Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

Denne undersøgelses genstand er en særlig rekreativ og terapeutisk naturoplevelse, der med Kaplan & Kaplans begreb hedder being away. Selvom Kaplan & Kaplan er indflydelsesrige i miljøpsykologien, er det denne undersøgelses syfte at problematisere, uddybe og komplicere deres being away begreb med psykoanalytisk teori. Med Freuds ideer om dødsdriften, Nirvanaprincippet og den oceaniske følelse, forsøges at nå en dybere forståelse af being away, som det opleves af deltagere i Alnarps Rehabiliteringsträdgård. Beskrivelser af being away fra interviews med deltagerne bliver således analyseret og tolket både i parret Kaplans’ og Freuds teoretiske ramme. Resultaterne foreslår, at en being away naturoplevelse ikke blot er et spørgsmål om et andet kognitivt indhold; perception af fascinerende stimuli, informationen fra det naturlige miljø. Tværtimod er oplevelsen i høj grad følelsesmæssig og involverer ubevidste længsler, ønsker og drifter. Siden diskuteres, om Kaplan & Kaplans fokus på det informations-processerende menneske tilbyder en tilstrækkelig forståelse af naturens terapeutiske kraft.

The focus of this study is a certain recreational and therapeutic nature experience which is conceptualized by Kaplan & Kaplan as being away. Though Kaplan & Kaplan are influential in environmental psychology, this study aims at broadening and complicating their being away concept with psychoanalytic theory. With Freud’s ideas of the death wish, the Nirvana principle and the oceanic feeling, it is attempted to reach a deeper understanding of being away as this is experienced by participants in the Alnarp Rehabilitation Garden. Thus descriptions of being away from interviews with the participants are analyzed and interpreted in the theoretic framework of both the Kaplans and Freud. The results suggest that the being away nature experience is not merely a question of a different cognitive content; the perception of fascinating stimuli, the information offered by the environment. Rather the experience is highly emotional involving unconscious yearnings, wishes and desires. It is then discussed whether Kaplan & Kaplan’s emphasis on human information processing offers a thorough enough understanding of the therapeutic in nature.