Introduction

Terrapsychological research into the complexities of place, psychology, and inner life moved both outside and inside of the academic world, carried out by both students and nonstudents. Stories by which we understand our place in the world and how the world speaks to us carry a neglected dimension of our ecopsychological understanding: the symbolic. Symbols bridge the dimensions of outer and inner. Terrapsychological inquirers often compare this metamorphosis to acquiring a set of extra senses attuned to the world’s speech. Research without play succumbs to superegoic stiffness, to pretentious seriousness: to Procrustes, generous with his blade but miserly in spontaneity. He has mistaken the exploratory nose of inquiry for its verification backside – an olfactory-rectal inversion – and passed judgment on the former by imposing the standards of the latter. The glossary defines terrapsychological terms used throughout the text. The chapter also presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in this book.