Taking as his starting point the psychologist Abraham Maslow’s "hierarchy of human needs"—a pyramid familiar to anyone who ever cracked a textbook for Psych 101—Marshall asks how his own experience of deep satisfaction in nature may or may not fit Maslow’s theory. In chapters focused on the needs identified by Maslow, Marshall finds evidence for the healing power of nature in literature and in his own experiences in the wild.
"I offer myself as test subject," Marshall writes: "recently divorced, a father sharing custody of two children, someone with a high regard for the written word,... a little too stressed-out these days, no more self-actualized than the next person but just as curious about it—and what I have going for me are a lot of well-read books, a good pair of broken-in hiking boots, and a thing for mountains."
Embracing the exciting new field of ecopsychology, Marshall leads us on a personal and intellectual odyssey, from the dream mountain of Henry David Thoreau to the high slopes of John Muir’s beloved Mount Shasta. Always, Marshall returns to his own challenges as father and reader, and to his own humble but rewarding mountain, Bald Eagle Ridge, in the Pennsylvania countryside outside his back door.
Under the Sign of Nature: Explorations in Ecocriticism
Taking as his starting point the psychologist Abraham Maslow’s "hierarchy of human needs"—a pyramid familiar to anyone who ever cracked a textbook for Psych 101—Marshall asks how his own experience of deep satisfaction in nature may or may not fit Maslow’s theory. In chapters focused on the needs identified by Maslow, Marshall finds evidence for the healing power of nature in literature and in his own experiences in the wild.
"I offer myself as test subject," Marshall writes: "recently divorced, a father sharing custody of two children, someone with a high regard for the written word,... a little too stressed-out these days, no more self-actualized than the next person but just as curious about it—and what I have going for me are a lot of well-read books, a good pair of broken-in hiking boots, and a thing for mountains."
Embracing the exciting new field of ecopsychology, Marshall leads us on a personal and intellectual odyssey, from the dream mountain of Henry David Thoreau to the high slopes of John Muir’s beloved Mount Shasta. Always, Marshall returns to his own challenges as father and reader, and to his own humble but rewarding mountain, Bald Eagle Ridge, in the Pennsylvania countryside outside his back door.
Under the Sign of Nature: Explorations in Ecocriticism
Peak Experiences: Walking Meditations on Literature, Nature, and Need
288
Peak Experiences: Walking Meditations on Literature, Nature, and Need
288Hardcover(First Edition)
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Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9780813921679 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | University of Virginia Press |
| Publication date: | 03/01/2003 |
| Series: | Under the Sign of Nature |
| Edition description: | First Edition |
| Pages: | 288 |
| Product dimensions: | 6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.25(d) |
| Age Range: | 18 Years |