The spiral of plastic pollution
A compensatory urge from the collective unconscious for an ecological‐psychological transformation of civilization
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 8983447 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Susanna Bucher (0000-0003-0862-1314, Zürich Switzerland, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2022 |
| Volume | 67 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 1386-1409 |
| Publication date | 2022-11-01 |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Journal of Analytical Psychology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0021-8774 • E-ISSN: 1465-5922 |
| Publisher | Wiley (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1111/1468-5922.12861 |
| PMID | 36440730 |
| OpenAlex | W4310186709 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 18 |
This article explores the symbolism of plastic pollution. Plastic and microplastic particles are now found everywhere - in the Arctic, in deep ocean trenches, in human organs - and plastic accumulates in our oceans forming gigantic spiral-shaped garbage patches. Both spiral symbolism and E.A. Poe's 'Maelström' are suggestive of a necessary fundamental ecological-psychological transformation of our one-sidedly logos-dominated civilization. Plastic, the author argues, has become a carrier of our longing for immortality: in plastic, humanity has synthesized an 'immortal', a virtually non-biodegradable substance. To avert what Jung called a 'catastrophic enantiodromia', humanity must relinquish its ecologically and psychologically detrimental consumerist mentality and jump into the unknown towards a less resource-intensive lifestyle. The author's dream about sea salt and spiral-shaped marine animals is interpreted as a compensatory urge from the collective unconscious for humanity to reconnect to inner and outer nature by cultivating the neglected eros principle - feeling-based relatedness - as a felt realization that we are part of nature on which we depend. Instead of succumbing to paralyzing fear or denial, the author argues for facing the abyss of our ecological-psychological crisis and acting, informed by science. For ecological-psychological transformation, Jungian psychology can play an important role
Aesthetics · Environmental ethics · Humanity · Political science · Psychoanalysis · Sociology · Unconscious mind · Environmental Philosophy and Ethics · Geographies of human-animal interactions · Law · Microplastics and Plastic Pollution · Philosophy · Psychology
| Highly cited | No |
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