Mental Health as a Vision of Ecological Safety | Part 3
- John P. Flynt, PhD
- Oct 31, 2023
- 2 min read
Updated: Nov 12, 2023
Safety in Rituals of Mental Health
Andrea Wulf
Andrea Wulf became widely known through a book published in 2016 entitled The Invention of Nature: Alexander von Humboldt’s New World. The author could not have fulfilled her objectives without strong emotional and intellectual commitments, not only to Humboldt, but to the cultures, ecological regions, and languages involved. Humbolt was fluent in Spanish, French, English, and German. Wulf might be seen as starting on a similar path early. She was born in India and received her education in Germany, the United States, and the UK.
Wulf’s work has unfolded over decades of dedicated historical work on topics that anticipate her writing on Humboldt. Her books begin with a history of gardening. They then broaden to encompass explorations of cultural and intellectual history that gravitate toward conservation and ecology:
The Other Eden: This Other Eden: Seven Great Gardens & 300 Years of English History – 2002
The Brother Gardeners – 2009
The Founding Gardeners – 2011
Chasing Venus – 2012
The Invention of Nature – 2015
The Adventures of Alexander von Humboldt – 2019
Magnificent Rebels – 2022
A moment in Wulf’s career that serves well as a starting point for a discussion of ecology and mental health was her keynote address to geographers gathered for the 2016 ESRI Conference following publication of The Invention of Nature. In this presentation, she discussed two moments in her writing of The Invention of Nature in which she felt she discovered what might be considered to be the two most important messages Humbolt’s life offers us today as we face climate change and a growing need to know that we are part of nature and can realize health and the meaning of our lives through it. The first was Humboldt’s ascent of Chimborazo in what is present-day Ecuador. The second was Humboldt’s way of telling about his adventures, especially during the lectures he gave in Germany later in his life (after he had exhausted his fortune in his efforts to bring his understanding of nature to people around the world.)
These moments are significant in Humboldt’s life, but they also become significant moments in Wulf’s life because they inspire her to recreate the life of her historical subject through her own life. She does not only write about her subject. She engages in explorations that involve doing what he did, bringing to herself a deeper, more resonant sense of what it felt like to be the subject she studied. Her actions provide an exceptional example of ritual discovery. The key notion in such writing is that it is not enough to write about the subject. Instead, it is necessary to shape yourself through the act of writing. This might be viewed as an essential feature of nature writing and an essential aspect of a deep ecological engagement with nature.
The journey of discovery leading to Humboldt might be viewed as beginning with Thomas Fairchild, whom Wulf wrote about in her first major book. Fairchild was a gardener in Hoxton, England, who in 1716 introduced England to hybridization when he cross-pollinated a carnation and a sweet William. Telling Fairchild’s story in a celebrated work entitled The Brother Gardeners, Wulf follows a path of discovery that marks the beginning of a significant journey in her own life.
2023 © John P Flynt, PhD | Your Horizon Counseling
