Anthropocentrism, Animism and the Anthropocene: Decentering the Human in Psychology

Anthropocentrism – literally meaning human-centred – is a belief system intimately associated with the Anthropocene. It is often considered a, if not the, dominant ideology at the heart of ecological crisis, alongside colonialism, industrialism and capitalism. Most importantly, identifying anthropocentrism as an ideology is a starting point for exploring and developing alternative narratives that are a necessary component of challenges to the intersecting causes of our current crisis. After a brief introduction to anthropocentrism, this chapter discusses how we are going about ‘actively unlearning’ it in academic and professional practices and how we might further de-centre the human. It is followed by a discussion of animism as a potential alternative to anthropocentrism, grounded in everyday practices.