Original Article

Psychoanalysis, culture, society and our biotic relations: Introducing an ongoing theme on environment and sustainability
Renee Lertzman
Portland State University, 1623 SE Harrison Street, Portland, Oregon 97214, USA.

Abstract This editorial introduces a new, ongoing theme-journal feature on

environment and sustainability. Psychoanalysis, Culture & Society (2010) 15, 113116. doi:10.1057/pcs.2010.10 Keywords: environment; sustainability; analytic attitude; psychoanalysis; nature; climate change

In 1992, the Freud Museum in London hosted an event called Ecological Madness. On this occasion, several eminent psychoanalytic thinkers gathered in dialogue with environmental activists, primarily from the Green Party. As evidenced by the proceedings published in the British Journal of Psychotherapy, there was plenty to talk about (Ward, 1993). It seems that the psychoanalytic and environmental sectors, while both concerned with reparation, may go about defining it quite differently for example, reparation can refer more broadly to repairing a degraded site or ecological trespass or to a mode for mobilizing concern in the face of our own destructive and aggressive capacities. Further, the issue of guilt, a hot topic in both environmental advocacy and psychoanalysis, can be seen as either a barrier for engagement (leading to denial and other defenses), as a necessary spur for action, or as a normal mode of development as we face our own capacities. As Ivan Ward, the convener, delicately noted, an analytic attitude has a great deal to offer those working in the environmental sector, specifically in the emphasis on relations between what is conscious and unconscious and such an attitude does not preclude a politics of agency or action. While this may seem

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obvious at first glance, Ward was inviting a radical rethinking of how environmental engagement, activism, and reparation are conceptualized; rather than focusing first on changing people in the service of environmental reparation, an analytic perspective endeavors to understand and interrogate what may mobilize certain practices and behaviors in the service of change. Despite this prescient event, the topic of the environment and ecological sustainability never quite made it on the radar of contemporary psychoanalytic theory and discourse. With the notable exceptions of Searles (1960, 1972), Segal (1995), Hillman and Ventura (1993), Mishan (1996) and a few others, psychoanalytic thought has been surprisingly silent on the topic of environmental degradation, the destruction of natural resources and the ways in which humans persistently override the ecological, biotic boundaries of our planet. Now, almost 20 years later, psychoanalytic thinkers are starting finally to pay attention to environmental topics. Perhaps we have Al Gores An Inconvenient Truth to thank for that; regardless of the reasons, it is a topic we can no longer afford to ignore. Signs of this shift are evidenced by several new initiatives and projects: the Centre for Psycho-Social Studies at the University of West of Englands two recent conferences, Facing Climate Change in 2009 and INSIDE OUT: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on our Environmental Crisis in 2010; a web seminar on psychoanalysis and the environment convened in the Spring 2010 by the International Association for Relational Psychoanalysis and Psychotherapy; and several new and exciting research projects emerging at the interface of psychoanalytic research, environmental concerns and broader socio-political contexts (eg, Randall, 2005, 2009; Bodnar, 2008; Lertzman, 2008, 2010; Hoggett, 2009; Weintrobe, 2009). As psychoanalytic researchers, we have an abundance of theoretical, clinical and conceptual resources to help us address the increasingly urgent ecological threats we are collectively facing. Generally, there is a concern for unconscious processes, most notably strategies engaged to manage anxieties and distressing experiences. Kleinian and Bionian perspectives might focus on movement or vacillations between the paranoid-schizoid position and the depressive position (eg, Segal, 1973), and speak directly to the capacity for splitting, both internal splitting and compartmentalizing including splitting off awareness of our dependence on earth systems (Mishan, 1996). This capacity for dissociation is related to issues of vulnerability and anxiety, evoked in dependency contexts and exemplified by our relationship with nature and the ecological systems we need to survive (Searles, 1960). How this relationship is negotiated can be seen in fantasies of omnipotence, patterns of consumption as spurious satisfactions (Mishan, 1996, p. 62) or substitutes (Randall, 2005), and compulsive forms of activism (Zizek, 1992). More recently, the links between greed, consumption and climate change are being addressed (eg, Weintrobe, 2009), as well as issues of grief and loss in the face of the implications of environmental destruction (eg, Randall, 2009).
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Psychoanalysis, culture, society and our biotic relations

Relational psychoanalytic work is well situated for thinking through issues of humannonhuman relationality and, more broadly, how our relations with our ecological contexts may be more constructive and reality based. The application of psychoanalytic work to these relations, however, is far from straightforward; as others have noted, the portability of clinical work to the biotic sphere requires careful thought, consideration and creativity (Randall, 2005). An analytic perspective or attitude not only is complementary to ongoing debates in environmental psychology and research, but also is a crucial part of the dialogue on how we can sustain our biotic communities. This issue of Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society inaugurates a commitment of the journal to these topics. We are pleased to introduce in this issue Peliwe Mngunis article Anxiety and Defense in Sustainability as a new addition to this dynamic growing body of research. Perspectives such as Mngunis take account of the role and nature of unconscious processes and dynamics, the concept of anxiety and defense mechanisms as part of organizational culture, and the role of past experiences in the present moment, with an emphasis on collective or social expressions and forms of unconscious desires, fears and anxieties. An attitude of inquiry and investigation marks this work, and we invite you to join the dialogue by submitting proposals, ideas, articles, field notes and reviews on the theme of environment and sustainability to me at rlertzman@igc.org.

About the Author

Renee Lertzman is currently a postdoctoral fellow at Portland State University, with the Center for Sustainable Processes & Practices and the Portland Center for Public Humanities. She is the newly appointed Environment and Sustainability Editor for Psychoanalysis, Culture and Society.

References
Bodnar, S. (2008) Wasted and bombed: Clinical enactments of a changing relationship to the earth. Psychoanalytic Dialogues 18: 484512. Hillman, J. and Ventura, M. (1993) Weve Had a Hundred Years of Psychotherapy, and the Worlds Getting Worse. San Francisco: Harper. Hoggett, P. (2009) Psychic transactions. Presentation, at Subjectivity, Nature and Politics 6 May, Cardiff School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, UK. Lertzman, R. (2008) Love, guilt and reparation: Rethinking the affective dimensions of the locus of the irreparable. In: B. Willard and C. Green (eds.) Communication at the Intersection of Nature and Culture: Proceedings of the Ninth Biennial Conference on Communication and the Environment. Chicago: College of Communication, DePaul University, pp. 813.
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Lertzman, R. (2010) The myth of apathy: Psychosocial dimensions of environmental degradation. Unpublished PhD thesis, Cardiff School of Social Sciences, Cardiff University, UK. Mishan, J. (1996) Psychoanalysis and environmentalism: First thoughts. Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy 10: 5970. Randall, R. (2005) A new climate for psychotherapy? Psychotherapy and Politics International 3: 165179. Randall, R. (2009) Loss and climate change: The cost of parallel narratives. Ecopsychology 3: 118129. Searles, H. (1960) The Nonhuman Evironment in Normal Development and in Schizophrenia. New York: International Universities Press. Searles, H. (1972) Unconscious processes in relation to the environmental crisis. Psychoanalytic Review 59: 361374. Segal, H. (1973) Introduction to the Work of Melanie Klein. London: Karnac Books. Segal, H. (1995, 1997) From Hiroshima to the gulf war and after: Socio-political expressions of ambivalence. In: H. Segal and J. Steiner (eds.) Psychoanalysis, Literature and War: Papers 19721995. London: Routledge, pp. 157169. Ward, I. (1993) Ecological madness, a Freud Museum conference: Introductory thoughts. British Journal of Psychotherapy 10: 178187. Weintrobe, S. (2009) On runaway greed and climate change denial: A psychoanalytic perspective. Lecture Series, Psychotherapy in the 21st Century. 25 April, Lincoln Clinic & Centre for Psychotherapy, Lodon, UK. Zizek, S. (1992) Looking Awry: An Introduction to Jacques Lacan Through Popular Culture. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.

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