Publications

This section features selected publications, reports, and commentary on psychoanalysis, social justice, and ecological thought. It offers a glimpse into my work and the connections I draw between clinical practice, community psychology, and the wider world we share. If you’re interested in this work, you can email me directly through this page or leave a short voicemail to (341) 230-1740; I usually respond within 24 hours.

– Technical reports
Barnwell, G. (2022). Everything for dust: The collective trauma of opencast coal mining on residents in Somkhele, KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa.

Note: A useful summary article, Expert report uncovers ‘hidden mental trauma’ of opencast coal mining in rural KwaZulu-Natal, by Tony Carnie can be found on Daily Maverick’s website here.

Barnwell, G. (2021). Expert report: The psychological and mental health consequences of climate change in South Africa. Commissioned by the Centre for Environmental Rights (CER) for for the African Climate Alliance, groundWork, the Vukani Environmental Movement in Action.

Note: “The North Gauteng High Court, on 4 December 2024, handed down judgment in the landmark constitutional litigation against the South African government’s decision to procure 1 500 MW of new coal-fired power. The court declared the decision unlawful and invalid, on the basis that there was insufficient consultation with, and consideration of, the harms and limitation of rights of present and future generations that could follow from building new coal electricity generation.” Link to the Centre for Environmental Rights’ Press Release.

Barnwell, G. (2021). Community psychological report concerning the development of the Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone. Submitted as part of the Public Participation Process. 

Barnwell, G. (2020). Review of the Environmental Impact Assessment Report for the Application for Environmental Authorisation and Change of Land Use for the Proposed Musina-Makhado Special Economic Zone.

Note: Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF). (2018). Complaint to the Office of Health Standards Compliance (OHSC) on the standards of health care provision by the Department of Home Affairs and their subcontracted entity in Lindela Repatriation Centre. This submission was endorsed by Lawyers for Human Rights (LHR), Section 27, and the Treatment Action Campaign (TAC). [Barnwell, lead investigator, and writer. For a report copy, please inquire about this submission to the above organizations or the OHSC to whom the report was submitted to with their acknowledgment.]

Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières. (MSF). (2017). Untreated violence: Untreated Violence: Critical gaps in medical and clinical forensic care for survivors of sexual violence in South Africa. MSF. [Report lead: Garret Barnwell]
Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières. (MSF). (2016). Untreated violence: the need for patient-centred care for survivors of sexual violence in the Platinum Mining Belt MSF [Report lead and photographs: Garret Barnwell]

– Books

Barnes, BR., Fernandes-Jesus, M., Trott, C., & Barnwell, G. (Eds.) (2025). Community, Psychology and Climate Justice. Decolonial Community Psychology Series (Series Editors: Mohamed Seedat & Shahnaaz Shuffla). Springer.

Chalquist, C., & Barnwell, G. (Eds.). (2024). Terrapsychology: Further Inquiry Into Self, Place and Planet. Taylor & Francis.

– Academia and commentary

Fernandes-Jesus, M., Trott, C., Barnwell, G., & Barnes, B. (2025) Toward a critical psychology of climate justice. International Perspectives in Psychology.

Barnwell, G. (2024). “Climate Mania.” In J. Anderson, T. Stauton, J. O’Gorman, & C. Hickman (Eds.), Being a Therapist in a Time of Climate Breakdown (1st Edition). Routledge.

Barnwell, G., & Chalquist, C. (2024). Introduction: Everything Converses!. In Terrapsychology: Further Inquiry into Self, Place and Planet. (Eds. Chalquist, C., & Barnwell, G.) (pp. 1-10). Routledge.

Barnwell, G. (2023). Witnessing in the accompaniment of frontline communities resisting mining. Explorations in Climate Psychology Journal 4, 16-19.

Barnwell, G. (2022). Civic space in times of climate crisis: Why psychology needs to rethink what it means to heal in a dwindling world. Reframe: The Mariwala Health Initiative Journal, 32-34

Morgan, G., Barnwell, G., Johnstone, L., Shukla, K., & Mitchell, A. (2022). The Power Threat Meaning Framework and the climate and ecological crises. Psychology in Society (PINS).

Barnwell, G., & Wood, N. (2022). Climate justice is central to addressing the climate emergency’s psychological consequences in the Global South: a narrative review. South African Journal of Psychology, 52(4), 486-497.

Barnwell, G., Bradshaw, G., & Watkins, M. (2022). Grounding community psychology in practices of ecopsychosocial accompaniment. In The Routledge International Handbook of Community Psychology (pp. 60-74). Routledge.

Barnes, B. R., Barnwell, G., & Hendricks, L. (2022). Psychology, environment and climate change: Foregrounding justice (part one).

Barnwell, G., Barnes, B., & Hendricks, L. (2022). Psychology and the climate emergency. South African Journal of Psychology, 52(4), 419-422.

Barnwell, G., & Heleta, S. (2021). The slow violence of climate change. Cairo Review of Global Affairs.

Barnwell, G. (2021). Decolonising loss within climate psychology. Climate Psychology Alliance’s Climate Crises Digest.

Barnwell, G., Makaulule, M., Stroud, L., Watson, M., & Dima, M. (2021). The lived experiences of place severing and decolonial resurgence in Vhembe District, South Africa. Awry: Journal of Critical Psychology, 2(1), 49-68.

Barnwell, G., Makaulule, M., Stroud, L., Watson, M., & Mashudu Rubson, D. (2021). “Mupo Is Life”: Intergenerational Community Identity and Safeguarding Sacred Natural Sites in Limpopo Province, South Africa. Ecopsychology, 13(4), 227-239.

Schockaert, L., Venables, E., Gil-Bazo, M. T., Barnwell, G., Gerstenhaber, R., & Whitehouse, K. (2020). Behind the scenes of South Africa’s asylum procedure: a qualitative study on long-term asylum-seekers from the Democratic Republic of Congo. Refugee Survey Quarterly, 39(1), 26-55.

Barnwell, G., Stroud, L., & Watson, M. (2020). “Nothing green can grow without being on the land”: Mine-affected communities’ psychological experiences of ecological degradation and resistance in Rustenburg, South Africa. Community Psychology in Global Perspective, 6(2/2), 87-109.

Barnwell, G. (2019). When climate change & health collide: Will SA’s policy have the teeth — or the money? Mail & Guardian.

Barnwell, G., & Lopez Gonzalez, L. (2019). Bugs, borers & heatwaves: Life and mental health in a hotter Joburg. Bhekisisa Centre for Health Journalism.

Barnwell, G. (2016). The hidden violence: women and attempted suicide. Health-e News.

Barnwell, G. (2016). Opinion: Psychologists playing a defensive game. Health-e News.

– Training and other

Pacifica Graduate Institute: Since 2022, I’ve taught about the importance of place, mutual accompaniment (liberation psychology), and community psychology on the Advanced Certificate in Ecopsychology at The Retreat at Pacifica Graduate Institute and have guest lectured on M.A./Ph.D. Program in Depth Psychology with Specialization in Community, Liberation, Indigenous, and Eco-Psychologies.

Barnwell, G. (2024). Understanding land-based psychological trauma in light of epistemic justice. UC Berkeley Social Science Matrix.