A Wild and Sacred Call: Nature–Psyche–Spirit by Will W. Adams (review)

In this new volume on ecopsychology, author Will W. Adams addresses soul-searching questions of earth relations in a time of existential climate crisis. He challenges foundational premises in psychology that perpetuate the delusion of a separate self to the extreme detriment of the planet. This book is of interest to scholars of religion and ecology as it takes up a transpersonal, spiritual-cultural approach to ecopsychology—one that is based on direct experience of the sacred. David Abram calls it a "talismanic text that enacts the healing it so carefully elucidates … dissolving shackled habits" that block us from truly noticing and feeling. The author lays an intellectual foundation for his integration of the ecospiritual and ecopsychological while convincing, by example, that there are many paths to awakening in dialogic communion with the natural world.

Adams places his extended critique in conversation with his own academic field of psychology. As an associate professor at Duquesne University, he teaches undergraduate courses in Psychology and Nature, Psychology and Spirituality, and Humanistic and Transpersonal Psychology. His doctoral courses include Ecopsychology and Philosophical Psychology. He draws on his previous publications in ecopsychology, phenomenology, and mysticism in the context of ecological breakdown. The book is written with the hope that the accelerating crisis will summon forth a "radical spiritual-cultural breakthrough" (xxiii) and that his method of "intimate attunement" and "inter-responsive involvement" will play a role in that breakthrough. Adams draws on his own experience in the natural world, his longtime Zen practice, and a strong interest in contemplative spirituality in both Buddhist and Christian traditions.

Much of the book relies on the careful dissection of the delusion of the egoic self, laid out in Chapter Five. In traditional psychology, the ego is characterized by a sense of dissociation between "me" and "others" that is acculturated across childhood and reinforced by "ideologies of individualism, materialism, corporatism, unlimited economic expansion, consumerism, technologism, and militarism" (108). Adams suggests that all forms of clinical psychopathology involve "a partial person relating partially to a partial world" (142). He works closely with familiar terms such as "nature," "beings," and "oneness," demonstrating the usefulness of hermeneutic psychology in deconstructing social norms and worldviews that separate. Of particular interest to scholars of religion will be his discussion of the terms awareness, consciousness, psyche, and nonduality. Some may challenge his claim that theocentric and ecocentric orientations are equivalent and interchangeable from a transpersonal perspective. I affirm, however, his conclusion that "in contrast to any reified dogma, the center is not preestablished, fixed, or static but always emerging freshly in every relational encounter. A life guided by such awareness is radically different than one (mis)guided by our supposedly sovereign self-interested ego" (177).

In Adams' view, ecopsychology is a form of liberation psychology because of its transformational nature (105). He challenges the traditional understanding of human development as predicated on the journey from dependence to independence, arguing instead for ecopsychology's emphasis on growth through relational connection. In this view, the more mature self is the more connected self, one with many points of relationship and community. The liberation journey is from ego-bounded self to widely engaged relational self; that transformation may be mystical, experiential, irreversible, profound, empowering. He makes the case for actively creating favorable conditions for revelation, as in the biblical encouragement to "be still and know." He further characterizes biophilic desire as a form of sacred yearning, or Goethe's "holy longing." Through experiences of wonder and awe, surrender, and gratitude, one is invited to respond to an ethical call from a nonegoic place of relational connection and sacred calling.

Adams' writing style is both academic and lyrical in places, often reaching out directly to the reader in conversational dialogue. He shows his own thought process in detail, reflecting on moments of encounter or opportunities for challenging assumptions. At times, the explorations become somewhat quote-heavy, relying on others' words to affirm his experience. Readers will recognize...