Abstract

NINIS, Alessandra Bortoni  and  BILIBIO, Marco Aurélio. Homo sapiens, Homo demens and Homo degradandis: human psyche and the environmental crises. Psicol. Soc. [online]. 2012, vol.24, n.1, pp. 46-55. ISSN 0102-7182.  http://dx.doi.org/10.1590/S0102-71822012000100006.

This article discusses the environmental crisis through a dialogue between psychoanalysis, philosophy and the social sciences. It intends to introduce a common axis to the understanding of the relations between psyche and nature in a reflective text about human nature, its complexities and sociopathologies. The environmental crisis in which we are imbedded is approached through the followed propositions: (i) humanity has broken its links with its natural condition; (ii) humanity may be psychologically ill; (iii) humanity is not morally able to delegate the overcoming of the environmental crisis to the new generations because we live in a simulacrum associated with consumerism and alienation. We conclude that there is a subjective root in the environmental crisis, the analysis of which depends on finding the adequate answers to the civilization impasse that we currently face.

Keywords : sustainable development; alienation; sociopathy; society of consumption; simulacrum.