Growth and Guilt: Psychology and the Limits of Development

The increasing exploitation of the planet has become the subject of ever more frequent debates on the limits of growth and development. However until now studies have dealt primarily with the technological aspects. Is it truly possible to deal with the excesses of our civilization without lending attention to the psychological dimension? Luigi Zoja argues that the crux of the problem is not, surely, to be found in encounters with external limits; we must also and primarily be aware of a principle of self-limitation that we have to exercise if unchecked growth is not to turn cancerous.