Between plants, trees and dreams — the regenerative nature of the psyche and the climate chaos

Abstract

The paper reflects on the regenerative function of the psyche invoked by the archetypal image of the tree. Especially facing the climate chaos and its effects on mental health, I point out the importance of paying attention to the climate debate in the psychological field. Starting from personal and clinical experience, I evoke a collective field of the psyche: trees, plants, and its symbolic processes of renovation, resistance and cure. In this path, I return to Jung’s ideas about nature, Unus Mundus and the alchemy of the Philosophical Tree. I interweave it with contemporary thinkers, such as Byung-Chul Han and Emanuele Coccia, as well as with the indigenous thought of Ailton Krenak, and the worldview of the Yanomami, especially on the collective value of dreams. Just like trees, we are connected to life through an intricate collaborative web among species. Through dreams, the return to the collective unconsciousness as an originary driving force, power of vital energy, and path to restoration may point out and feed the creation of future paths.