Edge of the Wild: The 4th UK Ecopsychology Gathering, 2 – 5 July 2015, Green & Away, Worcestershire, UK

Edge of the Wild: The 4th UK Ecopsychology Gathering

2 – 5 July 2015, Green & Away, Worcestershire, UK

The Edge of the Wild is an annual gathering of people with a passion for ecopsychology.  Ecopsychology is concerned with the emotional, psychological, political and spiritual interrelationship between humans and the more-than-human world. Bringing together a rich diversity of perspectives from across the ecopsychology movement in a setting of natural beauty, the gathering seeks to promote and support a more respectful and harmonious connection with the other-than-human.

Location: Green & Away, Worcestershire, UK

http://ecopsychologygathering.org/

In Time For Tomorrow, Rosemary Randall and Andy Brown, July 7th and 10th

In Time For Tomorrow, July 7th and 10th

Talks and workshops by Rosemary Randall and Andy Brown at

Taunton Library meeting room, Paul Street, Taunton, TA1 3XZ on Thursday 2 July, 8pm, and

The Bristol Folk House, 40a Park St. Bristol BS1 5JGV on Friday 10th July 6.30 – 8.00 pm.

Rosemary Randall is an outstanding figure in the field of climate change and with Andy Brown founded the nationally recognised Carbon Conversations project.  Between them they offer a wealth of knowledge about the environmental impacts of all aspects of our lives.  As a psychotherapist Rosemary has a unique understanding of the profound human challenge in facing these impacts, complemented by Andy’s extensive technical knowledge about the practical dilemmas.

In Time for Tomorrow?  the Carbon Conversations Handbook by Rosemary Randall and Andy Brown is published by The Surefoot Effect (www.surefoot-effect.com   ISBN 978-0-9931211-0-4).  It has been acclaimed by both Naomi Klein (‘This Changes Everything’) and George Marshall (Founder of Climate Outreach & Information Network).

Rosemary and Andy will be available to sign copies of the book afterwards.

The Second Breath: New thinking on climate change, Friday 19 June 2015, 3pm – 6.30pm, Preston

The Second Breath:

New thinking on climate change

FRIDAY 19 JUNE 2015, 3-6:30pm, Preston, UK

Imove has teamed up with UCLan to present a special seminar event on Friday 19 June 2015, 3pm – 6.30pm, at The Media Factory in Preston.

This seminar will bring together art, Social Dreaming and debate on the subject of attitudes to climate change. The film The Second Breath will be shown followed by a series of related live performances on the subject of global warming. This will be followed by a Social Dreaming Matrix hosted by Julian Manley to explore the social dreams and associations that the audience want to share in the particular context of art, participation and issues of climate change. Finally, we will hold a debate on the subject facilitated by Paul Hoggett of the Climate Psychology Alliance (CPA).

Places at the seminar are free but very limited so you must book in advance through EventBrite.

Download the event flyer:

19June 2015 2nd Breath Flyer

The Second Breath film has been made possible through lottery funds from Arts Council England. The seminar is supported by funding from the Gordon Lawrence Foundation.

http://www.imovearts.co.uk/current-projects/the-second-breath-2/second-screening/

The Refrain and the Brain: Repetition, emergence, and nonlinear dynamics in neuroscience, psychoanalysis, and ecology. Neuropsychoanalysis Congress, Amsterdam, 9-12 July 2015

I will be presenting a paper at the 16th International Neuropsychoanalysis Congress, Plasticity and Repetition, Amsterdam, 9-12 July 2015 

The Refrain and the Brain: 
Repetition, emergence, and nonlinear dynamics in neuroscience, psychoanalysis, and ecology

Dr Joseph Dodds, PhD

The theory of the ‘refrain’ (ritournelle) is an important part of Deleuze and Guattari’s (2003) psycho-philosophical project, and provides a crucial conceptual approach to dealing with themes of repetition and plasticity. When connected with the mathematical approaches of nonlinear dynamical systems theory, the refrain provides a crucial way to explore dynamics of various systems, from the brain’s neural dynamics of perception, emotion, consciousness and the self; to the repetitions, spirals, and sudden shifts of the clinical psychoanalytic encounter over time scales from milliseconds to decades, from to the calls of songbirds and social collectivities, to the wider dynamics of social and ecological systems. The refrain creates, and marks a ‘territory’ in whichever register it is emerging from the flux of chaos, establishes links, including both ‘rhythm’ (horizontal) and ‘melody’ (vertical). The paper seeks to advance the project of ecopsychoanalysis began with the authors book Psychoanalysis and Ecology at the Edge of Chaos, (Dodds 2011) and seeks a mutually beneficial encounter between this important aspect of Deleuzo-Guattarian thought with modern neuropsychoanalysis and mathematics.

Did a Beetle Dream He was Kafka? An Ecopsychoanalytic Approach to Animality and (In)humanity in Kafka's World, 32nd International Conference on Psychology and the Arts, Malta, June 24-28, 2015.

I will be presenting at the 32nd International Conference on Psychology and the Arts in Malta, June 24-28, 2015. 

'Did a Beetle Dream He was Kafka? An Ecopsychoanalytic Approach to Animality and (In)humanity in Kafka's World' 

Dr Joseph Dodds, PhD

This paper will explore Kafka's use of animality from an ecopsychoanalytic perspective (Dodds 2011), combining, psychoanalytic, philosophical, eco(psycho)logical and Deleuze-Guattarian modes of thought.  What is an animal? The answer needs to be explored in each of the three ecologies, natural, social and psychological. The animal has long been a symbol of human psyche and culture. Kafka's use of the animal throughout his life and work is fascinating and intense, whether the becoming-beetle of Gregor Samsa in The Metamorphosis, the paranoid mole in The Burrow, the mice he feared were scratching under his bed, discourses of the Jew as rat in anti-semitism. These animals can be placed within Guattari’s ‘three ecologies’ of mind, society, and nature, seen as in constant, complex nonlinear interaction with one another. Through Kafka, answering the question, 'what is an animal?', we also come to know ourselves better, as the human-animals that therefore we are (Derrida 2007.)

http://conf.psyartjournal.com/2015/

Psychotherapy in a Time of Global Warming, Judith Anderson, Climate Psychology Alliance

"To be a psychologically aware human being in society today means embracing the web of life and to know that with every breath we take we are dependent on the living system of our environment. It is no longer possible to separate psychology from ecology – or indeed from science. Systems theory scientists have made the links. Can psychotherapists?"  Judith Anderson: Psychotherapy in a Time of Global Warming, Climate Psychology Alliance

Radical Hope & Cultural Tragedy Conference 18th April 2015, Bristol, UK

http://www.climatepsychologyalliance.org/radical-hope-cultural-tragedy-conference-18th-april-2015-3/

The full brochure is here and a booking form can be found here.

Psychoanalysis and Politics Conference in Barclona, March 2015

Thank you to everyone I met at the conference. It was really enjoyable and rich.

Ecopsychoanalysis in the United States this Spring: Chicago, Houston, Atlanta, New York

I will be presenting on the theme of 'Feeling the Heat...What is Ecopsychoanalysis? Psychoanalysis and Climate Change in the Three Ecologies' at several places in the United States this Spring. All those who are interested to hear more about my work and book and would like a chance to connect and discuss are welcome.

April 10th, Chicago. April 11th, Houston. April 13th, Atlanta. April 14th, New York


April 11th
Center for Psychoanalytic Studies, Houston, http://www.cfps-tx.org/news/drjosephdoddsvisitscfps

April 13th,
Emory University, Center for Mind, Brain, and Culture, Atlanta, http://cmbc.emory.edu/events/

April 14th,
State University of New York/Empire State College, New York, http://commons.esc.edu/kevinlwoo/science-colloquium/

Ecopsychoanalysis in Hungary: Pecs 7th May, Budapest 8th May

Pecs, May 7th, 11am. Annual Workshop Conference of Doctoral School of Psychology Pécs, Bizalom Magán Pszichoterápiás Központ (Pécs, Ferencesek u. 8.)

Budapest, May 8th, 2pm. Budapest, ELTE TÁTK Pázmány Péter sétány. 1/A. Room 0.79" https://www.facebook.com/events/1418342311763351/

Review in Psychodynamic Practice: Individuals, Groups and Organisations (Jan Baker 2013)

"This book is a real tour de force and an important addition to a currently relatively small body of writings on climate change from a psychoanalytic perspective. It is comprehensive and encyclopaedic, covering enormous ground between related and complex disciplines and theoretically dense concepts... Dodds navigates these ideas with clarity and conviction. Overall, he demonstrates the need to link the various different approaches in order to address the ecological crisis that we face. I think, the book is essential reading for all and will add specifically to their understanding for those studying psychoanalysis, psychotherapy and systemic thinking."

      - Jan Baker, Psychodynamic Practice: Individuals, Groups and Organisations, Psychoanalysis and ecology at the edge of chaos: complexity theory, Deleuze/Guattari and psychoanalysis for a climate in crisis, October 29, 2013, DOI: 10.1080/14753634.2013.853484.   

See here for other reviews.

Minding the Ecological Body: Neuropsychoanalysis and Ecopsychoanalysis, Dodds (2013), Frontiers in Psychology. 4:125

Minding the ecological body: neuropsychoanalysis and ecopsychoanalysis

Joseph Dodds*

• University of New York in Prague, Prague, Czech Republic

Abstract

Neuropsychoanalysis explores experimentally and theoretically the philosophically ancient discussion of the relation of mind and body, and seems well placed to overcome the problem of a “mindless” neuroscience and a “brainless” psychology and psychotherapy, especially when combined with a greater awareness that the body itself, not only the brain, provides the material substrate for the emergent phenomenon we call mind. However, the mind-brain-body is itself situated within a complex ecological world, interacting with other mind-brain-bodies and the “non-human environment.” This occurs both synchronically and diachronically as the organism and its environment (living and non-living) interact in highly complex often non-linear ways. Psychoanalysis can do much to help unmask the anxieties, deficits, conflicts, phantasies, and defenses crucial in understanding the human dimension of the ecological crisis. Yet, psychoanalysis still largely remains not only a “psychology without biology,” which neuropsychoanalysis seeks to remedy, but also a “psychology without ecology.” Ecopsychoanalysis (Dodds, 2011b; Dodds and Jordan, 2012) is a new transdisciplinary approach drawing on a range of fields such as psychoanalysis, psychology, ecology, philosophy, science, complexity theory, esthetics, and the humanities. It attempts to play with what each approach has to offer in the sense of a heterogeneous assemblage of ideas and processes, mirroring the interlocking complexity, chaos, and turbulence of nature itself. By emphasizing the way the mind-brain-body studied by neuropsychoanalysis is embedded in wider social and ecological networks, ecopsychoanalysis can help open up the relevance of neuropsychoanalysis to wider fields of study, including those who are concerned with what Wilson (2003) called “the future of life.”
  
Keywords: Chaos, complexity, neuropsychoanalysis, ecopsychoanalysis, ecology, climate change, psychoanalysis, Guattari
 
Full Text: pdf, enhanced pdf


Citation: Dodds J (2013) Minding the ecological body: neuropsychoanalysis and ecopsychoanalysis. Front. Psychol. 4:125. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2013.00125

 

Received: 11 November 2012; Accepted: 26 February 2013; 

Published online: 25 March 2013.

Edited by:

Denis Mellier, Université de Franche-Comté, France

Reviewed by:
Philippe Claudon, Université de Lorraine, France
Claire Squires, Université Denis Diderot Paris Département Etudes Psychanalytiques, France

Copyright: © 2013 Dodds. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in other forums, provided the original authors and source are credited and subject to any copyright notices concerning any third-party graphics etc.
*Correspondence: Joseph Dodds, University of New York in Prague, Legerova 619/72, Vinohrady, Prague 2 120 00, Czech Republic. e-mail: jdodds@faculty.unyp.cz
Based on a poster presentation first shown at the International Neuropsychoanalysis Congress, Berlin 2011.

New review in Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy: What does the environment have to do with psychoanalysis?

Another interesting review of my book has appeared, this time in the journal Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy, reviewed by Robert Tollemache, from the Lincoln Clinic and Institute for Psychotherapy. 

Tollemache particularly focuses on the use of complexity theory in the book, including concepts such as self-organisation, criticality, swarm intelligence, emergence, and feedback loops, and offers several illuminating examples from his own clinical practice. Tollemache seems to accept the basic idea developed in the book that complexity theory and nonlinearity provide a useful way to approach the complex dynamics of change in both psychic systems (including the analyst-analysand dyad, dreams, free association, interpretation, transference, addictions, compulsions, manic-depression), social systems (such as social movements) and natural systems (ant swarms, neural networks, ecosystems, and climate change). Thus complexity theory is seen as highly applicable to clinical psychoanalytic practice, as well as helping psychoanalysis make real meaningful connections with other fields, (essential in the face of climate change).

This is an area I personally think is crucial and hasn't always been understood or picked up on in previous reviews, which have mostly (and understandably) focused on the more straightforwardly psychoanalytic elements, as as eco-anxiety and defence mechanisms. 

In his review Tollemache writes that:

"Dodds shows us the interconnectedness between the ecology of mind, the ecology of society and the ecology of nature; each, worlds of infinite complexity, and locates psychoanalysis as part of a mind–society–nature continuum... He shows that complexity theory both illuminates psychoanalysis and helps to understand the crisis of man-made climate change… These ways of understanding the world are potentially revolutionary... Dodds’ enthusiasm for them is infectious, which encourages the reader to get to grips with this complicated but essential way of thinking."
     - Robert Tollemache (2013) What does the environment have to do with psychoanalysis? Psychoanalytic Psychotherapy. Review of Psychoanalysis and Ecology at the Edge of Chaos by Joseph Dodds. 2013 Vol.27, No.2, 187–190

See the updated reviews section of this blog.