Silan Derin

IPU, Germany

Title: Beyond Coping with Climate Change: Mental Health and the Capacity to Feel: A Psychodynamic Perspective in Times of Uncertainty

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Biography

Abstract

The accelerating ecological crisis raises fundamental questions about the psychological dimensions of human–nature relations. Climate change and biodiversity loss confront individuals and societies not only with the destruction of life-sustaining relationships but also with profound psychological challenges, including anxiety, grief, helplessness, denial, and uncertainty (IPCC, 2023; Goldstein, 2016; Smith & Myers, 2018; Dodds, 2012; Sangervo et al., 2022). While psychological approaches increasingly address climaterelated distress, a fundamental question remains: Can there be a universal psychology capable of understanding and responding to these experiences across different cultural contexts? This paper explores how psychodynamic perspectives can illuminate the unconscious, affective, and emotional mechanisms underlying human responses to climate change. Drawing on psychoanalytic theories of defence, mourning, recognition, and unconscious fantasy (Klein, 1932; Orange, 2018; Weintrobe, 2021), it examines how these processes shape our capacity to encounter and emotionally process ecological uncertainty and loss. Rather than approaching climate-related distress primarily through cognitive coping strategies or prescriptions for sustainable behaviour, the paper proposes understanding psychological responses as expressions of deeper ways of experiencing and making sense of ourselves and the world. 

Recognising that emotional and affective experience (Winter & Koger, 2004) can serve as a starting point for engaging with environmental problems, the paper explores the significance of affective responses to the Other and their implications for psychological understanding. Allowing ourselves to feel the uncertainty, grief, and vulnerability associated with ecological transformation may open up forms of understanding that extend beyond cognitive coping strategies and individual adaptation. Cultivating an emotional compass attuned to our biographical, cultural, and ecological contexts as a way of navigating uncertainty without denying loss or vulnerability. Such an approach may offer new perspectives on mental health and psychological practice, foregrounding the capacity to feel, to recognise the Other, and to remain emotionally engaged with a changing world.