Air pollution, reduced exploration, and the erosion of the ‘environmental secure base’: A geopsychiatric perspective from urban India

The growing impact of climate change, rapid urbanization, and environmental decline on mental health is gaining due recognition. Children living in urban areas vulnerable to climate change face ongoing exposure to air pollution, loss of green spaces, and environmental instability. However, current literature on climate and mental health has paid little attention to how ecological loss disrupts essential developmental processes, especially the formation of a secure base in childhood. Traditional Attachment Theory suggests that a "secure base" is crucial for a child’s exploration and later cognitive and emotional development. In rapidly urbanizing areas, severe air pollution serves as a barrier, both physical and psychological, to necessary exploration. This article offers a geopsychiatric viewpoint on child development, demonstrating how air pollution and fewer chances for outdoor exploration weaken children’s environmental secure base, which in turn affects their emotional regulation, autonomy, and psychological health. Viewed through the lens of Urban India, the article argues that environmental decline poses a serious threat to childhood security and its attachment to the environment, particularly exacerbating vulnerabilities among marginalized populations. It highlights the need for climate and urban policies that consider child development.