Dr. Boria Sax's new book is "The Butterfly Who Dreamt He Was a Man: Metamorphoses, Entomological and Human."

Sax offers a cultural and philosophical journey that shows why losing insects means losing part of ourselves.

The root of the word “psychology” is psychê, which in Greek means both “soul” and “butterfly.”

Insects are amazing animals. It always baffles me how a single word can be used to refer to the astounding—unimaginable—diversity of around 10 quintillion (18 zeros after the number 10) beings who belong to around 5.5 million species who occupy our planet.

I don't know all that much about the vast majority of these animals but I am greatly attracted to butterflies and bees, so when I learned of Dr. Boria Sax's new book The Butterfly Who Dreamt He Was a Man: Metamorphoses, Entomological and Human, I couldn't wait to get my eyes on it. Now that I have, I was pleased he could answer a few questions about his landmark book in which he "offers an imaginative lens on the growing crisis of insect extinction ... a cultural and philosophical journey that shows why losing insects means losing part of ourselves." Here's what he had to say about his highly original book.

Marc Bekoff: Why would readers of Psychology Today be interested in your book?

Boria Sax: In The Butterfly Who Dreamt He was a Man, I write about how stories are the major way in which people organize experience. From the Neolithic forager in a forest to a contemporary teenager surfing the Internet, people have always been surrounded by more items clamoring for attention than they can even notice. Stories tell us what merits special attention and what should be ignored. They divide experience into units that can teach practical or moral lessons.

Each of us is a collection of stories, far more than he or she can tell or even know. But the person who is aware of his or her own stories will be more grounded and better able to articulate priorities.........

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