Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società

Climad Change? Eco-anxiety and the ends of the self in times of ego-logical crises

Seminario con Giovanni Bettini, University of Lancaster, Visiting Professor presso Università di Torino, Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società, corso di laurea magistrale AGIC

Organizzato da Dipartimento di Culture, Politica e Società, corso di laurea magistrale AGIC - Area & Global studies per International Cooperation

23 aprile 2024 ore 10.00
Torino, CLE, Aula 3D233 | Webex

While until recently the spectre of global warming haunted only a few (scientists and activists), the climate emergency has now become a cause of intense emotional distress for many – not only nudging their consumer choices and at times taking them to the streets, but also agitating their dreams and popping up in their therapy/analysis.

While the distress experienced by many is as such unquestionable, it is less clear how to understand this new state and status of climate change, and how to address it collectively.  This paper reflects on how mainstream ‘eco-psychology’ has tried making sense of the growing distress and anxiety linked to climate change. Noting the centrality of imaginary relations and the ego in many of the ‘recipes’ proposed, the paper discussed the risks of a ‘psychologization’ of such distress, which goes hand in hand with forms of ‘depoliticization by pathologisation’ that inhibit transformative action able to address the contradictions climate change stems from and entails.