998; Hill,
Wilson and Watson, 2004).

25. Psychosocial (relational) sustainability
denotes our ability to:
identify conflicts with other people and to find creative
solutions for them
identify with our feelings and find adequate
expressions for them in our relationships
maintain and enjoy nurturing relationships and
connections with other people
respect social boundaries and appreciate ‘otherness’,
and
enjoy social contacts without needing substances to
facilitate these contacts or to provide stimulation.

26. Environmental sustainability (1)
There is a growing agreement that our society will be
environmentally sustainable when we will:
implement our present technological
possibilities to produce high-quality goods that
have a long lifespan and can be easily
repaired and serviced
• acknowledge the planet’s finite resources and
the necessity to move from non-renewable to
renewable resources, and
• observe limitations imposed by the carrying
capacity of this planet.

27. Environmental sustainability denotes our
ability to:
•
•
•
experience a strong sense of self without having to
harm the environment through compensatory selfsupport mechanisms, (e.g. consuming non-essential
goods or holding racist or anthropocentric values)
understand the links and analogies between personal,
psychosocial, and ecological sustainability, and to
maintain a caring interest for the non-human beings on
this planet, a need to preserve the Earth’s resources,
and to keep air, water and soil clean for the benefit of
all beings, in present and in future.

28. Three “kinds of changes”
We may actually have to address three
interrelated levels of change:
• Personal change, growth, and
•
•
healing
Social change
Environmental change

29. Lifestyles of health and sustainability
•
Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability
(LOHAS) describes an estimated
$209 billion U.S. marketplace for
goods and services focused on
health, the environment, social
justice, personal development and
sustainable living
(http://www.lohas.com/about.html).

30. Aspects of LOHAS
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Personal Health
Natural lifestyles
Green building
Alternative
transportation
Eco-tourism
Alternative energy
http://www.lohas.com/
about.html

31. Additional aspects of LOHAS
•
•
•
•
Personal downshifting
The ‘Slow Movement’
Sharing resources to downsize the economy
Forming co-ops

32. What are downshifters?
•
•
Downshifters are people who adopt longterm voluntary simplicity in their life.
They accept less money through fewer
hours worked in order to have time for
the important things in life. Downshifters
also place emphasis on consuming less
in order to reduce their ecological
footprint
(http://www.slowmovement.com/downshifting.php).

33. References
o Boadella, D 1987, Lifestreams, Routledge &
o
o
Kegan Paul, New York.
Fromm, E 1955, The Sane Society, Fawcett
World Library, New York.
Hill, SB Wilson, S & Watson, K 2004, ‘Learning
Ecology: a New Approach to Learning and
Transforming Ecological Consciousness:
Experiences from Social Ecology in Australia’, in
EV O'Sullivan & M Taylor (eds.) Learning toward
an Ecological Consciousness: Selected
Transformative Practices, Palgrave Macmillan,
New York, pp. 47–64.

34. References (2)
•
•
•
•
Moore, T 1996, Re-enchantment of Everyday Life,
Hodder & Stoughton, Rydalmere, NSW, Australia.
Sattmann-Frese, WS & Hill, SB 2008, Learning for
Sustainable Living: Psychology of Ecological
Transformation, Lulu.Com, Morrisville, USA.
Shem, S & Surrey, J 1998, We Have to Talk:
Healing Dialogues between Women and Men,
Basic Books, New York.
Watts, A 1961, Psychotherapy East and West,
Ballantyne, New York.

35. Thank you for your attention!