I recently learned a new word: solastalgia.
Coined by Glenn Albrecht, an Australian philosopher, solastalgia is a combination of sōlācium — Latin for comfort — and, -algia: Greek for pain, suffering or grief. Solastalgia describes the distress we feel when the environment or place we call home changes unrecognisably for reasons that are beyond our personal control.
While in some ways similar to ecological anxiety or eco grief, solastalgia captures the “sense of sadness that is specific to an individual’s sense of home, familiarity, and belongingness to place” (Comtesse et al, 2021). Solastalgia arises when we become aware that the places which form part of our identity will not continue to exist in their current state.
In but one of many cataclysmic events in recent years, Canadians are currently enduring the worst wildfire season in the history of this country. By mid-June, 2023, 2,619 fires had burned 5,291,261 hectares of land, decimating animal and human habitats. Seen from space, I imagine these swaths of charred landscape as scars on the body of our planet. Those of us who feel spiritually or emotionally connected to the wellbeing of the earth may feel similarly scarred.
Albrecht notes that many indigenous languages have words for “home-heart-environment relationships”, but that modern English has very few (2016). He suggests that we need new concepts to rekindle the closeness that human beings can have with their home habitat. For Albrecht, 'solastalgia' is an attempt to address this void and “give expression . . . to a fundamentally important relationship between people, communities and their home environment” (2016).
As a form of melancholia associated with the desolation of a home landscape, solastalgia is a concept that only resonates with those of us who feel a sense of love for home, or place. Connection with a place or bio-region can also generate a feeling of personal responsibility to care for it. In this way, the antidote for solastalgia, according to Albrecht, is soliphilia; the coming together of people acting in solidarity and love, to repair both the environmental damage as well as the distress it causes. It is out of what Albrecht calls “love of the interrelated whole” that soliphilia becomes possible (2016).
Soliphilia combines the French solidaire (interdependent) and the Latin solidus (solid or whole), with the love of one’s fellow citizens and neighbors implied by the Greek (philia). It describes an “interdependent solidarity”, and the “wholeness or unity needed between people, to overcome the alienation and disempowerment present in contemporary political decision-making about the environment” (Albrecht, 2019).
One manifestation of soliphilia is something called Deep Adaptation. Deep Adaptation — a set of ideas first outlined by Professor Jem Bendell in 2018 — addresses the personal and collective changes that can help people to prepare for, and live with, societal disruption and/or collapse. The term societal collapse referring to: “the uneven ending to our current means of sustenance, shelter, security, pleasure, identity and meaning.” Deep Adaptation is a collection of responses to this shared predicament; responses arising from compassion, curiosity, and respect.
The Deep Adaptation Forum outlines two broad paths:
Inner adaptation: which involves exploring the “emotional, psychological, and spiritual implications of living in a time when societal disruption/collapse is likely, inevitable, or already happening” — through conversations with a friend, participation in a group, workshop or forum, or individual therapy, for example.
Outer adaptation: which involves “working on practical measures to support well-being and reduce harm, ahead of and during collapse”. Examples may include regenerative living, community-building, and social activism.
Deep Adaptation is a way of “framing the current global situation, so as to help people refocus on what’s important in life whilst the social order collapses under the weight of its own consumption, pollution, and inequality” (Deep Adaptation Forum, 2019). The aim being to find new ways for us to be with ourselves and one another, no matter what unfolds.
References:
Albrecht, G. (2016). Solastalgia, soliphilia, euterria and art. Psychoterratica https://glennaalbrecht.wordpress.com/2016/06/27/solastalgia-soliphilia-eutierria-and-art/
Albrecht, G. (2019). Soliphilia. Psychoterratica
Bendell, J. (2018). Deep adaptation: a map for navigating climate tragedy. Institute for Leadership and Sustainability (IFLAS) Occasional Papers Volume 2. University of Cumbria, Ambleside, UK. (Unpublished)
Comtesse, H., Ertl, V., Hengst, S. M. C., Rosner, R., & Smid, G. E. (2021). Ecological Grief as a Response to Environmental Change: A Mental Health Risk or Functional Response? International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18 (2), 734. https://doi.org/10.3390/ijerph18020734
Deep Adaptation Forum, (2022). What is Deep Adaptation? https://www.deepadaptation.info/what-is-deep-adaptation/
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