Document Type : Original Article

Authors

• Narges Raoufzadeh ¹
• Razieh Eslamieh ²
• Morteza Lak ³

¹ PhD. Student of English Literature, Department of English Language and Literature, North-Tehran Branch. Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

² Department of English, Parand Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran. (corresponding author)

³ Assistant Professor, Department of English Language and Literature, Science and Research Branch, Islamic Azad University, Tehran, Iran.

Abstract

Introduction: Man’s intimacy with nature serves as a necessary factor to maintain mental health in order to treat his trauma, and this issue has long been the focus of discussion for many thinkers and critics. Various viewpoints regarding the relationship between man, nature and natural phenomena have created different approaches which have expanded from ecocriticism, ecopsychology to anthropocentrism and biocentrism. The ecopsychological approach, which is an interdisciplinary perspective in the field of ecological science and philosophy, was first proposed by Theodore Roszak. With regards to the current abnormal relationship between human and nature, Roszak emphasizes the contribution of psychology in the understanding and development of this widespread pathology to provide individual and collective treatment. By adopting the ecopsychological approach, the present study examines the mental-psychological damage resulting from urbanization and industrial life in Harriette Simpson’s The Dollmaker (1954). The article analyzes the novel’s main character, Gertrude Neval, and her children Reuben and Cassie Marine, based on the consequences of the trauma of separation from nature and its post-traumatic stress disorder. By linking psychotherapy and psychopathology with nature, the research aims to bring key concepts such as ecotherapy, eco-psychotherapy and eco-psychopathology, proposed by Linda Buzzel and Ralph Metzner, into literature for the first time. Therefore, a new integrated perspective which aims to disclose the consequences of the separation of human connection with nature in recent times and its repercussions on man’s soul is discussed for the first time in this study.  In addition, while emphasizing the harmony between man and nature, the researchers also note the positive and negative effects of the closeness and distance between man and nature in the research.
Background of the Study: A revision of what has already been done indicates that Harriette Simpsons Arnow’s trilogy including Mountain Path (1936), Hunter’s Horn (1949) and The Dollmaker (1954) have attracted very little critical attention in the form of essays, articles, books and theses. Despite the few researches which have examined Simpson’s works, so far, no research related to the subject of this article has been published. Therefore, while confirming the innovation and freshness of the upcoming study, researchers have faced new challenges. The present study intends to examine The Dollmaker for the first time by applying the ecopsychological approach and the key concepts of ecotherapy, eco-psychotherapy, eco-psychopathology. So far, no study has examined Simpson’s works based on the ecopsychological approach. 
      Nicole Crockett in Of This Ground: Land as Refuge (2012), studies the novels, short stories and memoirs of three female writers including: Simpson, Mason, and Kingsolver whose works strongly reflect women’s feelings and connection to the land and nature of Appalachia. She believes that these novelists offer a possible solution to modern women’s concerns, and that is the connection to the land as a refuge. Interacting the land as a refuge creates a sense of calmness and satisfaction which endow special power to these novelists. Whether the characters live in nature or decide to stay in close contact with it and the environment gives them the power and ability to move forward when faced with hardships. She has divided the research into two parts. The first part includes an overview of ecofeminist literary criticism, a discussion of regionalism and an exploration of modern women’s history, while the second part depicts primary texts and their critical interpretations. Women always present their unique concerns in their works and evaluate the dominant views at the social and local levels in new ways and new times. Therefore, literary ideas that originate from the roots and identity of a writer retain their own power. This Study confirms the relevance of regionalism in the twenty-first century, and is an overview of ecofeminist literary criticism, regionalism and an exploration of modern women’s history.
       Reynolds in Speaking Out: Class, Race and Gender (2008), investigates the social issues during the period of a national turmoil in the United States. She examines Stuart, Kelly and Simpson’s selected works, based on class, gender and race. These works give voice to people who have always been ignored; namely, the poor, women, the non-whites who have been oppressed in a patriarchal and capitalist society that favors whites. At the beginning of each chapter, the research has an overview of history that scrutinizes the details of the daily life of the characters through literary analysis and shows the relationship between the cultural and historical events of the selected works. In the second chapter, Reynolds analyzes Stuart’s writings which use humor to depict a wide range of classes and ethnicities to challenge social reform and technological advances. In the third chapter, she analyzes Kelly’s novel, Weeds (1923). The fourth chapter begins with a review of a quarter of a century after World War I, and then depicts the Depression and World War II. In this chapter, the researcher analyzes Harriette Simpson’s The Dollmaker (1954) and shows the effects of economic problems on the family life of a woman who is forced to leave the Appalachian Mountains for a better life in the industrial city of Detroit. While focusing on American Literature, this dissertation inspects race, class discrimination, working class issues, concerns and problems of women in the American society in the selected works of the prominent novelists.
            Haeja K. Chung’s Harriette Simpson Arnow: Critical Essays on Her Work (1995), is a re-examination of a powerful and lesser-known American author. This collection of critical essays examines new and traditional interpretations of Simpson’s work and offers new perspectives on them. The book consists of three chapters: Arnow’s life and the critics, individual fiction, authorial views. Each chapter contains several sections. The first chapter, which includes Simpson’s personal life, is an attempt to persuade scholars to further study her published, unpublished, fiction and non-fiction works. This section contains a number of critical perspectives of Harriette Simpson Arnow as a regionalist, a social-historian, a humanist, a naturalist and a feminist up to 1980. It includes seven articles from different scholars and examines her life as a writer, her acquaintance with Harold Arnow, their marriage, artistic vision, Simpson’s chronicles of destruction, her Kentucky novels and social histories.
Methodology: The theoretical foundations of the current research are based on the ecopsychological approach, which studies literary works from the perspective of man’s connection with nature and the psychological effects of this union. Environmental damages and mental-psychological problems resulting from it, in different eras have marked a deep tragedy for humans and led to the formation of a new approach, called ecopsychology. For the first time, Theodore Roszak introduces ecopsychology as a concept in The Voice of the Earth (1992). With great clarity and eloquence, Roszak tried to prove the old idea that the separation of mind and nature is impossible. Ecopsychology is an approach which is formed by mixing and expanding psychology and ecology. The immediate expansion of the approach indicates its importance in the analysis of various issues relating the lives of all species as well as the lives of our only green planet. Emphasizing the relationship between humans and other species and the ecosystem, ecopsychology redefines psychology in a way that includes psychological phenomena, social relationships, and connection with nature. Ecopsychology, while emphasizing the mutual dependence of all life on the earth, considers the disconnection of psychological connection with the earth to help increase psychological suffering. This study is based on the ecopsychological approach and a synthesis of theories and key concepts of ecotherapy, eco-psychotherapy and eco-psychopathology. While providing a suitable platform for examining Simpson’s The Dollmaker, the research reveals new layers of unexplored meanings in this novel. Based on the ecopsychological approach and the works of Ralph Metzner entitled Green Psychology (1999), as well as the influential work of Linda Buzzel Ecotherapy (2009), the research presents a new theoretical framework and examines the mental-psychological tensions and trauma caused alienation from nature.
Conclusion: According to the findings of this research, now a new reading can be introduced for the study of The Dollmaker (`954), by Harriette Simpson. By combining the key concepts of psychotherapy and psychopathology with nature or “eco”, researchers have invented a new theoretical model for the first time to study environmental literary works. In The Dollmaker, Simpson portrays the contrast of two views: modern and rural. Modern urban life and the influence of technology have reduced or cut off human contact with nature, while rural life brings mental and emotional peace with itself. The study employs this approach as an exploratory strategy and considers the effects of the chasm between man and nature while emphasizing the consequences it has on the quality of man’s life. Researchers have introduced nature as a rich supportive environment in psychotherapy and psychopathology. By connecting these two key concepts with nature they have introduced eco-psychotherapy and eco-psychopathology to literature and have studied Harriette Simpson’s novel The Dollmaker. The research intends to display the significant role that nature possesses in psychotherapy.

Keywords

• Ecopsychology
• Ecotherapy
• Eco-psychotherapy
• Eco-psychopathology
• Eco-trauma
• Post-traumatic Stress Disorder