Hello there class!
I'd just like to introduce myself to you all. My name is Douglas, I'm originally from New York City, but have spent most of the last 20 years living in Europe and Latin America, presently living and working in Costa Rica for Earth Charter International. I'm mostly new to the psychology, ecopsych, mythology angles, so this course will be very interesting to me. I am a sustainability ethics specialist and work on communications and education, as well as an actor, improvisor, and filmmaker. My work on fostering a sustainability paradigm based on shared values articulated in the Earth Charter declaration has led me more and more towards cosmology, psychology, theology, and spirituality and I am presently developing living laboratory experiments that will use improv techniques to allow participants to explore personal and social narratives with the objective of creating new narratives that are coherent with socio-ecological realities and possible futures. I want to apologize for that sentence. It's too long. Anyway, I think that should explain my interest in this course.
I am really looking forward to discussing and learning with you all and I hope that my perspectives will be helpful in your learning and I beg your patience with me.
Douglas
Replies
Hi Doug. I'm so glad you joined us. What an incredible place to be living—Costa Rica!—and for such a great cause. I had the good fortune to visit CR once and found it to be an incredible place, so diverse with flora and fauna. Your work with improv is certainly aligned with depth psychology, particularly the work of Augusto Boal and his Theater of the Oppressed. I'm sure you know it, but you can see a bit more here in Mary Watkins' excellent article Depth Psychology and the Liberation of Being. I look forward to learning with you as well.
Thanks, Bonnie. Indeed, Boal is in my library. I will check out the Mary Watkins article too. Thanks! I really appreciate that, as well as any other tips you want to give me. I'm thirsty for knowledge to expand my thoughts and enact my visions. I'm really excited to be a part of this course and I hope we'll also all forge a relationship in the coming weeks that will last well beyond this course. It's very reassuring to find enthusiastic support at this stage of my exploration and so I send you my gratitude.
Douglas