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Adventure Therapy, Ecopsychology, and the Rewilding of Humanity William Hafford Antioch University - New England

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Adventure Therapy, Ecopsychology, and the Rewilding of Humanity William Hafford Antioch University - New England Antioch University AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive Student & Alumni Scholarship, including Dissertations & Theses Dissertations & Theses 2014 Wild Minds: Adventure Therapy, Ecopsychology, and the Rewilding of Humanity William Hafford Antioch University - New England Follow this and additional works at: http://aura.antioch.edu/etds Part of the Clinical Psychology Commons Recommended Citation Hafford, William, "Wild Minds: Adventure Therapy, Ecopsychology, and the Rewilding of Humanity" (2014). Dissertations & Theses. 164. http://aura.antioch.edu/etds/164 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by the Student & Alumni Scholarship, including Dissertations & Theses at AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations & Theses by an authorized administrator of AURA - Antioch University Repository and Archive. For more information, please contact [email protected], [email protected]. Running head: ADVENTURE THERAPY & ECOPSYCHOLOGY Wild Minds: Adventure Therapy, Ecopsychology, and the Rewilding of Humanity by William Hafford B.S., Unity College, 2008 M.S., Antioch University New England, 2011 DISSERTATION Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Psychology in the Department of Clinical Psychology at Antioch University New England, 2014 Keene, New Hampshire ADVENTURE THERAPY & ECOPSYCHOLOGY ii Department of Clinical Psychology DISSERTATION COMMITTEE PAGE The undersigned have examined the dissertation entitled: WILD MINDS: ADVENTURE THERAPY, ECOPSYCHOLOGY, AND THE REWILDING OF HUMANITY presented on September 25, 2014 by William Hafford Candidate for the degree of Doctor of Psychology and hereby certify that it is accepted*. Dissertation Committee Chairperson: Colborn Smith, PhD Dissertation Committee members: Barbara Belcher-Timme, PsyD James Graves, PhD Accepted by the Department of Clinical Psychology Chairperson Kathi A. Borden, PhD on 9/25/14 * Signatures are on file with the Registrar’s Office at Antioch University New England. ADVENTURE THERAPY & ECOPSYCHOLOGY iii Dedication For Bean. ADVENTURE THERAPY & ECOPSYCHOLOGY iv Acknowledgments Thank you, Jim. You said: “Let’s get this done before the snow flies.” A couple of Winters later it happened. Thank you, BBT, for the limbic resonance. Thank you, Colby. You can’t push the river. ADVENTURE THERAPY & ECOPSYCHOLOGY v Table of Contents Abstract ........................................................................................................................................... 6 Preface............................................................................................................................................. 7 Overview ......................................................................................................................................... 8 Joining Ecopsychology and Adventure Therapy ...................................................................... 10 An Authentic Perspective ......................................................................................................... 11 Literary Thoughts ..................................................................................................................... 13 Chapter 1: The More-Than-Human World .................................................................................. 14 A Question of Scale .................................................................................................................. 14 The Problem With Exponential Growth ................................................................................... 17 Gone Forth and Multiplied ....................................................................................................... 19 A New Epoch ............................................................................................................................ 21 The Context of Human Ecology ............................................................................................... 22 Self-domestication ............................................................................................................... 23 Urbanization and mental health ........................................................................................... 24 Nature and Wilderness .............................................................................................................. 25 Defining nature .................................................................................................................... 25 Wilderness and wildness ...................................................................................................... 26 Discontent in the Anthropocene ............................................................................................... 29 The perils of arrested development ...................................................................................... 30 Conservation Biology ............................................................................................................... 30 Rewilding ............................................................................................................................. 31 Rewilding humanity ............................................................................................................. 32 ADVENTURE THERAPY & ECOPSYCHOLOGY vi In Closing .................................................................................................................................. 34 Thoughts on the More-Than-Human World ............................................................................. 35 Chapter 2: House and Soul .......................................................................................................... 36 The Study of the Soul ............................................................................................................... 36 Freud and civilization .......................................................................................................... 36 William James and a certain blindness ................................................................................ 37 Jung and nature .................................................................................................................... 38 Psychology Today ..................................................................................................................... 40 Subpsychology ..................................................................................................................... 41 Subpsychology and the environment ................................................................................... 41 Environmental psychology .................................................................................................. 43 Conservation psychology ..................................................................................................... 44 Ecopsychology: A Primer ......................................................................................................... 45 Topophilia hypothesis .......................................................................................................... 47 The wilderness effect ........................................................................................................... 48 Psychological wilderness boundary ................................................................................ 48 Nature Language .................................................................................................................. 49 In Closing .................................................................................................................................. 50 Thoughts on House and Soul .................................................................................................... 51 Chapter 3: Where the Wild Things Are ....................................................................................... 52 Adventure Therapy, A Brief History ........................................................................................ 52 Defining adventure therapy ................................................................................................. 52 Outward Bound .................................................................................................................... 53 ADVENTURE THERAPY & ECOPSYCHOLOGY vii Professional organization .......................................................................................................... 55 Promising findings ............................................................................................................... 57 Who the wild things are ....................................................................................................... 58 Where the wild things are .................................................................................................... 59 In Closing .................................................................................................................................. 62 Thoughts on Wild Things ......................................................................................................... 64 Chapter 4: Confluence ................................................................................................................. 65 Merging Waters ........................................................................................................................ 65 Adventure Therapists,
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