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International audience; An increasing number of academic papers, newspaper articles, and other media representations from all over the world recently bring climate change’s impact on mental health into focus. Commonly summarized under the terms of climate or ecological emotions, these reports talk about distress, anxiety, trauma, grief, or depression in relation to environmental decline and anticipated climate crisis. While the majority of psychology and mental health literature thus far presents preliminary conceptual analysis and calls for empirical research, some explanations of ecological emotions are already offered. They mainly draw from psychoanalysis and depth existential and humanistic psychology, as well as social psychology and address the relationship between ecological emotions and individual engagement in climate action. While these studies suggest building on individual resilience if concerned by ecological emotions, we argue that this only addresses their acute symptoms and not the (chronic) social causes. Based upon our literature research, we show that in an individualistic society such as the (neo-)liberal ones, feelings of individual responsibility are fostered, and this also applies to climate activism.; Un nombre croissant d'articles académiques, de reportages de journaux et d'autres représentations médiatiques provenant du monde entier récemment mettent en lumière l'impact du changement climatique sur la santé mentale. Communément regroupés sous les termes d'émotions climatiques ou écologiques, ces rapports parlent de détresse, d'anxiété, de traumatisme, de deuil ou de dépression en relation avec le déclin environnemental et la crise climatique anticipée. Si la majorité de la littérature sur la psychologie et la santé mentale présente jusqu'à présent une analyse conceptuelle préliminaire et appelle à la recherche empirique, certaines explications des émotions écologiques sont déjà proposées. Elles s'inspirent principalement de la psychanalyse et de la psychologie existentielle et humaniste approfondie, ainsi que de la psychologie sociale, et traitent de la relation entre les émotions écologiques et l'engagement individuel dans l'action climatique. Bien que ces études suggèrent de s'appuyer sur la résilience individuelle si les émotions écologiques sont concernées, nous soutenons que cela ne concerne que leurs symptômes aigus et non les causes sociales (chroniques). Sur la base de notre recherche documentaire, nous montrons que dans une société individualiste telle que les sociétés (néo-)libérales, les sentiments de responsabilité individuelle sont encouragés, et cela s'applique également à l'activisme climatique.

An increasing number of academic papers, newspaper articles, and other media representations from all over the world recently bring climate change’s impact on mental health into focus. Commonly summarized under the terms of climate or ecological emotions, these reports talk about distress, anxiety, trauma, grief, or depression in relation to environmental decline and anticipated climate crisis. While the majority of psychology and mental health literature thus far presents preliminary conceptual analysis and calls for empirical research, some explanations of ecological emotions are already offered. They mainly draw from psychoanalysis and depth existential and humanistic psychology, as well as social psychology and address the relationship between ecological emotions and individual engagement in climate action. While these studies suggest building on individual resilience if concerned by ecological emotions, we argue that this only addresses their acute symptoms and not the (chronic) social causes. Based upon our literature research, we show that in an individualistic society such as the (neo-)liberal ones, feelings of individual responsibility are fostered, and this also applies to climate activism.