Sustainable Living for a Sustainable Earth

293 Pages·2013·2.35 MB·English

Sustainable Living for a
Sustainable Earth:
From an Education for Sustainable
Development towards an Education
for Sustainable Living

Werner Sattmann-Frese

A thesis submitted to the University of Western Sydney for the degree of
Doctor of Philosophy

August 2005

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© 2005
All rights reserved

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Acknowledgments

The creation of this study would not have been possible without the qualified and passionate support
of other people. I wish to express my deep gratitude to my supervisor, Professor Stuart Hill, for his
untiring professional and emotional support during the last six years.

I also feel indebted to Dr John Cameron for his unwavering dedication to Social Ecology at the
University of Western Sydney, and for his support in upgrading this project to PhD candidature.

Furthermore, I am thankful to Kathy Adams, to the other academics at Social Ecology, and to my
fellow travellers for maintaining a stimulating and sane environment within an unsustainable
modern culture.

I would also like to express my gratefulness to the research participants for their insights into their
struggles with becoming more sustainable people and to Associate Professor Daniella Tilbury at
Macquarie University, Sydney, for her suggestion to integrate the depth psychology perspectives on
ecological deterioration with the change strategies employed in the various approaches to
environmental education.

Judith McCreath, Roy Garner, and Annie James deserve recognition for their assistance in editing
this thesis and/or associated brochures and conference material, and my clients and supervisees for
sharing with me their ideas, and experiences, and struggles with becoming more sustainable humans.

Last, but not least, I am grateful to my wife Lisa and my sons Leon and Julian for supporting me
during the long gestation period of this thesis, and to my friends Claus Bargmann and Norbert
Schrauth for their support and challenging questions.
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Statement of authentification

The work presented in this thesis is, to the best of my knowledge and belief, original except as
acknowledged in the text. I hereby declare that I have not submitted this material, either in full or in
part, for a degree at this or any other institution.

………………………………………………………….
(Signature)

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Claims to originality

The world is a big place where many scholars publish research in many different languages. It is
thus difficult to be certain that knowledge and concepts similar to the ones that have been generated
as part of my inquiry are not also being developed by other people working in similar fields of
inquiry. Considering this, readers can be assured that great care has been taken to ensure that the
topics claimed as original knowledge have not been formulated by other scholars. Many searches of
key topics in library catalogues and on the Internet, both in English and German, suggest that the
following procedures and concepts that can be claimed as original are the:

• structured inquiry into the views of health professionals on issues concerning ecological
deterioration and sustainable living
• description of eco-self-consciousness development as a six-stage process that is unfolding in
a range of psychological disciplines and environmental change practices
• description of sustainability in terms of interrelated but also distinct features of physio-
emotional, psychosocial, environmental, and institutional sustainability
• investigation of interrelated and analogical aspects of unsustainability in terms of the
psychological metaphors: separation, pollution, exhaustion, and growth/excess
• description of key aspects of terrorism as predictable manifestations of the schizoid
character condition.

Readers who have found or developed similar ideas and research findings are encouraged to alert me
to this work by contacting me on
Contents

CONTENTS ............................................................................................................................................................... 1
LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................................................... 3
LIST OF FIGURES .................................................................................................................................................. 4
ABSTRACT ............................................................................................................................................................... 5
INTRODUCTION: THE NEED FOR THIS STUDY......................................................................................... 7
CHAPTER 1 THE PROJECT .......................................................................................................................... 18
1.1 MAKING SENSE OF OUR ECOLOGICAL CRISES .......................................................................................... 18
1.2 AIMS AND RESEARCH QUESTIONS............................................................................................................... 21
1.3 LIMITATIONS OF THIS STUDY ..................................................................................................................... 22
1.4 METHODOLOGY .......................................................................................................................................... 23
1.5 TOWARDS AN ALTERNATIVE APPROACH .................................................................................................... 32
1.6 RESEARCH APPROACHES EMPLOYED IN THIS STUDY ................................................................................. 34
1.7 RESEARCH METHODS.................................................................................................................................. 38
1.8 PHILOSOPHICAL BACKGROUND .................................................................................................................. 39
1.9 PSYCHOLOGICAL BACKGROUND ................................................................................................................ 47
CHAPTER 2 RESEARCH DATA ................................................................................................................... 53
2.1 QUESTION 1: WHAT DO PEOPLE ASSOCIATE WITH THE NOTION OF ENVIRONMENT? ............................... 53
2.2 QUESTION 2: WHAT DO PEOPLE ASSOCIATE WITH THE NOTION OF HARMING THE ENVIRONMENT? ....... 54
2.3 QUESTION 3: WHAT ARE THE CONNECTIONS BETWEENS PEOPLE’S FEELINGS, EMOTIONS, AND THEIR
BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS THE ENVIRONMENT? ........................................................................................................ 57
2.4 QUESTION 4: HOW HAVE PEOPLE LEARNED ABOUT THE DETERIORATION OF THE ENVIRONMENT AND
WHAT HAS INFLUENCED THEM TO CHANGE THEIR PERCEPTION OF AND BEHAVIOUR TOWARDS THE
ENVIRONMENT? ..................................................................................................................................................... 60
2.5 QUESTION 5: WHAT DO PEOPLE ASSOCIATE WITH THE NOTIONS OF SUSTAINABILITY AND SUSTAINABLE
LIVING, AND WHICH EXPERIENCES, IF ANY, HAVE ENHANCED THEIR ABILITY TO LIVE SUSTAINABLY? ........... 65
2.6 DATA ANALYSIS .......................................................................................................................................... 68
CHAPTER 3 NOTIONS ON CONSCIOUSNESS AND SELF ................................................................... 71
3.1 NOTIONS ON CONSCIOUSNESS .................................................................................................................... 71
3.2 NOTIONS OF ‘SELF’ ..................................................................................................................................... 77
3.3 ASPECTS OF EGO-SELF CONSCIOUSNESS .................................................................................................... 81
CHAPTER 4 MANIPULATED ECO-SELF CONSCIOUSNESS (STAGE ONE).................................. 84
4.1 4.1 PROBLEMS WITH DISTINGUISHING BETWEEN BEHAVIOURIST AND COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY ........... 84
4.2 THE NATURE OF MANIPULATED ECO-SELF CONSCIOUSNESS ..................................................................... 85
4.3 BEHAVIOURAL TECHNOLOGIES USED TO FOSTER SUSTAINABLE BEHAVIOUR .......................................... 86
4.4 BENEFITS OF BEHAVIOURIST INTERVENTIONS ........................................................................................... 88
CHAPTER 5 LEARNED ECO-SELF CONSCIOUSNESS (STAGE TWO)............................................ 89
5.1 COGNITIVE PSYCHOLOGY ........................................................................................................................... 89
5.2 LEARNING ECO-SELF CONSCIOUSNESS ....................................................................................................... 89
5.3 BENEFITS OF AN APPROACH BASED ON COGNITION AND LEARNING ......................................................... 91
CHAPTER 6 PARTICIPATORY ECO-SELF CONSCIOUSNESS (STAGE THREE)......................... 92
6.1 EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY (EFS) .................................................................................................. 92
6.2 THE NOTION OF PARTICIPATORY ECO-SELF CONSCIOUSNESS.................................................................... 92
6.3 BENEFITS OF EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABILITY ........................................................................................ 93
6.4 EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT........................................................................................ 95
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CHAPTER 7 DEEP ECO-CONSCIOUSNESS (STAGE FOUR)............................................................... 98
7.1 INTRODUCTION............................................................................................................................................ 98
7.2 KEY CONCEPTS OF DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY .................................................................................................... 98
7.3 FROM A FREUDIAN TO A REICHIAN SELF-CONCEPT ................................................................................101
7.4 OUR SEARCH FOR EMOTIONAL IDENTITY, HAPPINESS, FREEDOM AND BELONGING ...............................103
7.5 A DEFENCE MECHANISM PERSPECTIVE OF ECOLOGICAL CRISES .............................................................105
7.6 AN OBJECT RELATIONS AND CHARACTER STRUCTURE APPROACH TO ECOLOGICAL PSYCHOLOGY.......116
7.7 ECOLOGICAL CRISES AND THE ORAL-EXPLOITING CONDITION ...............................................................121
7.8 ECOLOGICAL CRISES AND THE NARCISSISTIC-SHAMING CONDITION ......................................................126
CHAPTER 8 HOLISTIC ECO-SELF CONSCIOUSNESS (STAGE FIVE)..........................................136
8.1 EPISTEMOLOGY .........................................................................................................................................137
8.2 METAPHORS OF UNSUSTAINABLE LIVING ................................................................................................141
8.3 THE SEPARATION METAPHOR ...................................................................................................................142
8.4 THE POLLUTION/WASTE METAPHOR.........................................................................................................148
8.5 THE GROWTH/EXCESS METAPHOR ............................................................................................................152
8.6 THE EXHAUSTION METAPHOR...................................................................................................................155
CHAPTER 9 PERSON-PLANET UNITY CONSCIOUSNESS (STAGE 6) ..........................................161
9.1 SIX PERSON-PLANET UNITY EXPERIENCES ...............................................................................................161
9.2 ISSUES OF TRANSPERSONAL PSYCHOLOGY ..............................................................................................163
9.3 TRAUMAS AND LOSS OF PERSON-PLANET UNITY .....................................................................................166
9.4 COSMIC CONSCIOUSNESS ..........................................................................................................................168
9.5 PERSON-PLANET UNITY AND ENERGY ......................................................................................................170
9.6 REDEFINING OBJECT RELATIONS THEORY................................................................................................172
9.7 THE SCHIZOID-REJECTING CONDITION AND THE NATURAL ENVIRONMENT............................................174
9.8 THE SCHIZOID CONDITION AND TERRORISM ............................................................................................179
CHAPTER 10 PLACING THE SIX-STAGE MODEL IN LARGER FRAMEWORKS .....................188
10.1 LINEAR AND CIRCULAR MODELS OF CONSCIOUSNESS TRANSFORMATION ...........................................188
10.2 FROM EDUCATION TOWARDS CHANGE TOWARDS AN ENABLING OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING .................191
10.3 DEEP AND SHALLOW CHANGE ................................................................................................................195
10.4 LIMITATIONS OF APPROACHES TO CHANGE BASED ON BEHAVIOURIST PSYCHOLOGY .........................199
10.5 LIMITATIONS OF A COGNITIVE APPROACH TO ENVIRONMENTAL CHANGE ...........................................203
10.6 DEPTH PSYCHOLOGY AND POSTMODERN ENVIRONMENTAL EDUCATION .............................................207
10.7 CRITIQUE OF ASPECTS OF CONSTRUCTIVE POSTMODERNISM ................................................................213
10.8 ECOLOGICAL PSYCHOTHERAPIES ...........................................................................................................217
CHAPTER 11 FROM SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT TO SUSTAINABLE LIVING.................222
11.1 SUSTAINABILITY AND SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT ............................................................................222
11.2 ASPECTS OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING .........................................................................................................226
11.3 SUSTAINABILITY INDICATORS ................................................................................................................229
CHAPTER 12 EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVING .................................................................239
12.1 ECOLOGICAL APPROACHES UNDERPINNING ESL ..................................................................................239
12.2 OBJECTIVES OF EDUCATION FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVING.......................................................................246
12.3 FEATURES OF ESL ..................................................................................................................................249
12.4 SUSTAINABILITY POLICIES AND ‘SUSTAINOLOGY’ ................................................................................251
CHAPTER 13 SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION......................................................................................256
REFERENCES ......................................................................................................................................................262

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List of Tables

Table 1.1 Topics relating to a holistic versus a mechanistic worldview ........................................................... 33
Table 1.2 List of participants by gender, age-bracket, and marital status ........................................................ 39
Table 1.3 Distribution of participants by gender, age-bracket, and marital status ........................................... 39
Table 3.1 Aspects of ego-self and eco-self.......................................................................................................... 81
Table 4.1 Behaviourist approaches to change .................................................................................................... 85
Table 6.1 Modern versus deconstructionist postmodern psychology................................................................ 93
Table 6.2 Cognitive modern versus cognitive postmodern education foci ....................................................... 95
Table 6.3 Assumed causes of ecological deterioration (modern versus deconstructionist postmodern) ........ 96
Table 7.1 Psychological comparison between coloniser and colonized ..........................................................134
Table 8.1 Exoteric and esoteric/holistic principles ...........................................................................................141
Table 8.2 Aspects of the separation metaphor ..................................................................................................148
Table 8.3 Aspects of the wastefulness/pollution metaphor ..............................................................................152
Table 8.4 Aspects of the growth/excess metaphor............................................................................................155
Table 8.5 Aspects of the exhaustion metaphor..................................................................................................159
Table 8.6 Body-mind and person-planet synergies and compensatory structures .........................................160
Table 9.1 Comparison between the disconnected and the integrated child....................................................176
Table 10.1 Comparison of deconstructionist and depth psychology values ...................................................209
Table 10.2 Comparing environmental education based on a mechanistic, postmodern, ecological, and depth
psychology worldview...................................................................................................................................210
Table 10.3 Theoretical framework, schools of thought, and aims of postmodern, cognitive psychology and
depth psychology ...........................................................................................................................................211
Table 10.4 Assumptions concerning causes of environmental degradation ....................................................211
Table 10.5 Strategies for supporting behavioural change .................................................................................212
Table 10.6 Comparison of deconstructionist, Spretnak’s ecological postmodernism and an ecology based on
depth psychology and transpersonal psychology.........................................................................................213
Table 11.1 Issues relating to health (Added features appear in italics) ...........................................................236
Table 11.2 Issues relating to education ..............................................................................................................236
Table 11.3 Issues relating to births and childrearing (Added features appear in italics) ................................236
Table 11.4 Issues relating to relationships (Added features appear in italics) ................................................237
Table 11.5 Psychosocial sustainability testing questions .................................................................................237
Table 11.6 Physio-emotional sustainability testing questions..........................................................................237
Table 11.7 Environmental sustainability testing questions ..............................................................................238
Table 12.1 Examples of sustainable and unsustainable structures...................................................................253

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List of Figures

Figure 1.2 Happiness and spending money ......................................................................................................... 29
Figure 1.3 A case of Multiple Sclerosis.................................................................................................................. 30
Figure 10.1 System on different levels of sustainability .....................................................................................191
Figure 10.2 System surrounded by resistance wall..............................................................................................192
Figure 10.3 System on three of the possible six stages .......................................................................................193
Figure 10.4 Forces acting at a point of crisis ......................................................................................................196
Figure 10.5 Schematic distribution of consciousness among modern people....................................................196
Figure 10.6 Schematic distribution of consciousness achieved through Education of Sustainable Development
.........................................................................................................................................................................197
Figure 10.7 Schematic distribution of consciousness achieved through Education for Sustainable Living ....197
Figure 12.1 Sustainability Mapping Process .........................................................................................................248

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Abstract

This research project, entitled Sustainable Living for a Sustainable Earth, responds to the
observation of radical ecologists and ecopsychologists that our present approaches to environmental
change are widely limited to technological, behavioural and cognitive strategies, and lack a deep
understanding of the complex psychological and sociocultural interrelationships that underpin
human perception and behaviour. To gain a deepened understanding of our ecological crises from
depth psychological, holistic, and transpersonal perspectives, a number of counsellors,
psychotherapists, naturopaths, and one environmental educator were either interviewed or completed
questionnaires that explored the meaning of the terms ‘environment’ and ‘sustainability’. They were
also invited to express their views on environmental deterioration and what it means to them to live
sustainably.

The knowledge obtained from the research participants, an extensive literature review, and my
professional experience as a psychotherapist, workshop facilitator and trainer, suggest that the
current dominant theories and practices of environmental education, and other change practices, are
limited in their effectiveness. This is because they fail to provide a deep understanding of the
unconscious emotional and psychosocial forces that prevent most people in modern societies from
developing a coherent and stable sense of self. This self-deficit, then, predictably manifests as
experiences of disconnectedness from nature, as anthropocentric worldviews, and as destructive and
uncaring feelings and behaviour towards the natural environment and human beings (themselves and
others).

The need to acknowledge the value of the existing theories and practices of environmental and
sustainability education, and the proposed necessity to integrate the abovementioned perspectives,
has led to the proposition that a shift from the dominance of ego-self consciousness to a fully
developed eco-self consciousness can be framed as the following six-stage process:

• manipulated eco-self consciousness based on the application of behaviourism
• learned eco-self consciousness based on the application of cognitive psychology
• participative eco-self consciousness based on deconstructionist postmodern psychology
• deep eco-self consciousness based on the application of depth psychology
• holistic eco-self consciousness based on the application of holistic and psychosomatic
thinking, and
• eco-self consciousness based on transpersonal psychology and processes facilitating felt
experiences of body-mind and person-planet unity.

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