Therapy & Self-examination in a time of Enviromental Disintigration

Presented by: Dr Ian McCallum

To me, the ecological crises of our time – climate instability, pollution, the loss of wild animals and the habitats that support them, is more
than a reflection of the damage and threat to the natural environment. It is a crisis of human identity – the way we think, the way we behave,
the way we see ourselves in relationship to the natural world.

Human individuality has been wrongly equated to individualism. We have forgotten that we are part of a web of life … that what we do to the web, we do to ourselves. The consequences are clear: we have become an increasingly detached, uncertain, lonely and anxious species – some of the very reasons we seek psycho-therapeutic help. Our identity and our sanity is at stake.

In this presentation I will discuss the primary reasons why individuals seek psychological help and that ultimately, issues and questions of personal identity – Who am I? Where do I fit in the world? What has become of me? – are inevitable.

More About the Lecture

From an ecological perspective, I will show that the reasons for seeking help are not necessarily pathological but natural responses to any environmental event or situation demanding a resolution. I will propose that any resolution of the human contribution to the environmental predicament of our time, is going to be ineffective without a renewed sense of identity, that we be willing to be disturbed, to look beyond anthropocentric self-help to the animals, to the biosphere, to the universe itself…to the rediscovery and nurturing of an Ecological Self.

More About the Presenter

Ian McCallum is a psychiatrist, analytical psychologist, adjunct professor at the Nelson Mandela Metropolitan University Graduate School of Business in Port Elizabeth and an honorary lecturer in the Department of Psychiatry at the University of Cape Town. A long standing contributor to the UCT Darwin Centre – Teaching Biology Project – his academic interests focus onevolutionary biology, conservation psychology and environmental ethics. He is the author of two anthologies of wilderness poems: Wild Gifts (1999), Untamed (2012) and a novel Thorns to Kilimanjaro (2000). He was the writer/poet for the Mail and Guardian award winning ‘UNTAMED’ exhibition at Kirstenbosch Botanical Gardens (2010-2012). His book Ecological Intelligence – Rediscovering Ourselves in Nature won the Wild Literary Award at the World Wilderness Congress in Mexico 2009. He is a co-founder of the International League of Conservation Writers (www.ilcwriters.org), a founding partner of safari organisation Invent Africa (www.inventafrica.co.za); co-founder of the Cape branch of the Wilderness Leadership School and a foundation member of SAAJA. He is a specialist wilderness guide, a director of the Wilderness Foundation and a trustee of the Cape Leopard Trust.

LIVE-STREAMING OPTION:
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If you are not able to join the event in-person in Cape Town, you can register for our live streaming facility via Skype, and join the event virtually.

Same cost as in-person attendance applies.

Please book your slot BEFORE Friday 15 November.

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