Psychological Roots of the Climate Crisis

Summary

Psychoanalyst Sally Weintrobe argues that ‘Exceptionalism’, “a rigid psychological mindset, is largely responsible for the climate crisis”: the belief that one is entitled to have it all and wish limits away. Neoliberalism, she says, built a ‘culture of uncare’ around it; repair means “physically and also psychically dismantling frameworks of uncare”, in “a spirit of forgiveness of self and others”.

Rationale

For Weintrobe, uncare was promoted on purpose by those it profits – a pointed answer to our question about whom current contexts serve. She admits her own collusion too.