Solastalgia and mental health in the climate era: a perspective on ecological suffering

Solastalgia – defined as the distress caused by environmental degradation in one’s home environment – has emerged as a powerful lens through which to understand the psychological toll of ecological collapse. While initially introduced in environmental philosophy, solastalgia is increasingly supported by interdisciplinary empirical evidence linking climate change to affective disruption, identity loss, and mental illness risk. This Perspective argues for the formal integration of solastalgia into mental health science, proposing an ecological, psychosocial, biological, and culturally responsive framework to guide research and intervention. I highlight solastalgia’s diagnostic relevance, its underrepresentation in psychiatric systems, and its resonance across global contexts, particularly among vulnerable and Indigenous populations. Recognizing solastalgia is not merely a scientific necessity but an ethical imperative – one that urges mental health to evolve in response to planetary realities. In the Anthropocene, ecological loss is not only material – it is emotional, cognitive, and collective.