Psychological Integrity and Ecological Repair: The Impact on Planetary Public Mental Health (A Narrative Review)

Matthew Jenkins () and Sabine Egger
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Matthew Jenkins: Department of Psychological Medicine, University of Auckland, Auckland 1023, New Zealand
Sabine Egger: Consultation-Liaison Psychiatry, Waikato District, Health New Zealand, Auckland 3204, New Zealand

IJERPH, 2025, vol. 22, issue 10, 1-7

Abstract: Human rights frameworks have historically emphasised physical integrity, yet psychological integrity, the right to mental stability, identity, and emotional safety all remain neglected in health policy and law. This narrative review and commentary argues that psychological integrity is inseparable from ecological integrity, and that contemporary mental health crises are rooted in ruptured human–nature attachments. Drawing on Mother Nature Attachment Theory (MNAT) and supported by emerging empirical evidence, this review traces a trajectory from pre-attachment, through rupture via colonisation, displacement, and ecological collapse, to reconnection through cultural and ecological repair. Gaza exemplifies a contemporary site of deliberate ecological–psychological rupture, where environmental destruction compounds trauma and erodes cultural continuity. In contrast, Indigenous frameworks in Australasia, such as Te Whare Tapa Whā, provide culturally grounded models of reconnection that demonstrate how ecological repair and psychological restoration can proceed together. These contrasting cases illustrate MNAT’s trajectory and emphasise that safeguarding psychological integrity requires embedding ecological security into public health systems. The review concludes that planetary mental health depends on recognising healing of mind and Earth as an indivisible task. Healing mind and Earth must be understood as a single, urgent task within planetary public mental health.

Keywords: public mental health; planetary health; human rights; ecopsychology; Indigenous frameworks; ecological integrity (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I I1 I3 Q Q5 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
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