Psychology of Sustainability: Embodying cyclic environmental processes

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This paper is a contribution to reflection on viable strategies for sustainable development on the occasion of the
UN World Summit on Sustainable Development (Johannesburg, 2002)

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Introduction

The term 'psychology of sustainability' seems to have been launched as the title of a paper by Alice Jones (1996) although described in 1995 by her as follows:

I call it loosely "the psychology of sustainability", and it has to do with the very *personal*, *individual*, and sometimes *conflicting* experience of talking the talk of sustainability and then trying to walk the walk. My take on this is that we *can't* have a meaningful discussion about a national sustainability policy, or even a community sustainability policy without *explicitly* considering the very personal nature of what is implied. [more]

According to Giuseppe Carrus and Mirilia Bonnes (2002):

Although the concept of sustainable development has been criticized for being too vague, anyway there is a considerable agreement among different scientific fields that it should remain the main aim to be pursued in the management of natural and human resources. Now sustainability is a trans-disciplinary concept which calls into question issues that are central in several social and human sciences and disciplines, ranging from economics, legal sciences, philosophy, psychology: within social and environmental psychology, in particular, some authors have recently proposed the term "psychology of sustainability" or "new ecological psychology" (Bonnes and Bonaiuto, 2001). These terms identify those theoretical and empirical contribution aiming at better understanding the psychological processes involved in the development of a positive environmental awareness and concern in people's use of natural resources. A considerable effort in the direction of supporting the above-mentioned "integrated perspective" in ecological science, as well the concept of sustainable development, particularly for what it concerns the institution and management of natural protected areas, came also from the UNESCO Program on Man and Biosphere (MAB)...

Throughout the past decade, there has been increasing interest in eco-psychology, notably through the creation of an Ecopsychology Institute and the availability of ecopsychological resources on the web [more]. But it is interesting that the emphasis is to a significant degree on the personal implications: the skillful application of ecological insight to the practice of psychotherapy; the study of our emotional bond with the Earth; the search for an environmentally-based standard of mental health; and re-defining "sanity" as if the whole world mattered. It is perhaps the latter focus that is closest to the preoccupation of this paper with the psychology of sustainability.

A related pattern of significance is associated with 'psychological sustainability', as in the case of Esalen's proposed approach to prosperity:

The word prosperous derives from the Latin pro plus the root of sperare, "to hope." Today, with the rest of the world, we face dangerous challenges and intriguing possibilities. At best, with the help of the larger Esalen community, we hope over the next several years to create a world model of physical and psychological sustainability, of vision without dogma, adding up to a new way of understanding an old but most important word: prosperity. [more]

The focus below is to follow Alice Jones with respect to the 'very personal nature of what is implied'. However the emphasis here is less on adopting personal behaviours consistent with sustainable environmental programmes and more on understanding how any ability to act in the environment in a sustainable manner is intimately dependent on the ability to act in a sustainable manner with respect to one's own internal psychological environment. Indeed it is argued that unless experiential understanding of one's psychological environment consciously embodies analogous cyclic patterns and processes, it is unlikely that social behaviours with respect to the environment will themselves be sustainable -- however strong the declarations of intent or the initial commitment to sustainable patterns of action.

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