Citation

Worthy K. Organ. Environ. 2008; 21(2): 148-170.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, SAGE Publishing)

DOI

10.1177/1086026608318987

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

Environmental theorists frequently argue that human--nature alienations are to blame for the increasingly severe global environmental crisis. This article offers empirical evidence that supports such claims. Data and theory presented here show that phenomenal dissociation-- defined as the lack of immediate, sensual engagement with the consequences of our everyday actions and with the human and nonhuman others that we affect with our actions--increases destructive tendency and that awareness is not enough to curb destructiveness. This study begins to reveal some of the psychodynamics by which phenomenal dissociations lead to destructive tendency; discusses how modern institutions, organizational structures, and technologies propagate harms by mediating between actor and consequences; and argues that environmental psychology, which commonly focuses on attitudinal variables such as awareness and concern, must expand its reach to account for the pervasive phenomenal dissociations of contemporary life.