Solastalgia - Can Environmental Decay Make You Depressed?

In 1948 the poet W. H. Auden used the word Topophilia while introducing John Betjeman's poetry book Slick but Not Streamlined, a humorous and satirical reflection of the authors love for Victorian architecture. Auden explained that the word had less to do with a love of nature and more a dependency on a landscape infused with a sense of history.  In the Auden-Betjeman context the word Topophilia was used to explore the writer’s love with the urban, constructed environment. Topophilia was an addition to the lexicon. A new typology exploring the emotional relationships people hold to their surrounding environments entered embryo.

Although Topophilia has existed on the fringes of the English language since the 1940’s, a typology for the field was not introduced until the 2000’s. In 2003 Glenn Albrecht, a former professor of sustainability and environmental philosophy at Murdoch University, recognised a gap in the English language. Whilst examining the impact of open coal mining on the Upper Hunter region of NSW Albrecht experienced connections between mental health and a loved home environment. Albrecht observed a melancholia that spread through residents of the Hunter Valley as more open coal mines opened shop, polluting water ways and degrading biomes. Topophilia explained the love residents of the area held for their environment, but nothing in the English language explained the mental anguish they experienced due to its desolation. Albrecht invented a term to describe this circumstance; Solastalgia. Solastalgia is defined as the existential melancholia one experiences with the negative transformation of a loved home environment. In 2014 Albrecht, Raewyn Graham and professor Phil McManus published a paper introducing Psychoterratic typology. Psychoterratic terms explored the emotional interactions between people and places. Among this new typology is both Topophilia and Solastalgia. On May 15th Albrecht’s new book Earth Emotions was published, a book explaining the full range of Psychoterratica typology. 

Solastalgia enters the fray at a critical epoch in history.  With the environmental movement burgeoning and climate change looming Solastalgia is positioned to play a significant role in shaping the discourse around climate change. Both within the field of psychiatry and in the general public. Within the field of psychiatry Solastalgia may become a unique tool to address many of the political barriers the APA faces with respect to climate activism. For the general public, the word provides simple language by which individuals can recognise the psychological suffering as a result of climate change.

Much of Solastalgia is unique, including its origins. Unlike many psychological phenomena Solastalgia was born outside the realm of psychiatry/psychology. The creation of the concept outside the field of psychiatry has had little impact on its ascendency in the eyes of professor McManus, head of the school of geoscience at Sydney University and co-author of the seminal paper on Psychoterratic typology. In an interview on the 30th of April McManus said that “Glenn talks of himself as an environmental philosopher and has never been one for strict disciplinary boundaries. He has been transdisciplinary in his thinking. If other disciplines adopt a fairly similar approach then the origins probably do not matter that much, it is only when people are trying to police boundaries between psychiatry, economics or geography, that this might become an issue”.  McManus made it clear he believed that “if the concept really resonates with a lot of people it is really hard to stop.” Since its conception Solastalgia has experienced a quick ascendancy, permeating popular culture and the field of psychiatry.

As the term grew in popularity so did the number of studies seeking to validate it. In 2011 Tschakert, Tutu & Alcaro investigated the effects of slow changing climate on the mental health of Ghanaian farmers. Withering crops, drying wells, deteriorating social networks and a loss of beauty triggered strong emotional responses of sadness in the Farmers as their land became untenable. To Tschakert, Tutu & Alcaro this sadness was a result of ‘hallow homes’, otherwise known as Solastalgia. Indigenous cultures are a logical start point for research since they often have extremely strong emotional and historical ties to land.

In 2013 Hendryx & Innes-Wimsatt found increased depression rates in people living in coal mining areas of the central Appalachian region of the United States. In Kentucky, eastern Tennessee, southern West Virginia, and western Virginia roughly 12 million acres of land are impacted by coal open mines. The land is subject to thousands of mountain top removals, which use explosives and heavy machinery to remove entire forests, rock, and soil above coal seams. The overburdern is deposited in adjacent valleys severely impacting the ecology of the entire region. Hendryx & Innes-Wimsatt surveyed 8591 people in the Appalachian area where both open coal mines were present and not present. Findings evidenced a significant increase in depression rates for the people impacted by the mountain top removal coal mines, even after controlling for income, education and other risks for depression. 

Durkalec, Furgal, Skinner, & Sheldon identified evidences for Solastalgia in Inuit communities in Northern Canada. The research group focused on one key element of the Inuit environment; sea ice. The researchers found sea ice to be the prime source of autonomy, mental health, cultural health, and social health. Rising temperatures are melting the ice. Inuit people suffer the loss of a sacred environmental element that enables their entire livelihood when this happens.

Most recently Ellis & Albrecht conducted a qualitative research study in the Newdegate region, WA. The region is home to 4900 broad acre farming enterprises and is known as the Australian Wheatbelt, historically known for its stable climate. In recent years the area has suffered a 30% reduction to winter rainfall and higher seasonal variability. Ellis & Albrecht interviewed 22 family farmers and found a significant amount of Solastalgia among the group, with farmers expressing that nothing made them more depressed than the destruction of their land.

Becoming a diagnosis within the Diagnostics Statistics Manual (DSM) or the International Classifications of Diseases cements a concept within the field of psychiatric disorders. In an interview professor McManus answered the question of whether the intent was for Solastalgia to be entered into a future diagnostic manual. McManus saw it as important to the extent that Solastalgia being added to a list of disorders would enable the conversation about finding solutions to the problem. However, he voiced erring on the side of caution when proposing the addition of any new disorders to an already extensive list.

Solastalgia is well positioned to assist the field of psychiatry, and specifically the APA, in addressing a problem it currently faces. Climate change is an extraordinarily politicised issue. Partison lines are drawn between belief and disbelief on the topic. In a polling released by the Pew Research Center titled The Politics of Climate Change in the United States 15% of conservative republicans were found to believe that humans are responsible for warming the planet and 79% of democrats. The political fissures that exist around the topic are conspicuous. Such partisanship creates an issue for the field of psychiatry. Psychiatry and the APA must remain an apolitical. Mental health transcends political affiliation. To take a position on the issue would be to risk isolating people from the field based on political belief. However, the APA and psychiatrists the world over are also sworn to the Hippocratic oath. They must do what is within the best interest of the patient. Mitigating the impacts of climate change will also mitigate the mental health repercussions. President of the APA Altha Stewart, in a 2018 statement, said she “proposed that we work toward a strategy of forming effective alliances instead of standalone efforts to address the full breadth of this issue and to focus on creating a mechanism for long-term sustainability of our joint efforts beyond ‘disaster psychiatry.’”  It is in this chasm that psychiatry finds itself. Caught in an ethical dilemma between care for the patient and the patients’ beliefs.  The APA must walk the fine line between climate change activism and advocacy for patients.

It is within this ethical dilemma that Solastalgia may prove itself useful. The reality of climate change obliges the field of psychiatry to address the issue, however, before Solastalgia climate change could only be regarded as a catalyst indirectly for mental health effects. Solastalgia enables psychiatry to discuss the effects of climate change directly on the individual, through the prism of a loss of sense of self. Through Solastalgia psychiatry as a whole may be able to take a stronger position on issues such as climate policy. Advocating based on the direct relationship between environmental degradation and melancholia. This direct tie may prove itself useful to organisations such as the Climate Psychiatry Alliance (CPA), a grassroots organisation that’s mission is to work to inform the public and address the profound impacts on mental health and wellbeing caused by climate change. The CPA can use Solastalgia to describe another facet of the problem, and lobby for action to be taken.

Solastalgia is still a fresh-faced concept. Although some research exists around the subject, more is still needed to validate it. Irrespective of that fact, since its conception in 2003 Solastalgia has quickly spread throughout popular culture and the field of psychiatry. The rapid popularisation owes itself to a timely introduction. Conceived amidst humanity’s confrontation with the dangers of climate change, Solastalgia, and by extension the entire Psychoterratic typology, offers itself to assist furthering the climate dialogue. Both within and outside the field of psychiatry.