Social Dreaming, Our Climate Crisis, and Democratic Co-Creation of Our Future

This article proposes that the “social dreaming matrix” (SDM) approach to discerning the communal “social unconscious” can be productively integrated with “whole systems interventions” (Open Space, Future Search) to generate collective democratic deliberation and promote citizen-organized solutions and action groups. One example of communal discernment regarding the social unconscious is provided: an SDM hosted at the Anchorage Museum in Alaska, which focused on our climate crisis. Another example demonstrates the efficacy of integrating the SDM with Open Space (a large and small group brainstorming process), facilitating intensive reflection on dream themes related to citizenship. A third example presents an effective group process for the co-creation of the future through self-organized action groups (Open Space) at a psychoanalytic institute.