A history of psychogeography and psychocosmology: Humankind's evolving orientation on Earth and in space

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cresp.2023.100090Get rights and content
Under a Creative Commons license
open access

Highlights

  • Discusses how humankind has understood itself in relation to the Earth (“psychogeography”) and the universe (“psychocosmology”).

  • Presents a historical narrative of psychogeography and psychocosmology, identifying four main perspectives that have emerged over time.

  • Illuminates the evolving way in which humans have understood their world and place in the wider universe.

  • Highlights the psychological impact of these developments.

Abstract

Although psychology has tended to focus on the individual, paradigms have emerged looking at people in context, such as social psychology. More recently, these have included fields attending to humans’ ecological context, such as ecopsychology. However, little has been conducted on spatial orientation, on how humankind has understood itself in relation to the Earth (“psychogeography”) or the universe (“psychocosmology”). To address this lacuna, this paper presents a historical narrative of psychogeography and psychocosmology, identifying four main perspectives that emerged over time. First, stretching into pre-history, belief in a flat Earth and a layered cosmos. Second, beginning around the 6th Century BCE, a spherical Earth and a geocentric cosmos. Third, from the 15th Century onwards, an expanded Earth and a heliocentric cosmos. Finally, in the 20th Century, an unstable Earth and an acentric cosmos. The paper illuminates the evolving way humans have understood their world and place in the wider universe, and highlights the psychological impact of these developments.

Keywords

Ecopsychology
Psychogeography
Psychocosmology
Spatial
Universe

Data Availability

  • No data was used for the research described in the article.

Cited by (0)