Mari Ruti and Climate Change: From Grief to Creativity (Essays in Psychological Humanities)

In this illuminating book, Clint Burnham invites the reader to consider humanity's relationship with the world around us, using a unique blend of Lacanian psychoanalysis, literary criticism, and visual art to hold a mirror up to our own implications in the mounting climate crisis.

Drawing upon the pioneering work of philosopher Mari Ruti, Burnham deftly interweaves examples from climate fiction – including works from Richard Power, Eleanor Catton, and Jenni Fagan – 'trash art', and classic films from Alfred Hitchcock to help the reader explore the idea of and better understand what is now called climate grief. Focusing on sublimation and creativity, Burnham weighs up perspectives on both climate activism and climate denialism and uses these ideas to offer a form of respite from trauma or grief surrounding the climate crisis, providing both comfort and a bracing call to action.

Mari Ruti and Climate Change offers a novel and approachable perspective to both students and scholars interested in psychology, environmental studies, psychoanalysis, and climate politics, as well as practitioners of the psychological and therapeutic professions who are encountering patients experiencing climate anxiety or other affects in their practice.

Clint Burnham is a professor of English at Simon Fraser University, Canada. His research spans psychoanalysis, film studies, cultural studies, and literary theory.