Call me wolfing. I was murdered in Lancashire (now a part of Cumbria) in 1390CE, by some pre-enli... more Call me wolfing. I was murdered in Lancashire (now a part of Cumbria) in 1390CE, by some pre-enlightened gentlemen. It was just before the perceptual turning point from Theos to Mechanos; from a transcendent God to little ghosts in your little machines. We were once many in the forested lands of all my relations but this changed (again) as a residue from the land laws of the Norman invaders
Prof. Chis Loynes and Dr. Jamie Mcphie, lecturers at the University of Cumbria, discuss Swallows ... more Prof. Chis Loynes and Dr. Jamie Mcphie, lecturers at the University of Cumbria, discuss Swallows and Amazons and the Changing Place of Adventure in Society
Eco-theory is dominated by green just as Western perceptions of landscapes are dominated by maps.... more Eco-theory is dominated by green just as Western perceptions of landscapes are dominated by maps. How does this green lens influence how we perceive, explore and exploit the world? What does it do? What is this green world really like? This keynote is an experience that exposes an unseen environment using a ‘prismatic ecology’ (Cohen, 2013); a more-than-human rainbow of colourful lenses for you to adorn. It invites you to be involved, challenged and entertained—to become a participant rather than an observer. There will be analogies, metaphor and empirical musings. We welcome you to join in the exploration of dark rhizomatic passages and discover what you never knew about lampposts but be prepared for a sting in the tale
There is a growing body of evidence indicating that anxiety, stress and mental ill-health are bec... more There is a growing body of evidence indicating that anxiety, stress and mental ill-health are becoming more prevalent in modern Western societies. At the same time, climate change and mass extinction have now taken root in a period of the earth's history that has been labelled, 'the Anthropocene' and/or 'Capitalocene'. Some academics have related these various issues to a 'crisis of perception' and a general nature-culture perceptual misalignment. This thesis/play is a deconstruction and (re)construction of human-environment conceptions in relation to mental health and wellbeing. More precisely, it is an attempt to map 'the spread mind' in 'environ(mental) health' (Mcphie, 2014a). (Intra-)Act 1 is an exploration of the performativity of particular Euclidean concepts as well as post-Enlightenment environmental and psychotherapeutic paradigms, with a particular emphasis on those that purport an innate connection with nature. The act also (re...
Abstract In this introduction to a special issue of Environmental Education Research on New Mater... more Abstract In this introduction to a special issue of Environmental Education Research on New Materialisms and Environmental Education, we begin with a brief overview to this publishing project and to scholarship on new materialisms and environmental education. Against this backdrop, we then discuss various themes of significance arising from the broader tumult of thought that occurs in the 17 papers that bring these areas into conversation. In brief, papers gathered in this collection illustrate a series of engagements with: (1) new empiricism and post-qualitative inquiry; (2) the meeting of politics, ethics, and decolonial theory with new materialisms; (3) conceptions of nature, environment, sustainability and the human subject; and (4) new materialisms as environmental pedagogy. We recognise that readers will imagine, detect and respond in diverse ways to the papers and the thematics on their own terms too, noting that other inclusions in the collection would likely have generated different patterns and affordances for insight, challenge and debate. Thus, we argue that in some senses, the collection must remain open rather than closed, while we also invite further contributions on the topics, that engage with what the collection does and does not offer, and to rework it. In other words, we trust our introduction underscores the immanent performativity expected of many of the new materialisms, and highlights their potential to forge axiological pathways away from dominant onto-epistemologies of environmental education research. Video Abstract Read the transcript Watch the video on Vimeo
Tattoo comes from “tatau,” a Samoan/Tahitian word for mark. Graffiti recorded on walls are also a... more Tattoo comes from “tatau,” a Samoan/Tahitian word for mark. Graffiti recorded on walls are also an inscription in a skin, a narrative in the flesh of the city (an extension of our-selves), and someone has extended a cut from their own flesh to this urban skin, a sort of dermatological testimony. Our organic skin creates an illusory belief that, that is where we end and the rest of the environment begins. Hence, removing graffiti from walls may be positioned as a palimpsest of dermabrasion, political censorship, and bodily restriction. In this chapter, New Materialisms, Contemporary Animism, and the New Science of the Mind/Situated Aesthetics help me to conceive mental health and well-being differently while investigating tataus and graffiti in the city of Liverpool.
They thought they felt something, perhaps. The wisp of an outline not distinct enough to trace. G... more They thought they felt something, perhaps. The wisp of an outline not distinct enough to trace. Good. They circled it, at times, and at other times found themselves within. As they walked (a sort of walking. Figurative but real. Digital, but here. Over months of events), it curled open and headed in several directions. Foldings in the backcloth that furrowed them along until, as they walked and talked, they felt that perhaps a territory was becoming simultaneously clearer and more obscure, that they might find a way to enquire, even as it meant becoming the folds themselves. As they coalesce, Scott, Jamie, and Dave each come to this project differently (of course). From their own situations, with their own problems and with different voices and ways of writing. We (for the first shift in voice) take post-qualitative inquiry to be infused with a question mark, wary of attempts to make it a ‘thing’. Yet here we are, drawn to potentials, to the opening of conditions, to the possibility...
Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Anthropocene, 2019
This chapter unpacks some of the assumptions of the E-psychotherapies—environmental psychology, e... more This chapter unpacks some of the assumptions of the E-psychotherapies—environmental psychology, evolutionary psychology, ecopsychology and ecotherapy—and suggests that the healing power of ‘nature’ is really the healing power of ‘concepts’. It is an exploration of the performativity of post-Enlightenment psychotherapeutic paradigms and reveals the fervency of growing trends in ‘nature connectedness’, highlighting some problematic trends embedded within modern Western ecopsychological paradigms.
Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Anthropocene, 2019
This chapter highlights how mental health and wellbeing is ‘conceptually’ spread. It unpacks some... more This chapter highlights how mental health and wellbeing is ‘conceptually’ spread. It unpacks some oft-used environmental concepts such as Landscape, Nature and Wilderness in order to highlight how each concept distorts our realities and the physical consequences of such inventions. Hence, certain urban and rural environments may be perceived as welcoming or healthy due to the wealth—epistemological, social, monetary, spiritual, hegemonic and so on—associated with their aesthetic appeal. The author suggests a post-romantic/post-nature perspective is needed to rebalance sociological inequities of mental health and wellbeing.
Call me wolfing. I was murdered in Lancashire (now a part of Cumbria) in 1390CE, by some pre-enli... more Call me wolfing. I was murdered in Lancashire (now a part of Cumbria) in 1390CE, by some pre-enlightened gentlemen. It was just before the perceptual turning point from Theos to Mechanos; from a transcendent God to little ghosts in your little machines. We were once many in the forested lands of all my relations but this changed (again) as a residue from the land laws of the Norman invaders
Prof. Chis Loynes and Dr. Jamie Mcphie, lecturers at the University of Cumbria, discuss Swallows ... more Prof. Chis Loynes and Dr. Jamie Mcphie, lecturers at the University of Cumbria, discuss Swallows and Amazons and the Changing Place of Adventure in Society
Eco-theory is dominated by green just as Western perceptions of landscapes are dominated by maps.... more Eco-theory is dominated by green just as Western perceptions of landscapes are dominated by maps. How does this green lens influence how we perceive, explore and exploit the world? What does it do? What is this green world really like? This keynote is an experience that exposes an unseen environment using a ‘prismatic ecology’ (Cohen, 2013); a more-than-human rainbow of colourful lenses for you to adorn. It invites you to be involved, challenged and entertained—to become a participant rather than an observer. There will be analogies, metaphor and empirical musings. We welcome you to join in the exploration of dark rhizomatic passages and discover what you never knew about lampposts but be prepared for a sting in the tale
There is a growing body of evidence indicating that anxiety, stress and mental ill-health are bec... more There is a growing body of evidence indicating that anxiety, stress and mental ill-health are becoming more prevalent in modern Western societies. At the same time, climate change and mass extinction have now taken root in a period of the earth's history that has been labelled, 'the Anthropocene' and/or 'Capitalocene'. Some academics have related these various issues to a 'crisis of perception' and a general nature-culture perceptual misalignment. This thesis/play is a deconstruction and (re)construction of human-environment conceptions in relation to mental health and wellbeing. More precisely, it is an attempt to map 'the spread mind' in 'environ(mental) health' (Mcphie, 2014a). (Intra-)Act 1 is an exploration of the performativity of particular Euclidean concepts as well as post-Enlightenment environmental and psychotherapeutic paradigms, with a particular emphasis on those that purport an innate connection with nature. The act also (re...
Abstract In this introduction to a special issue of Environmental Education Research on New Mater... more Abstract In this introduction to a special issue of Environmental Education Research on New Materialisms and Environmental Education, we begin with a brief overview to this publishing project and to scholarship on new materialisms and environmental education. Against this backdrop, we then discuss various themes of significance arising from the broader tumult of thought that occurs in the 17 papers that bring these areas into conversation. In brief, papers gathered in this collection illustrate a series of engagements with: (1) new empiricism and post-qualitative inquiry; (2) the meeting of politics, ethics, and decolonial theory with new materialisms; (3) conceptions of nature, environment, sustainability and the human subject; and (4) new materialisms as environmental pedagogy. We recognise that readers will imagine, detect and respond in diverse ways to the papers and the thematics on their own terms too, noting that other inclusions in the collection would likely have generated different patterns and affordances for insight, challenge and debate. Thus, we argue that in some senses, the collection must remain open rather than closed, while we also invite further contributions on the topics, that engage with what the collection does and does not offer, and to rework it. In other words, we trust our introduction underscores the immanent performativity expected of many of the new materialisms, and highlights their potential to forge axiological pathways away from dominant onto-epistemologies of environmental education research. Video Abstract Read the transcript Watch the video on Vimeo
Tattoo comes from “tatau,” a Samoan/Tahitian word for mark. Graffiti recorded on walls are also a... more Tattoo comes from “tatau,” a Samoan/Tahitian word for mark. Graffiti recorded on walls are also an inscription in a skin, a narrative in the flesh of the city (an extension of our-selves), and someone has extended a cut from their own flesh to this urban skin, a sort of dermatological testimony. Our organic skin creates an illusory belief that, that is where we end and the rest of the environment begins. Hence, removing graffiti from walls may be positioned as a palimpsest of dermabrasion, political censorship, and bodily restriction. In this chapter, New Materialisms, Contemporary Animism, and the New Science of the Mind/Situated Aesthetics help me to conceive mental health and well-being differently while investigating tataus and graffiti in the city of Liverpool.
They thought they felt something, perhaps. The wisp of an outline not distinct enough to trace. G... more They thought they felt something, perhaps. The wisp of an outline not distinct enough to trace. Good. They circled it, at times, and at other times found themselves within. As they walked (a sort of walking. Figurative but real. Digital, but here. Over months of events), it curled open and headed in several directions. Foldings in the backcloth that furrowed them along until, as they walked and talked, they felt that perhaps a territory was becoming simultaneously clearer and more obscure, that they might find a way to enquire, even as it meant becoming the folds themselves. As they coalesce, Scott, Jamie, and Dave each come to this project differently (of course). From their own situations, with their own problems and with different voices and ways of writing. We (for the first shift in voice) take post-qualitative inquiry to be infused with a question mark, wary of attempts to make it a ‘thing’. Yet here we are, drawn to potentials, to the opening of conditions, to the possibility...
Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Anthropocene, 2019
This chapter unpacks some of the assumptions of the E-psychotherapies—environmental psychology, e... more This chapter unpacks some of the assumptions of the E-psychotherapies—environmental psychology, evolutionary psychology, ecopsychology and ecotherapy—and suggests that the healing power of ‘nature’ is really the healing power of ‘concepts’. It is an exploration of the performativity of post-Enlightenment psychotherapeutic paradigms and reveals the fervency of growing trends in ‘nature connectedness’, highlighting some problematic trends embedded within modern Western ecopsychological paradigms.
Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Anthropocene, 2019
This chapter highlights how mental health and wellbeing is ‘conceptually’ spread. It unpacks some... more This chapter highlights how mental health and wellbeing is ‘conceptually’ spread. It unpacks some oft-used environmental concepts such as Landscape, Nature and Wilderness in order to highlight how each concept distorts our realities and the physical consequences of such inventions. Hence, certain urban and rural environments may be perceived as welcoming or healthy due to the wealth—epistemological, social, monetary, spiritual, hegemonic and so on—associated with their aesthetic appeal. The author suggests a post-romantic/post-nature perspective is needed to rebalance sociological inequities of mental health and wellbeing.
It is refreshing to see there is an intelligent challenge to outdoor ‘recreation’ in its dominant... more It is refreshing to see there is an intelligent challenge to outdoor ‘recreation’ in its dominant, hegemonic form within this book by some of the authors. For example, Pip Lynch calls for more critical research; Karen Warren asks for a paradigm shift in thinking; Tony Rea and Sue Waite challenge the incompatibility of educational standards with outdoor education; Elizabeth Andre asks for a change in current ‘Leave No Trace’ assumptions and practices; and the editors, Bruce Martin and Mark Wagstaff, have provided the opportunity for the authors to reassess some of ‘the underlying assumptions on which the practice of adventure programming is based’ (p. v) as they purport, the ‘. . . industry is only as relevant as the social concerns that it tackles’ (p. vi). But the book itself missed an opportunity for intercultural readership and parity through its own Amerocentric language, ethics and choice of issues. In effect, this is a decent critique of the dominant discourse within current outdoor recreation trends by the dominant hegemonic group itself, yet it finds itself in a contradictory landscape as it fails to include those very voices that it claims to champion.
Humans are not separate from the environment, we’re not ‘part’ of the environment, we ‘are’ the e... more Humans are not separate from the environment, we’re not ‘part’ of the environment, we ‘are’ the environment. But it is precisely this belief, that we could ever be separate from it (even calling it ‘it’ is problematic), that I believe is causing so much environmental (and by this I also mean/include social and cultural) degradation. This includes the romanticised belief that we need to ‘reconnect’ with ‘nature’ as it supposes that we are not connected at the moment (falling into the Cartesian trap), which is impossible…isn’t it? By drawing lines of separation where we say this side is for nature (that green stuff ‘out there’) and this side is for culture, we are only encouraging and furthering this belief. However, if we have full access to certain delicate environments without the wisdom of realising that we are not just a ‘part’ of the environment but actually ‘are’ the environment (supporting a theory of immanence rather than transcendence), then further disregard, destruction and homogenisation may ensue (although these concepts are also ‘natural’). If we are to endure the current extinction event that we’ve brought about, we must understand that our environments are not just shared with equally important ecosystems, and not that we are a part of these ecosystems, but that these ecosystems are ‘of’ us. Therefore, if we want to live environmentally and socially equitable lifestyles, we must understand and treat our environments as an extended self, for that is exactly what they are.
Affects, concepts and percepts of space and place are everywhere, from spatialized places to plac... more Affects, concepts and percepts of space and place are everywhere, from spatialized places to placeless spaces. From the unconscious meanderings of urban shopaholics to the semi-spiritual countryside stroll, the rhythmic swagger of emotional geography co-produces the warp of affect-percept-concept and weft of behaviour. But something new is stirring in the affective turn. If you look closely, you will hear whispers of eco-anxiety in the spaces between the cracks. Climate-anxiety may be visible in the trophic cascades and changing shapes of green architecture, the patterns and rhythms of shoppers, the increasing lethargy of a tree’s changing colours, the growing eagerness of Bluebells and the increasingly temperamental political climate. But if we try to measure these changes by scientizing space and place, they will inevitably become Euclidean points, devoid of emotion. However, if we think of places instead as affectual paths, we may begin to explore more novel (and possibly fruitful) lines of inquiry. Instead of travelling from place to place, like dot-to-dot, we would let the path take us for a walk. In this interactive psychogeography session, we will explore emotion, political affect, eco-anxiety and wellbeing through notions of space and place to map the affective (urban) run-off that intertwines with our unconscious environ(mental) selves. As the climate changes, rather like the Titanic, some (humans and other-than-humans) may have to cling on to the sides whilst others may be afforded protected luxury a little while longer. But the ship still sank! We may get lost, so come prepared!
Prevailing approaches to research methodologies have been criticized as problematic, due to their... more Prevailing approaches to research methodologies have been criticized as problematic, due to their overly binary assumptions (such as the mind/body split or objective/subjective orientations). Alternative approaches, such as phenomenology and post-structuralist perspectives, attempt to overcome these dualisms, yet issues remain concerning temporal illusions, anthropocentrism and binary bias. This paper joins the debate in the field of health and wellbeing by exploring the potential of emerging non-binary approaches (such as process externalism, the philosophy of becoming, and Ingold’s (2011) ‘knots’), and presents a ‘transitional’ process view to inform the methodological paradigm. This provides direction forward for researchers in understanding how perceptions of environments influence health and wellbeing
Most analysis procedures represent phenomena by reducing the data into abstract forms or categori... more Most analysis procedures represent phenomena by reducing the data into abstract forms or categorising them into newly formed codes or themes, to ‘re-present’ and ‘interpret’ events in order to find some sort of truth. These analyses purport to measure or capture linear cause and effect patterns but by doing so run the risk of creating new knowledge founded on a narrow perspective (by ‘reducing the variables’). It also ignores the complex meshwork of non-linear topological processes that may be just as important to the occurrence of events. A Deleuzian inspired ‘rhizoanalysis’ offers an alternative form of exploration in research that is both productive and creative rather than representational and interpretive. This paper introduces playwriting and tattoos as novel and transgressive techniques to analyse material in a rhizomatic fashion. I will present a sample of this unusual method from my own PhD research into [environ]mental health and well-being. This will serve as an example of how this approach may be a useful and valuable addition to current methodological paradigms. Keywords: Rhizoanalysis, playwriting, topological processes, environ[mental] health.
An historical underlying doctrine in medicine suggests that nature is essential to mental wellbei... more An historical underlying doctrine in medicine suggests that nature is essential to mental wellbeing. The current assumptions about the restorative benefits of nature by many outdoor therapy practitioners and participants seem to be consistent with this established belief. To a degree, it is likely that this belief in the healing power of nature is an assumption founded deep within certain Western cultures. Furthermore, these assumptions occasionally lead to the belief that specific kinds of environment are more beneficial than others, indicating that current prescriptions that many doctors now adhere to, such as exercise or other kinds of outdoor based therapies as a remedy for stress or depression, may be based on beliefs and assumptions that are grounded in cultural tradition and influenced by social conditioning. Therefore, there may be certain constructs embedded within various cultures that condition people to like certain environments over others and ‘believe’ that nature has restorative benefits, so much so, that these ‘expectations’, ‘meanings’ and ’associations’ are further embodied, reinforcing these beliefs as an embodied placebo effect. This presentation will explore the historical literature and current practice within outdoor health interventions regarding the belief that nature heals, so that we may further understand the subjective and inter-subjective nature of experiencing green spaces and the impacts it may have on mental health and wellbeing.
The process of perceptual engagement with the environment of a person may influence and may be in... more The process of perceptual engagement with the environment of a person may influence and may be influenced by varying senses of self, some of which may have a positive influence on a person’s health and well-being. These therapeutic environments are places of transition whereby well-being may be thought of as ‘spread’ or ‘distributed’ in the environment as opposed to being enclosed within a bounded self and disconnected to fundamental ecological processes. This non-dualistic approach to well-being (where the mind is not thought of as separate from the body or the environment) can be utilised in creative ways and is a novel approach to understanding therapeutic processes in a range of environments.
This study introduces novel methods and presents the findings of a cooperative action research pr... more This study introduces novel methods and presents the findings of a cooperative action research project that has implications for how mental health and well-being is perceived and practiced in Western cultures. The purpose of the research co-emerged gradually over several years to explore how mental health is distributed in the environment as opposed to being solely contained within what has been described as the ‘skin bag’ of the human form. Within this study I introduce alternative ways in which mental health can be mapped topologically and creatively as an unconventional addition to the more traditionally linear ‘cause and effect’ tracings that often arise out of binary bias, anthropocentrism and temporal rigidity. The methods incorporated the practice of psychogeography and creative analysis procedures, such as rhizoanalysis and playwriting, to displace current mechanistic worldviews in mental health. The analysis technique was both productive and rhizomatic rather than representational and linear. This process re-weaves a complex, ‘messy’ paradigm that mixes process externalism with a flat inter-relational ecology. Starting with a Cartesian ghost story, the research intertwines varied phenomena and exposes them as spread in the human-environment process. The findings unmask dominant Cartesian approaches to therapeutic designs and tease out alternative praxis that may be beneficial to practitioners in the fields of mental health, therapeutic landscapes and ecopsychology. This study may be helpful also for those persons who enjoy exploring varied environments in more mindful ways.
Mental Health, Psychogeography, Rhizoanalysis, Process Externalism, Ecopsychology
Mental Health and Wellbeing in the Anthropocene: A Posthuman Inquiry, 2019
This book makes the unorthodox claim that there is no such thing as mental health. It also deglam... more This book makes the unorthodox claim that there is no such thing as mental health. It also deglamourises nature-based psychotherapies, deconstructs therapeutic landscapes and redefines mental health and wellbeing as an ecological process distributed in the environment – rather than a psychological manifestation trapped within the mind of a human subject. Traditional and contemporary philosophies are merged with new science of the mind as each chapter progressively examples a posthuman account of mental health as physically dispersed amongst things – emoji, photos, tattoos, graffiti, cities, mountains – in this precarious time labelled the Anthropocene. Utilising experimental walks, play scripts and creative research techniques, this book disrupts traditional notions of the subjective self, resulting in an Extended Body Hypothesis – a pathway for alternative narratives of human-environment relations to flourish more ethically. This transdisciplinary inquiry will appeal to anyone interested in non-classificatory accounts of mental health, particularly concerning areas of social and environmental equity – post-nature.
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Papers by Jamie Mcphie
Keywords: Rhizoanalysis, playwriting, topological processes, environ[mental] health.
Mental Health, Psychogeography, Rhizoanalysis, Process Externalism, Ecopsychology