A fascinating article in today’s New York Times explores a subject that should be close to every ecosexual’s heart: ecopsychology. In Daniel B. Smith’s magazine piece, Is There an Ecological Unconscious? we learn the myriad ways in which the degradation of our environment affects our psyches. The article investigates “Solastalgia”, a psychological condition described by Glenn Albrecht as, “the pain experienced when there is recognition that the place where one resides and that one loves is under immediate assault . . . a form of homesickness one gets when one is still at ‘home.’ ” (The word is a combination of the Latin word solacium (comfort) and the Greek root – algia (pain). Do you feel it? I know I sense it, often, living in New York City, my beloved home. If I can’t get up to Central Park often enough, I definitely feel a little bit crazy.

Ecosexuality addresses the alienation that our divorce from nature has wrought, using pleasure as its principle. Most of us feel solastalgia, even if we’re not necessarily in touch with our longings. Movies like Avatar have a way of triggering this sense of displacement (many have reported walking out of the film feeling sad and lost).

So what do we do about it? Peter H. Kahn thinks we need to do a little “rewilding” of the mind. Ecologists attempt to rewild depleted ecosystems by building them back endangered species by endangered species. Kahn’s rewilding movement is a perfect fit for ecosexuality. He says:

There’s a mountain pool that you find hiking up the wild river. The water emerges into it from porous volcanic rock. The water flows from the cold country. It’s too cold to plunge in. But you’re in. You’re in because your lover is nearby and you need to prove your manly-hood. But just as fast you’re out. Your mind can’t believe that mere water can be that cold. It would have been twenty strokes across. You give up that thought. You need to get warm fast. How? It’s easy. You move naked to your beloved and put your arms around each other. Other people say that that pool is too cold. You can’t swim in it. They say let’s make a better one. They do. It’s filled with chlorinated water that’s not too hot and not too cold. Every day of the year it’s that same temperature. It’s called the tepid pool. The pool-man comes once a week. He squeegees the sides and adds blue dye and oils the pump. The pool-man says you gotta love the tepid pool.

Where would you like to swim? Your choice.

Now that’s something an ecosexual can really wrap his or her brain around.