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.

Truly interdisciplinary in scope, ranging across art, psychology, therapy, environmental humanities, mental health, human geography, continental philosophy, animism and social science Provides unique accessibility to traditionally challenging content due to the creative nature of the inquiry Offers a controversial and more ethical account of mental health and wellbeing than currently exists, which will appeal to a wide audience of scholars, researchers and students

Autorentext
Jamie McPhie is lecturer of cultural landscapes and aesthetics in the outdoors at the University of Cumbria, UK.

Inhalt

1. Introduction.- 2. The Material (Re)Turnto Mental Health.- 3. The Accidental Death of Mr. Happy and the Medical Gaze.- 4. The Birth of Mr. Messy: Post-Qualitative Inquiry, Rhizoanalysis and Psychogeography.- 5. The Healing Power of Nature(s).- 6. Agential Dancing.- 7. Extended Body Hypothesis (EBH).- 8. Interlude: Liverpool ONELiverpool Too: A Therapeutic Tale of Two Cities.- 9. The Aesthetics of a Teletubby Landscape: A Short History of a Romantic Gaze.- 10. The Depression of POPS.- 11. Posthuman Therapeutic Inquiry.- 12. Conclusion: There Is No Such Thing as Mental Health.