Converging Themes: Engineering, Ethics, and the Unconscious | Upcoming Talks

“We all know people…who are at loggerheads with existence; unhappy people who never get what they want; are baffled, complaining, who stand at an uncomfortable angle when they see everything askew. There are others again who, though they appear perfectly content, seem to have lost all touch with reality. They lavish all their affections upon little dogs and old china. They take interest in nothing but the vicissitudes of their own health and the ups and downs of social snobbery. There are, however, others who strike us, why precisely it would be difficult to say, as being by nature or circumstances in a position where they can use their faculties to the full upon things that are of importance. They are not necessarily happy or successful, but there is a zest in their presence, an interest in their doings. They seem to be alive all over. This may be partly the result of circumstances — they have been born into surroundings that suit them — but much more is the result of some happy balance of qualities in themselves so that they see things not at an awkward angle, all askew; nor distorted through a mist; but four square, in proportion; they grasp something hard; when they come into action they cut real ice.” 

—Virginia Woolf, “The Narrow Bridge of Art”

On April 12, 2026, in Fort Collins, IDP psychoanalyst Joseph Scalia III and Professor Emeritus of Civil and Environmental Engineering Tom Sale will lead a discussion with community members on the confluence of their streams of inquiry, research, and writing.

Joseph and Tom will concurrently describe motivations for and key themes in their recent books. The books are founded in the domains of psychoanalysis, environmental engineering, environmentalism generally, and education. The modern world is fraught with ever-mounting great worries. Miraculously, converging paths forward for solving problems in disparate fields are found.  In the end, intellectual honesty, openness, and hope are our ethical paths to salvation.  

As the impasses and struggles of our epoch call for collaboration across seemingly disparate disciplines, Joseph and Tom enact here one of the ways we might come together in service and concern for both terra and demos, the site and substance of life, as well as a mode of sociocultural being necessary for the evolution of the collective human adventure.

We look forward to the talk and a lively conversation.

Dr. Tom Sale is Emeritus Professor in Civil and Environmental Engineering/ Colorado State University. CSU STRATA 2024 Innovator of the Year. His book, Modern Subsurface Contaminant Hydrology, is co-authored with Joseph Scalia IV.

Modern Subsurface Contaminant Hydrology

Joseph Scalia III, Psya.D. is a psychoanalyst and a social and environmental activist, and writer. He is Co-Director of the Institute for a Democratic Psychoanalysis, and past president of both Montana Wilderness Association and the Gallatin Yellowstone Wilderness Alliance. Dr. Scalia has a keen commitment to looking beyond narratives to what unconsciously motivates the human. His book, Critical Consciousness: Beyond Impasses in Environmentalism, Psychoanalysis, and Education, is co-authored with Lynne S. Scalia.

Critical Consciousness: Beyond Impasses in Environmentalism, Psychoanalysis, and Education

Institute for a Democratic Psychoanalysis

This event will take place on Sunday, April 12, 2026 at:

Wolverine Farm Publick House
4 – 6 PM Mountain Time
316 Willow Street, Fort Collins, Colorado 80524

Featuring art by Jocelyn Catterson, “Making the Visible Invisible: Groundwater in the San Luis Valley”