Books & Reports
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One of the core challenges on which WWF works is Changing the Way We Live. Despite nearly sixty years of awareness raising by the environmental movement, increased knowledge and understanding of the environmental crisis has not led to large scale changes in behaviour and culture. WWF-UK has subsequently taken the lead in the WWF Global Network on researching and developing Strategies for Change.
Weathercocks and signposts: The Environment Movement at a Crossroads
Tom Crompton, WWF-UK
A critical re-examination of the assumptions underlying current approaches to motivating environmentally-friendly behaviour.
Download
The WWF-UK Strategies for Change web page, giving details of all our research and publications in this area.
www.wwf.org.uk/what_we_do/campaigning/strategies_for_change/
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The core concept of ecopsychology is that while the human mind is shaped by the modern world, it can be readily inspired and comforted by the wider natural world, as this is the arena in which it originally evolved. As such humans are dependent on a healthy natural environment not only for their physical sustenance, but also for mental health. Hence the destruction or healing of ecosystems impacts negatively or positively on the human mind.
Ecopsychology: restoring the earth, healing the mind
Roszak, Gomes & Kanner (eds)
The best currently available collection of essays on Ecopsychology and a classic introduction to the subject.
Ecological psychology: healing the split between planet and self
Deborah DuNan Winter.
A thorough and accessible book that places Ecopsychology into a wide context.
Soulcraft: Crossing into the Mysteries of Nature and Psyche
by Bill Plotkin
An interesting book with very practical examples of outdoor ecopsychology work from a well-respected practitioner in the USA.
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Carl Gustav Jung (1875-1961) was a Swiss psychiatrist and the founder of modern analytical psychology. Jung is often considered the first modern psychologist to state that the human psyche is “by nature religious” and to explore it in depth. Jung has had an enduring influence on psychology as well as wider society.
Memories, Dreams, Reflections
Carl Jung
An autobiographical account of the development of Jung’s perspective on psychology.
The Earth has a Soul
C.G.Jung, edited by Meredith Sabini
A collection of Jung’s nature writings.
Living in the Borderland
Jerome Bernstein
An Jungian exploration of the growing number of people who experience what Bernstein describes as ‘the borderland’ – a spectrum of reality that is beyond the rational, but palpable and deeply meaningful in everyday life.
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Transpersonal Psychology studies the spiritual aspects of human experience. Transpersonal psychology attempts to describe and integrate spiritual experience within modern psychological theory and to formulate new theory to encompass such experience.
Shadow, Self & Spirit
Michael Daniels
A fascinating summary and analysis of the many strands of Transpersonal Psychology theory.
Transpersonal Psychotherapy
Seymour Bernstein
A collection of essays, showing how Transpersonal perspectives can be applied in therapeutic practice.
Toward a Transpersonal Ecology: developing new foundations for environmentalism
by Warwick Fox
Quite a complex read but excellent for those wanting to delve much more deeply into ecopsychology.
The Ego and the Dynamic Ground
Michael Washburn
A synthesis of psychotherapeutic and spiritual perspectives on the journey of the Ego through the stages of human life.
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The books below provide an introduction to the relationship between various religious and spiritual traditions and psychological issues.
Original Blessing
Matthew Fox
From a Christian perspective, Matthew Fox challenges the concept of original sin, and calls for a spirituality that celebrates and respects Nature in its widest sense.
The courage to feel
Rob Preece
An exploration of the practice of compassion from a Buddhist and psychotherapeutic perspective.
The sacred mirror
Prendergast, Fenner and Krystal (eds)
A collection of essays on the Buddhist concept of ‘non-duality’ in psychotherapy.
An introduction to Zen Buddhism
D.T. Suzuki
An engaging and readable introduction.
The Watercourse Way
Alan Watts and Al Cung-liang Huang
An elegant interpretation of the Chinese philosophy of Taoism, for Western readers.
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Deep ecology is a contemporary ecological philosophy that recognises the inherent worth of other living beings aside from their utility/financial value. The philosophy emphasises the interdependent nature of human and non-human life as well as the importance of the ecosystem and natural processes.
Deep Ecology for the Twenty-first Century
by George Sessions
A collection of essays and papers on this often misrepresented approach to environmentalism.
Coming Back to Life: The work that reconnects
Joanna Macy and Molly Young Brown
Based on systems theory, spiritual teachings, and deep ecology The Work That Reconnects demonstrates our interconnectedness in the web of life and our authority to take action on its behalf. It has helped many thousands around the globe find insight, solidarity, and courage to act, despite rapidly worsening conditions.
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Culture and language play an important role in human narratives – the stories used to explain who we are and our role in the world. The books below examine different aspects of this.
The Spell of the Sensuous: perception and language in a more-than-human world
David Abram
A stunning book about the evolution of language and it’s role in conceptually separating humans from the rest of nature
Nature and the Human Soul: Cultivating wholeness and Community in a Fragmented World
Bill Plotkin’s excellent exploration of rites of passage through life’s journey, based on his comprehensive and eclectic model of transformation.
The wounded researcher
Robert Romanyshyn
An approach to research which values intuition, nature, and personal and collective history.
The Hidden Connections
Fritjof Capra
A good exploration of culture, structure and change.
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The solo aspect of the Natural Change Programme – spending time alone in nature – is a modern form of a practice found across cultures and throughout history. The books below explore the different forms this practice takes in varied cultures and historical contexts.
The Hero with a Thousand Faces
Joseph Campbell
An astoundingly comprehensive exploration of the ‘monomyth’ of the hero’s journey showing that the majority of human cultures share a common story of human development.
Shamanism, archaic techniques of ecstasy
Mircea Eliade
A classic study of Shamanic cultures and practices.
Focusing
Eugene Gendlin
Gendlin’s exposition of the philosophy and method of his technique of ‘focusing’.
The Practice of the Wild
Gary Snyder
A collection of essays by the master of wild prose and poetry.
