The Nature Cure, written by James Hamblin for the October 2015 issue of The Atlantic, addresses a relatively new form of medicine: ecotherapy. Hamblin explains that ecotherapy is a form of therapy that uses nature and the outdoors as a form of treatment for physical or mental ailments, and he provides evidence that supports its practice. My analysis is based on Hamblin’s thesis, organization, style of writing, use of evidence, and design/visual features. Using plenty of evidence and logical reasoning, he explains how ecotherapy can be beneficial and supports the idea well.
The thesis of the article, that nature does have certain healing properties that can be harnessed to help people, could have been expressed in a …show more content…
The way he organized the article is easy to understand, and flows well. His evidence is placed all throughout the article, coming from medical studies, doctors who are using ecotherapy, and various arguments about why ecotherapy works. One such argument is that in order for it to be effective, you cannot just take from nature, you have to be involved and give something back. Hamblin agrees with this and says “If the practice leads people to volunteer in an urban garden… or to start a bird-watching club or to fall in love while chained to a redwood, it could legitimately improve their health by giving them a sense of purpose and fostering social connections.” Ecotherapy is mentioned to work because of the awe-inspiring abilities of nature. Recent research shows that awe can be beneficial to health, even reducing levels of a stress hormone. As evidence, Hamblin even brings up the history of ecotherapy as a concept, mentioning Henry David Thoreau and his ideas about how nature is important to human health. Hamblin supplies plenty of evidence to support ecotherapy, and incorporates it well into his