Climate Psychology offers ways to work with the unthinkable and emotionally unendurable current predicament of humanity. The style and writing interweave passion and reflection, animation and containment, radical hope and tragedy to reflect the dilemmas of our collective crisis. The authors model a relational approach in their styles of writing and in the book's structure. Four chapters, each with a strikingly original voice and insight, form the core of the book, encased either end by two jointly written chapters. In contrast to a psychology that focuses on individual behaviour change, the authors use a transdisciplinary mix of approaches (depth psychology and psychotherapy, earth systems, deep ecology, cultural sociology, critical history, group and institutional outreach) to bring into focus the predicament of this period. While the last decade required a focus on climate denial in all its manifestations (which continues in new ways), a turning point has now been reached. Increasingly extreme weather across the world is making it impossible for simple avoidance of the climate threat. Wendy Hollway, Paul Hoggett, Chris Robertson, and Sally Weintrobe address how climate psychology illuminates and engages the life and death challenges that face terrestrial life. This book will appeal to three core groups. First, mental health and social care professionals wanting support in containing and potentially transforming the malaise. Second, activists wanting to participate in new stories and practices that nurture their engagement with the present social and cultural crisis. Third, those concerned about the climate emergency, wanting to understand the deeper context for this dangerous blindness. AUTHORS: Wendy Hollway is Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Honorary Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. She co-founded the UK psycho-social network, has been active in the European psycho-social network, and co-edits the Palgrave "Studies in the Psychosocial" series. She edits a monthly Digest for Climate Psychology Alliance. Paul Hoggett is a psychoanalytical psychotherapist and a training therapist at the Severnside Institute for Psychotherapy. He is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the University of the West of England, Bristol, where he co-founded the Centre for Psycho-Social Studies. His research focused on the emotional dynamics of race, class, community, and governance. With Adrian Tait he set up the Climate Psychology Alliance in 2012. In 2019, Paul edited a collection of CPA research papers Climate Psychology: On Indifference to Disaster (Palgrave Macmillan). Chris Robertson has been a psychotherapist and trainer since 1978. He was the co-creator of Borderlands and the Wisdom of Uncertainty, which in 1989 became the subject of a BBC documentary. In 1988, he co-founded Re-Vision, an integrative and transpersonal psychotherapy training with an ecopsychology component. He retired from Re-Vision in 2018. He was chair of the Climate Psychology Alliance, with which he still works. Sally Weintrobe has spent her professional life practising as a psychoanalyst. She is a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society (BPAS), a long-standing Member of the Climate Psychology Alliance, and she chairs the International Psychoanalytical Association's Committee on Climate Change. She was formerly an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychoanalytic Studies at University College London, and a member of teaching staff at the Tavistock Clinic.
Author Biography:
Wendy Hollway is Emeritus Professor of Psychology, Honorary Fellow of the British Psychological Society, and Fellow of the Academy of Social Sciences. She co-founded the UK psycho-social network, has been active in the European psycho-social network, and co-edits the Palgrave 'Studies in the Psychosocial' series. She edits a monthly Digest for Climate Psychology Alliance.
Her books include:
Changing the Subject: Psychology, Social Regulation and Subjectivity (1984/1998), with J. Henriques, C. Urwin, C. Venn, and V. Walkerdine. London: Routledge.
Doing Qualitative Research Differently: Free Association, Narrative and the Interview Method (2000/2013), with Tony Jefferson. New York: Sage.
Knowing Mothers: Researching Maternal Identity Change (2015). London: Palgrave Macmillan.
Paul Hoggett is a psychoanalytical psychotherapist and a training therapist at the Severnside Institute for Psychotherapy. He is Emeritus Professor of Social Policy at the University of the West of England, Bristol, where he co-founded the Centre for Psycho-Social Studies. His research focused on the emotional dynamics of race, class, community, and governance. With Adrian Tait he set up the Climate Psychology Alliance in 2012. In 2019, Paul edited a collection of CPA research papers Climate Psychology: On Indifference to Disaster (Palgrave Macmillan).
His previous books include:
Partisans in an Uncertain World: The Psychoanalysis of Engagement (1992). London: Free Association Books.
Politics, Identity and Emotion (2009). Boulder, CO: Paradigm Publishers.
Chris Robertson has been a psychotherapist and trainer since 1978. He was the co-creator of Borderlands and the Wisdom of Uncertainty, which in 1989 became the subject of a BBC documentary. In 1988, he co-founded Re-Vision, an integrative and transpersonal psychotherapy training with an ecopsychology component. He retired from Re-Vision in 2018. He was chair of the Climate Psychology Alliance, with which he still works.
Recent publications include:
Culture crisis: a loss of soul. In: D. Mathers (Ed.), Depth Psychology and Climate Change (2020). London: Routledge.
Climate psychology: a big idea (with Paul Hoggett). In: H. Flynn (Ed.), Four Go in Search of Big Ideas (2018). London: Social Liberal Forum.
Transformation in Troubled Times (co-editor) (2018). London: Transpersonal Press.
Climate change, despair and radical hope (co-editor). The Psychotherapist (2016).
Sally Weintrobe has spent her professional life practising as a psychoanalyst. She is a Fellow of the British Psychoanalytic Society (BPAS), a long-standing Member of the Climate Psychology Alliance, and she chairs the International Psychoanalytic Association’s Committee on Climate Change. She was formerly an Honorary Senior Lecturer in the Department of Psychoanalytic Studies at University College London, and a member of teaching staff at the Tavistock Clinic.
Her publications on climate include:
Engaging with Climate Change: Psychoanalytic and Interdisciplinary Perspectives, ed. (2012). London: Routledge.
Communicating psychoanalytic ideas about climate change. In: P. Garvey and K. Long (Eds.), The Klein Tradition (2018). London: Routledge.
The new imagination. In: Trogal et al. (Eds.), Architecture and Resilience (2019). London: Routledge.
Climate crisis: the moral dimension. In: D. Morgan (Ed.), The Unconscious in Social and Political Life (2019). Bicester: Phoenix Publishing House.
The climate crisis. In Y. Stavrakakis (Ed.), Handbook of Psychoanalytic Political Theory (2019). London: Routledge.
Moral injury in neoliberalism’s culture of uncare. Journal of Social Work Practice (2020).
Psychological Roots of the Climate Crisis: Neoliberal Exceptionalism and the Culture of Uncare (2021). London: Bloomsbury.
