This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY-ND 4.0 International) license
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0
2022, 20, 1: 25-37
p-ISSN 1733-1218; e-ISSN 2719-826X
DOI http://doi.org/10.21697/seb.2022.05
Ecophilosophical and Ecopsychological Aspects of Sustainable Consumption
and Lifestyle
Ekofilozoficzne i ekopsychologiczne aspekty zrównoważonej konsumpcji i stylu życia
Mikołaj Niedek
National Institute of Rural Culture and Heritage, Poland
ORCID https://orcid.org/0000-0001-5241-5150 • mikolaj.niedek@nikidw.edu.pl
Received: 28 Feb, 2022; Revised: 10 Apr, 2022; Accepted: 13 Apr, 2022
Abstract: The aim of the article is to outline the philosophical and psychological dimensions of a sustainable lifestyle
based on responsible consumption. In the author’s opinion, moderate consumption and an ecologically balanced way
of living should, for their durability, have a broader mental and worldview background. The article will present and com-
pare the concepts of the eco-philosophy of Henryk Skolimowski and the ecopsychology of Theodore Roszak in terms
of cognitive, ideological, and axiological propositions of these concepts that can form the motivating basis for respon-
sible living on Earth. In the author’s opinion, apart from the economic dimension, the adoption of ecological ethics and
of ecological sensitivity is crucial for the permanent rooting of sustainable consumption patterns in people’s attitudes.
Ecophilosophical and ecopsychological concepts can significantly help in this, contributing to human sensitivity to envi-
ronmental issues related to the contemporary ecological crisis. The ecophilosophical and ecopsychological approach, in
the author’s opinion, need each other because they use complementary perspectives and methods of building ecological
awareness. In the process of environmental education and shaping sustainable life attitudes, they are equally necessary
for the effectiveness of achieving the goals of education for sustainable development and promoting an environmentally
responsible lifestyle in society.
Keywords: sustainable consumption, sustainable lifestyle, ecophilosophy, ecopsychology, eco-ethics, frugalism
Streszczenie: Celem artykułu jest zarysowanie filozoficznego i psychologicznego wymiaru zrównoważonego stylu życia
opartego na odpowiedzialnej konsumpcji. Zdaniem autora, umiarkowana konsumpcja i ekologicznie zrównoważony styl
życia powinny mieć, o ile mają być trwałe i stabilne, szersze podstawy mentalne i światopoglądowe. Artykuł porównuje
koncepcje ekofilozofii Henryka Skolimowskiego i ekopsychologii Theodore Roszaka pod kątem ich propozycji poznaw-
czych, ideowych i aksjologicznych, które mogą stanowić motywującą podstawę dla praktyki odpowiedzialnego życia ludzi
na Ziemi. Zdaniem autora, dla trwałego zakorzenienia wzorców zrównoważonej konsumpcji w postawach, oprócz wymiaru
ekonomicznego, kluczowe jest przyjęcie etyki ekologicznej i kształtowanie wrażliwości środowiskowej. Koncepcje eko-
filozoficzne i ekopsychologiczne mogą w tym znacząco pomóc, przyczyniając się do zwiększania wrażliwości człowieka na
kwestie związane ze współczesnym kryzysem ekologicznym. Zdaniem autora, podejścia ekofilozoficzne i ekopsycholog-
iczne potrzebują się nawzajem, ponieważ wykorzystują uzupełniające się perspektywy i sposoby budowania świadomości
ekologicznej. W procesie edukacji ekologicznej i kształtowania zrównoważonych postaw życiowych są one w równym stop-
Mikołaj Niedek
26
niu niezbędne dla skuteczności osiągania celów edukacji na rzecz zrównoważonego rozwoju i upowszechniania w społec-
zeństwie odpowiedzialnego ekologicznie stylu życia.
Słowa kluczowe: zrównoważona konsumpcja, zrównoważony styl życia, ekofilozofia, ekopsychologia, ekoetyka,
frugalizm
Introduction
Consumption is a complex phenomenon,
process and system that can be charac-
terized in economic terms but go beyond
strictly economic aspects. The economic
base of consumption is formed by the struc-
ture of the consumer’s income and savings;
the type and quantity of goods and services
available on the market and purchased
by the consumer; the existing infrastruc-
ture and logistics of consumption (supply
chains, enterprises, sales points); as well as
general conditions, such as the level of eco-
nomic development and the rate of inflation.
The non-economic determinants of con-
sumption include broader social and cultural
factors: prevailing habits, fashions, trends,
value systems and ideologies functioning in
society. In the era of global challenges and
contemporary ecological crisis caused by
the dominant (industrial) economic model,
normative goals for consumption are formu-
lated by the concept of sustainable develop-
ment. Within the Millennium Sustainable
Development Goals adopted by the United
Nations in 2015 and set to be achieved by
2030, it is directly related to goal no. 12:
Ensure sustainable consumption and pro-
duction patterns. A durable pattern of con-
sumption that meets the sustainability
criteria can be defined conjunctively as
(Niedek 2009, 31):
a. consumption of a sufficient number
of goods and services to meet real needs
and achieve a high quality of life, with-
out unnecessary waste of products, ma-
terials, and energy;
b. consumption with a preference towards
ecologically and socially sustainable
products;
c. dematerialising (minimising and saving)
the use of natural resources and prefer-
ring the consumption of services rather
than things.
The opposite of sustainable consumption
is unsustainable consumption, which can be
characterized as:
a. consumption of goods to an extent
which is excessive in relation to the nec-
essary needs and on a larger scale than
required by an adequate quality of life,
resulting in a waste of resources and
energy;
b. consumption of unsustainable prod-
ucts – directly or indirectly harmful
to the environment and to the health
of the people producing and consuming
them;
c. excessive use of resources, raw materials,
water and energy in relation to the pro-
ductive capacity of the environment and
its ability to assimilate pollution and
waste.
Unsustainable patterns of consumption
dominate the modern economy and West-
ern societies and are responsible for the deg-
radation of the natural environment. Along
with the widening scale and manifestations
of the ecological crisis – the global loss
of biodiversity, increasing pollution of wa-
ters, soil, air, and food, as well as the climate
crisis – the need to change the unsustaina-
ble consumption patterns is becoming more
and more urgent. The formulated directions
of the necessary changes are becoming rad-
ical and they are formulated in an increas-
ingly alarmist tone (Skubała and Kulik 2021).
Analyzes summarizing the activities aimed
at sustainable consumption so far show that
most of them are ineffective and require
adopting new approaches and implementing
Ecophilosophical and Ecopsychological Aspects…
27
innovations in the functioning of societies
and people’s lifestyles (Cohen 2019).
Dariusz Kiełczewski and others dis-
tinguish three psychological dimensions
of consumption: cognitive, emotional, and
behavioural, which are interconnected.
A responsible consumer is the one who has
specific consumer competencies defined
as “the theoretical knowledge and practi-
cal skill, distinguishing a given person with
easiness of an efficient, effective, respond-
ing to qualitative expectations, fulfilment
of needs of lower and higher rank while
maintaining responsibility for the choices
being made” (Kiełczewski et al. 2017, 107).
The essence of competences as regards sus-
tainable consumption is “an optimal recon-
cilement of personal, social and ecological
roles by the consumer. It is about setting
up a synthesis – to make that the proper
fulfilment of the social and ecological role
was for the consumer a source of their per-
sonal satisfaction and something that raises
the general state of satisfaction with the liv-
ing quality and standard they have reached”
(Kiełczewski et al. 2017, 106). In this psy-
chological aspect, sustainable consumption
contributes to an increase in the quality
of life, i.e., establishment of an optimal bal-
ance between material consumption and
satisfaction of intangible needs (Kiełcze-
wski 2004, 58). The dividing line in this
sphere is marked by Fromm’s life attitudes:
“to have” and “to be” (Kiełczewski 2007, 38).
It is important, because “behaviours aimed
at sustainable consumption are in great con-
flict with the hitherto adopted lifestyles and
purchasing preferences, so, they require
a complete change of behaviour and mental
habits” (Kiełczewski et al. 2017, 106). Paral-
lel to the necessary changes in the economic
system of production-consumption, changes
are needed in the systems of values, world-
view, and culture.
A comprehensive study of the determi-
nants of sustainable consumption leads
to its broader aspects and to the concept
of a sustainable lifestyle. This category cov-
ers a) external conditions: social, cultural,
economic, political, and environmental; b)
internal conditions: cognitive, ideological,
axiological; c) psychological: personal, emo-
tional and subjective. So, the lifestyle based
on sustainable consumption is conditioned
by many different factors and can be ana-
lyzed from many perspectives; it also has
fairly extensive literature (Lubowiecki-Vikuk
et al. 2021). According to Jensen, an analy-
sis of lifestyle in the context of sustainable
consumption requires an inquiry into values,
motives, personality traits, behaviours, hab-
its, and identification of socio-cultural rela-
tions (Jensen 2007). An adequate approach
to the analysis and implementation of a sus-
tainable lifestyle requires therefore human-
istic, in particular philosophical (including
axiological and ethical) as well as psycholog-
ical insights. The quality of life and well-be-
ing are the central categories that mediate
the economic, philosophical and psycho-
logical approach to sustainable consump-
tion and lifestyle. From the psychological
perspective, the sensitivity and emotional
dimension, related to well-being, is of par-
ticular importance.
From a narrow economic perspective,
to change consumer behavior and attitudes
towards a more environmentally friendly
one, it is enough to have access to informa-
tion on the environmental effects of a given
consumption pattern and to better inform
the consumer about the quality parameters
of the purchased products and their envi-
ronmental impact. According to ecologi-
cally oriented philosophy and psychology,
the following are necessary a) a deeper di-
agnosis of the causes of consumerism and
excessive human interference with nature;
b) deeper rooting of pro-ecological attitudes,
motivations, and behaviors in the structure
of human consciousness and mentality – in
the consumer’s value system and in his eth-
ics. Otherwise, pro-ecological behavior will
be shallow and will be a passing phenome-
non, susceptible to ideologies and fashions.
Broader concepts of ecological philosophy
and environmental ethics were formed
in the West from the 1970s. A little later,
Mikołaj Niedek
28
psychological propositions began to emerge,
arguing that the condition of ecological
change should be a change at the personal-
ity level, noting a deep connection between
the nature of man and Nature. An example
of comprehensive eco-philosophical propos-
als relating to the issue of consumption and
postulating ethical regulations are the deep
ecology of a Norwegian philosopher, Arne
Naess (1912-2009) and the eco-philoso-
phy of the Polish philosopher working in
the USA, Henryk Skolimowski (1930-2018).
The works of Paul Shepard (1925-1996) and
Theodore Roszak (1933-2011) are an example
of parallelly formulated ecological proposals
reaching fundamental worldview and axio-
logical changes, on the basis of broadly and
holistically understood psychology, which
will be outlined below.
1. Ecophilosophical foundations
of a sustainable lifestyle
The important stimulus for the development
of ecological reflection in philosophy and
other fields of social sciences and human-
ities was the growing awareness of threats
related to the development of technical civ-
ilization and its negative impact on the bio-
sphere (Waloszczyk 1996, 200). Ecological
issues were taken up on the basis of many
humanities and social sciences, leading
to the emergence of their pro-ecological
trends and fields (Kiełczewski 2001). In
terms of philosophy, one of the most popu-
lar and widespread concepts is deep ecology,
created in the early 1970s by Arne Naess and
later developed by Bill Devall and Georges
Sessions. This philosophy is characterized
by eight principles formulated by its authors,
four of which concern the need to change
consumption and production patterns
to more ecologically sustainable (Devall and
Sessions 1985):
• Humans have no right to reduce the rich-
ness and diversity of life forms except
to satisfy their vital needs.
• Policies must therefore be changed.
The changes in policies affect basic eco-
nomic, technological, and ideological
structures. The resulting state of affairs
will be widely different from the present
situation.
• The ideological change is mainly that
of appreciating life quality (dwelling in
situations of inherent worth) rather than
adhering to an increasingly higher stand-
ard of living. There will be a profound
awareness of the difference between big
and great.
• Those who subscribe to the foregoing
points have an obligation directly or indi-
rectly to participate in the attempt to im-
plement the necessary changes.
The educational process should, according
to Naess, result in resistance to the forces
of consumerism: advertising, mass culture,
and hyperconsumption (Naess 1992). Ac-
cording to A. Neale, the main goal of the cre-
ators and practitioners of ecophilosophy was
to change the awareness of people. Exces-
sive consumption was perceived as a lack
of well-educated eco-awareness, which in
turn resulted in a lack of the need to make
more environmentally friendly choices
(Neale 2015, 150). Henryk Skolimowski in
his first manifesto of eco-philosophy, en-
titled Ecological Humanism, formulated
the general idea of “The World as Sanctu-
ary” (Skolimowski 1974). According to him,
the basis of any worldview, be it mytholog-
ical, philosophical or scientific, is Cosmol-
ogy – understood as the basic assumptions
and the most general knowledge and beliefs
about the world – what exists and the pos-
sibility of getting to know it. The core
of any cosmology is the main metaphor on
which the most general assumptions about
the world are based. In the case of modern
cosmology, it was a Newtonian-Cartesian vi-
sion of the world as a great clock, operating
according to mechanistic and deterministic
laws. From a given cosmology, a specific phi-
losophy emerges, postulating certain values,
and these mainly affect the directions of ac-
tivities undertaken by man (Skolimowski
1992, 12).
Ecophilosophical and Ecopsychological Aspects…
29
Cosmology Philosophy Values Action
Fig. 1. Relationships between Cosmology, Philosophy, Values and Action according to Henryk
Skolimowski.
The eco-cosmology postulated by Skoli-
mowski is based on a vision of the World
as a place endowed with the sanctity of Life,
opposite to mechanicism and determinism.
It is the basis of the eco-philosophy, which
Skolimowski understood metaphorically as
the tree of life, and practically as a system-
atic drawing of consequences from the very
assumption that the world is a sanctuary
(Skolimowski 1999). In this concept, man
and mind, as well as their spirituality, are
a natural result of cosmic evolution, under-
stood as a process of increasing complexity
aimed at the emergence of biological and
psychical life, and then noetic (mental) life.
In terms of eco-cosmology, the Cosmos
(the Universe) is an ontological extension
of Oikos, being the place and home of man
and other living creatures1.
A feature that distinguishes humans from
other species is the mind, awareness, and
self-awareness as well as creativity, and
the ability to take responsibility for one-
self and one’s surroundings. Skolimowski
considered the emergence of ecological
consciousness – symbiotic towards the to-
tality of life and the world, which opposes
the exploitative and dominant mechanistic
consciousness, alienating, dividing, and fo-
cused on the particular interests of the indi-
vidual, group, and species – as the key stage
of noetic evolution. Man’s realization of be-
longing to a larger whole, which is the eco-
logical environment, sensitivity to its state,
and taking responsibility for its well-being
and future, is a turning point in the process
of evolution of the human species. The eco-
logical transformation of our mentality, cul-
ture, and civilization is the condition for
human survival, which he often expressed in
1 A science that develops an interdisciplinary,
natural and humanistic view of the environment
and the Cosmos as a place of human existence is
Cosmoecology (Korpikiewicz 2020).
the statement that “the 21st century will be
an ecological century, or it will not be at all”.
The ecological awareness emerging at
the turn of the 20th and 21st centuries is part
of a new, holistic, and ecological paradigm,
which is also participatory. New values
emerge from it, which should guide an eco-
logical man (Homo ecologicus) in his actions.
Ecological and ethical behavior is a form
of human participation in the world, which
is conducive to both physical and mental
health, as well as to maintaining the balance
and sustainability of the environment. Skoli-
mowski sees the sources of mental disorders
in disorders of the participation of the natu-
ral part, which is man, in the whole of the bi-
otic community (community of life): “Our
modern times are afflicted with all kinds
of mental diseases and disorders because
human beings have been denied the right
to participation. An outburst of various
forms of therapy in our times is a hidden re-
sponse of life to reestablish the right to par-
ticipation. All therapy is an attempt to bring
the person back to meaningful forms of par-
ticipation” (Skolimowski 1994, 182).
Participation is a way of restoring a dis-
turbed balance and healing damaged rela-
tions between a person and his environment.
It makes possible to overcome pathological
individualization and alienation of man from
the community of being and Life on Earth.
In the cosmological dimension, the holis-
tic participation means conscious presence
of the mind in the world (Cosmos) and par-
ticipation of the world in the mind, without
which it is inconceivable. The world is not
only passively reflected in the mind as in
a mirror but is created by the mind through
its sensitivities: sensual, emotional, cognitive,
spiritual. It is through us, beings endowed
with mind and various sensitivities, that
the Cosmos gets to know and contemplate
itself. This shows the fundamental, organic
Mikołaj Niedek
30
unity of man with the place of his birth and
life – the World. Forgetting about this rela-
tionship, man alienates himself from Nature
and himself, suffering enormous spiritual
losses, which he wants to compensate for
with excessive consumption. In this ap-
proach, the world is treated as a collection
of exchangeable resources, and development
is understood as progress in their appropri-
ation and commercialization, in the name
of never-ending growth and consumption.
As Ignacy S. Fiut sums it up: “How-
ever, a quick pace of life causes a drop in
its quality, namely the occurrence of mass
stress, civilisational, mental and spiritual
diseases, cultural de-rooting and social al-
ienation, mainly due to the media that keep
false euphoria among people, which, as
a consequence, has unleashed on the mass
scale existential fear that is concealed under
the enhanced and redundant consumption.
(…) In Skolimowski’s assessment, the main
cause of this is the lack of spiritual balance
in people. It is well reflected in modern
art, and which results in loss of awareness
of the need for responsible self-limitation
in action, self-development, and therefore
the ability of creative self-realisation, thus
as a consequence they resolve to unlimited
freedom of choice, realised in the unlimited
forms of consumption” (Fiut 2009, 39, 42).
By analyzing the causes of the disturbing
relationship between humans and the envi-
ronment, Skolimowski identified the source
of this disorder, like many other ecophilos-
ophers, in a mechanistic paradigm, founded
at the beginning of the modern era by F. Ba-
con, Galileo, Descartes, and Newton. This
paradigm resulted in a reductionist image
of the world, implying an instrumental, ma-
nipulative and exploitative attitude towards
nature and people, as well as towards knowl-
edge and cognition (scientia est potentia),
promoting such values as: effectiveness, ef-
ficiency, controllability, instrumentalization,
use and progress. According to Skolimowski,
these values are embodied in modern tech-
nology, in which the instrumental and con-
quering approach to the world, treated as
a collection of things to be used, reaches its
apogee.2 They stimulate the materialistic
economy of continuous production and con-
sumption growth, at the expense of the envi-
ronment (consumerism) and at the expense
of spiritual development, culture, and au-
totelic values. It results in an ecological,
social, psychological, and cultural crisis
manifested in the relativism and nihilism
of the postmodern era. Although he created
eco-ethics as practical guidelines for respon-
sible and committed behavior in the era
of the ecological crisis, Skolimowski did not
develop the psychological and therapeutic
threads of his eco-philosophy. Therefore, it
is worth considering the main assumptions
of pro-ecologically oriented psychology
(ecopsychology) against this background.
2. Ecologically sensitive psychology
The authorship of the term ecopsychology
and the creation of its main concept is at-
tributed to Theodore Roszak, an Ameri-
can historian of ideas who became famous
for his analysis of youth movements in
the 1960s as Counter Culture. However,
the first systematic reflections on psycho-
logical grounds on the causes of the contem-
porary ecological crisis were carried out in
the 1970s by Robert Greenway, postulating
the concept of psychoecology (Greenway
1995) and Paul Shepard. A comprehensive
interpretation of green psychology was also
presented by an American psychologist
Ralph Metzner (Metzner 1999)3. According
2 In this perspective, Skolimowski would also
criticize the so-called transhumanism aiming at
human cyborgization and the maximum technici-
zation of life.
3 The name “ecological psychology” was already
used in the 1950s – 1960s for research on human
perception and behavior in natural surroundings
(outside the laboratory) by researchers such as Ja-
mes Gibson, Roger Barker, and Urie Bronfenbren-
ner. Although their approach was characterized
by a departure from behaviorism, a systemic and
holistic approach, and emphasizing the importance
of the environment for human and his development,
strictly ecological themes were essentially absent in
their research and works (Bańka 2002).
Ecophilosophical and Ecopsychological Aspects…
31
to Shepard, the key issue of ecopsychology is
the question of why man destroys his habi-
tat – the environment of his life at all. In his
opinion, in order to understand destructive
human behavior, it is not enough to know
the history of ideas, although we are cur-
rently dealing with the largest gap in his-
tory between the dominant philosophy and
the Earth (Shepard 1998, 2-3).
However, Shepard did not see the sources
of the contemporary crisis in the relation-
ship between man and the environment in
the modern dualism, but several thousand
years earlier, on the threshold of the Neo-
lithic era, when an agricultural civilization
emerged, and the lifestyle of the human spe-
cies changed from hunter-gatherer to sed-
entary. The increasing scale of nature’s
transformation over time has led to the cre-
ation of a completely artificial environment,
that does not correspond to human nature
or our biological and psychological needs.
According to Shepard, this prevents natu-
ral development and maturity, resulting in
the structural alienation of man from nature
and psychological consequences in the form
of mental disorders and diseases. Civili-
zation madness (title of Shepard’s book) is
the opposite of natural order and ecological
balance.
According to Shepard, the expression
of the childhood immaturity of mankind is
fantasizing about omnipotence and eternal
expansion, narcissism, and egocentrism, not
distinguishing between reality and fiction,
illusions, inconsistency, and irresponsibil-
ity. These features have become a perma-
nent element of the personality of modern
man. Civilization and its institutions have
created systems to sustain this immaturity.
An example is an economic system based on
compulsive consumption. It is supported by
the Western mentality (especially, as Shep-
ard emphasizes, the American), which is
characterized by obsessive overconsumption,
waste and a desire to achieve immediate
gratification here and now. The psycho-
logical effects of immaturity are, accord-
ing to Shepard: escape into addiction and
escapism, violence and destruction, depres-
sion, indiscriminate use of psychotherapy,
susceptibility to manipulation. The ecolog-
ical effect is the destruction of the natu-
ral environment, unprecedented in history.
The overeating the world becomes an un-
conscious, desperate substitute for self-de-
velopment. Contemporary man is plunged
into insane helplessness, unaware of his own
and ecological boundaries and the possibil-
ities of his internal development, destroying
himself, the world, and his future (Roszak,
Gomes and Kanner 1995, 32).
Contrary to P. Shepard, Theodore Roszak
did not see the causes of the contemporary
ecological crisis until the agrarian revolution,
but like the vast majority of ecophilosophers
in expansive western culture and in dualism
that has dominated the western cognitive
paradigm from the second half of the 17th
century. According to Roszak, the Western
system of values aims at control, domina-
tion, manipulation, and effectiveness that is
responsible for the destructive attitudes and
actions of humans towards the environment,
people, communities and other cultures.
The aim of his project of ecopsychology is
to build a bridge between the Person and
the Planet, between the external (world)
and the internal (soul), between ecology and
psychology. The division into internal (men-
tal) and external (physical) reality negates
the obvious fact that the mental is also in-
side the world (in the world), and the world
is reflected in our mind.
At the deep level that ecopsychology tries
to reach, human nature is connected with
the nature of the world – Nature. There-
fore, the suffering of nature caused by hu-
man interference, and on a global scale
by the expansion of civilization, mani-
fests itself through us in the form of suf-
fering of the soul, which are various kinds
of mental disorders and diseases. It follows
that without healing the environment, it
will not be possible to eliminate the causes
of the modern epidemic of mental disor-
ders and diseases resulting from an increas-
ingly degraded environment. The voice and
Mikołaj Niedek
32
scream of the Earth, in the title of Roszak’s
main opus, manifests itself through us, hu-
mans, through our sensitivity and conscious-
ness, and through the suffering of the Earth
through the diseases that affect us as a result
of a polluted and unhealthy environment.
According to Roszak, the source of many
contemporary mental disorders is the patho-
logical relationship between humans and na-
ture. The psychopathology of our everyday
life is created by ecological problems: global
warming, increasing environmental pollu-
tion, deforestation, loss of biodiversity, etc.
Roszak draws attention to the fundamen-
tal pathology of urban-industrial culture
and, at the same time, to the ineffective-
ness of the actions based on the “shock and
shame” strategy and rational argumentation,
taken so far to counteract the destruction
of the environment. This, in his opinion, is
similar to admonishing a pyromaniac “that
he sets fire”. Roszak explains environmen-
tally destructive consumerism in psychologi-
cal terms as compensation for the alienation
of man from the Whole, Meaning and Na-
ture. He also notices, like Skolimowski,
the basic ties between the adopted vision
of a person’s place in the world (in the Cos-
mos) and the fundamental sense of existen-
tial meaning.
According to Roszak, ecopsychology is
a science, which will help us to understand
both the deep meaning of our mental suf-
fering related to experiencing the ecological
crisis and destroying the diversity of Life on
Earth, as well as designing effective ways
of overcoming this crisis. To do this, ac-
cording to Roszak, culture must change,
because the mere awareness of the sources
of the contemporary crisis and reflection on
its causes and effects is not enough. Roszak,
therefore, sees the causes of the present cri-
sis in human relations with the environment,
and its prospective cure, in culture.
Unlike Skolimowski, he sees the key role
in the transformation of our culture into
a more pro-ecological one, not in philoso-
phy, but precisely in psychology, although
it sets goals and tasks similar to those
of Skolimowski: “The great changes our
runaway industrial civilisation must make if
we are kept the planet healthy will not come
about by the force of reason alone or the in-
fluence of the fact. Rather, they will come by
way of psychological transformation. What
the Earth requires will have to make itself
felt within us as if it were our own most pri-
vate desire. Facts and figures, reason and
logic can show us the errors of our present
ways; they can delineate the risks we run.
But they cannot motivate, they cannot teach
us a better way to live, a better way to want
to live. Thus, must be born from inside our
own convictions (…) A modern science
of the soul that is adequate to its task must
minister to that discontent as something
that is more and other than sexuality-based,
family-based, or socially-based. In our time,
the private psyche in its search for sanity
needs a context that embraces all that sci-
ence has to tell us about the evolution of life
on Earth, about the stars and the galaxies
that are the distant origin of our existence.”
(Roszak 1992, 47).
In the need of this invigorating cosmo-
logical and ecological knowledge as the ba-
sis for the ecological transformation of our
mind (metanoia), Roszak converges essen-
tially with the vision of Skolimowski, who
believed that we are the eyes of the Cos-
mos, through which the Cosmos knows it-
self. According to Roszak, we are the voice
of the Earth, through which our planet
obtains its awareness and self-knowledge.
By getting to know our planet and the en-
tire cosmos more broadly, we get to know
ourselves and our genesis. The awareness
of the beauty and wonder of existence
and the world builds our strength to resist
the destruction that ecological (and cosmo-
logical) ignorance causes in our environ-
ment. Roszak notices that the needs of our
soul are analogous to the needs of nature;
we need mental health, the balance of mind,
and peace of the soul, just as natural eco-
systems need undisturbed functioning (ho-
meostasis). A summary of the differences
and common elements of Skolimowski’s
Ecophilosophical and Ecopsychological Aspects…
33
eco-philosophy and Roszak’s ecopsychology
is presented in Table 1.
In addition to extensive analyzes of the
genesis of the contemporary crisis in the re-
lationship between Man and Nature, Roszak
included a synthetic interpretation of his
ecopsychology in eight principles. They say
that the path to ecological awareness leads
through awareness of the content of the eco-
logical unconscious, which includes the nat-
ural history of the evolution of the Cosmos,
Earth, and Man. Just as the aim of earlier
therapies was to discover the repressed con-
tents of the human unconscious, the aim
of ecopsychology is to awaken the innate
sense of interdependence with nature, hid-
den in ecological ignorance. Ecopsychology
seeks to heal the more fundamental alien-
ation between the recently formed urban
psyche and the centuries-old natural en-
vironment. Roszak recommends a return
to children’s and women’s sensitivity to na-
ture – creating an ecological Self from child-
hood, through sensitizing children to nature.
Shaping ecological responsibility for the en-
vironment should be a function of an eco-
logical Self. In his opinion, anything that
contributes to the development of small so-
cial forms and the acquisition of personal
power strengthens the ecological Self, and
anything that leads to large-scale dominance
and suppression of personal power under-
mines the ecological Self.
Breaking unity and harmony with nature
is traumatic, making modern man sus-
ceptible to all addictions, the most telling
example of which, according to C. Glend-
inning, is the dependence on technology:
a technocentric, technocratic and addictive
psycho-socio-economic system embodies
the mechanistic principles of standardi-
zation, linearity, efficiency, fragmentation
(Glendinning 1995, 45). Artificial and driven
by an obsessive rule of consumption and
a continual increase in productivity, the so-
cio-economic environment produces
an “All-Consuming Self ” that eats away at
the planet Earth and its future. The unre-
strained and unsatisfied rule of consump-
tion is proportional to the inner, spiritual
emptiness that results from the unfulfilled
natural and deep needs of belonging, union,
and love. It is the absorbing and dominant
Self that M.E. Gomes and A.D. Kanner re-
fer to as “Separative Self ” – separated from
the wider social and ecological context
(Gomes and Kanner 1995, 115).
Since its initiation by Roszak, ecopsy-
chology has developed both towards a bi-
ocentric radicalization inspired by deep
Table 1. Summary of sources and main assumptions of the eco-philosophy of H. Skolimowski and
the ecopsychology of Th. Roszak (elaborated by the author)
Sources and assumptions of Roszak’s ecopsychology
Sources and assumptions of Skolimowski’s eco-
philosophy
S. Freud: the concept of the individual unconscious (human K. R. Popper; T. Kuhn: philosophy of science, evolution
biologicality, instincts)
of paradigms
C. G. Jung: the concept of the collective unconscious as a species Teilhard de Chardin: evolutionary theology A.N.
evolutionary heritage
Whitehead, A. Schweitzer, M. Gandhi
Deep ecology biocentric egalitarianism
Holistic eco-ethics, moderate anthropocentrism
Criticism and rejection of: mechanicism, dualism, materialism, scientism, positivism, reductionism, existentialism,
pessimism.
The meaning of the non-intellectual dimensions of the mind (sensitivity, feelings, values, care, trust, love). Epistemological
equality of science, art, and religion
Socio-cultural revolutions of the 1960s: rejection of consumerism (urban-industrial culture), pacifism, Holism, ecofeminism
Processual, systemic, and evolutionary perspective; New Physics and Cosmology: Anthropic principle, Gaia hypothesis
Ecological Self rooted in Ecological Unconscious
The Participatory Mind
Psychological transformation
Metanoia
Mikołaj Niedek
34
ecology (Fischer 2002) and towards a broad
approach to the psychology of sustainability
(Scott et al. 2021). The practical direction
of the development of ecopsychology – its
operationalization in the form of practi-
cal applications is ecotherapy. Its first defi-
nition was coined by an American pastor,
Howard Clinebell and relates to a reciprocal
form of healing whereby personal healing
is initiated through mindful immersion in
nature, which in turn empowers a person
with an invigorated capacity to conserve
the Earth (Clinebell 1996).
Conclusion
The proposal that integrates the philosoph-
ical-ethical and psychological-existential
approach in the form of a sustainable life-
style pattern and a responsible consump-
tion attitude based on H. Skolimowski’s
eco-ethics is frugalism. The English word
frugality reflects all three values: economy,
moderation, modesty. Recognizing frugal-
ity as the central and general determinant
of the sustainability attitude, its dissemi-
nation and practice in everyday life can be
described exactly as frugalism. Frugality is
understood by Skolimowski as follows: “Fru-
gality is a vehicle of responsibility, a mode
of being that makes responsibility possible
and tangible, in the world in which we rec-
ognize natural constraints and the symbiotic
relationships of a connected system of life.
To understand the right of others to live is
to limit our unnecessary wants. The motto
in one of the Franciscan retreat houses
reads: “Anything we have that is more than
we need is stolen from those who have less
than they need”. (…) Frugality is an opti-
mal model of living vis-à-vis other beings.
A true awareness of frugality and its right
enactment is born out of the conviction that
things of the greatest values are free: friend-
ship, love, inner joy, the freedom to develop
within. (…) On a higher level still, frugality
is grace without waste. (…) frugality is not
a prohibition, not a negative command-
ment (be frugal or be doomed), but a posi-
tive precept: be frugal and shine with health
and grace. (…) Aristotle was already aware
of the beauty of frugality when he wrote
that the rich are not only the ones who own
much but also the ones who need little. (…)
You cannot be truly reverential towards life
unless you are frugal, in this present world
of ours in which the balances are so delicate
and so easy to strain” (Skolimowski 1992,
213-214).
In the context of the above-characterised
balanced pattern of consumption, sustain-
able lifestyle, and ethics of consumption,
frugalism can therefore be defined as a per-
manent ethical disposition of the character
of a human being aimed at satisfying con-
sumption needs in a moderate, economical,
and modest manner, opposing the con-
sumption of excess and wastage, and
aware of wider social and environmental
consequences of the acts of consumption
(Niedek and Krajewski 2021). The condi-
tion for this attitude is therefore recognition
of real and genuine consumer needs, having
ecological awareness and knowledge, and
directing life energy towards more spiritual
than material development (deconsumption
and dematerialisation of consumption). Ta-
ble 2 presents a comparative comparison
of the features of the consumerist (overcon-
sumption) attitude with the frugalistic one.
Frugalism is one of many possible forms
of practicing a sustainable lifestyle, next
to the increasingly popular minimalism,
freeganism, and the Voluntary Simplicity
movement (Niedek and Krajewski
2021). The authors cited earlier also
qualify and characterize as sustainable
lifestyles: Fair Trade, Values and Lifestyles
Segmentation, Lifestyle of health and
sustainability, Wellness, Hygge, Lagom,
Slow living, Smart living, Low-carbon
lifestyles (Lubowiecki-Vikuk et al. 2021,
97). In the ecopsychological perspective,
as well as in the light of the assumptions
of positive psychology, a balanced lifestyle
can perform (psycho)therapeutic and
prophylactic functions both in the area
of human impact on the environment
and the sphere of negative psychological
Ecophilosophical and Ecopsychological Aspects…
35
Table 2. Comparison of the characteristics of consumerist and frugalistic attitudes (elaborated by
the author).
Features of a consumerist consumer attitude
Features of a frugalistic (sustainable) consumer attitude
Satisfying egoistic desires and whims
Satisfying real needs
Ostentatious and snobbish consumption
Modesty
Waste
Recovering
Compulsive consumption
Consumption resulting from real needs
Overconsumption
Sustainable and moderate consumption
Consumption of cheap and perishable goods (low- Consumption of durable and high-quality goods (in particular
quality products, junk food)
of ecological quality)
Predominance of consumption of material goods
Consumption of intangible goods (knowledge, art, beauty, services)
– focussing on personal, spiritual, and interpersonal development
Self-centred consumption, without awareness
of ecological and social effects and costs
Consumption aware of the social and environmental impact
Hedonistic consumption
(aimed at instant gratification “here and now”)
Consumption aware of the pre-consumption stage (origin,
way of producing products) and post-consumption stage (way
of managing post-consumer waste)
effects of the progressing ecological
crisis. Changing the lifestyle to more
sustainable and taking practical actions for
the environment may be an element and
a positive effect of the eco-therapy process,
through its links with the client’s everyday
life (Buzzell 2009).
From a psychological perspective, the is-
sue of sustainable consumption focuses on
identifying the consumer’s real needs, de-
sires and motivations, as well as broad psy-
chological and psycho-social factors of his
consumption choices and consumer behav-
iour. From the ecopsychological perspective,
particular attention is paid to such patholog-
ical phenomena in the behaviour of society
like compulsivity, compensation, narcissism,
and addiction – the features of consumerism.
This is a valuable complement to the charac-
teristics conducted from the philosophical,
axiological, and ethical perspective, which
may be of key importance for increasing
the effectiveness of the practical implemen-
tation of the pattern of sustainable lifestyle
and responsible consumption in society, in-
cluding designing effective activities and
projects in informal and formal education
for sustainable development and in pro-eco-
logical pedagogy.
Funding: This research received no external funding.
Institutional Review Board Statement: Not applica-
ble.
Conflicts of Interest: The author declares no conflict
of interest.
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