Sight And Sensibility : The Ecopsychology Of Perception

Sight and Sensibility : The Ecopsychology of Perception

In the tradition of A Natural History of the Senses, an esteemed expert in ecopsychology shows how expanding the way we see the natural world can improve the way we relate to it.

In recent years, there has been a surge of interest in the connection between the human psyche and the natural environment. Fueled by a growing awareness of worldwide ecological degradation, an entirely new field of study, called ecopsychology, has emerged. At universities across the country, scientists are learning how the decline of our planet's environment affects not just our physical health but also our minds and emotions.

Laura Sewall, Ph.D., is one of ecopsychology's pioneers and an expert in the study of the visual process. In combining these fields, she has determined that the sense of sight is key to understanding and potentially reversing the effects of ecological destruction. In Sight and Sensibility--the first book on ecopsychology for lay readers--Sewall draws on her fieldwork studying the visual behavior of baboons and teaching vision improvement to trace the evolution of human sight and the cultural development of different ways of seeing. She shows how we can restructure the neural networks that determine how we see, awaken to visual patterns and depth perception, and learn to see more of the world around us.

A contemporary companion to John Berger's classic Ways of Seeing, Sight and Sensibility is a dazzling blend of science, psychology, and poetry.