Social Dreaming - Transformative Thinking

Transformative Thinking

The Matrix idea, held in the mind of Social Dreaming, can be seen as a Faraday Cage. This was a metal screen which the scientist invented to surround his experiments in order that they would be free from extraneous interference. In the case of Social Dreaming the interference would be group and Oedipal phenomena, leaving a mental space to focus on the content of the dream exclusively. Matrix was the invention for receiving dreams socially.

The other decision was that 'interpretation', in the classic sense would not fit the demands of the primary task of the matrix. Interpretation was ideal for the dyad of classic analysis but with the large number of a Matrix it was felt that 'working hypothesis' was more germane. A working hypothesis is a sketch of the situation which can always be substituted by another as participants attempt to arrive at the potential truth of the dream. This comes about because the dream in a matrix is seen as an Object in its own right with its intellectual and spiritual qualities, belonging to the infinite. If dream is seen as a subject, the dreamer is asking, 'What does the dream mean for me as I pursue the pleasure principle and avoid any un-pleasure?' Once a dream is voiced in the Matrix, it becomes an object to be owned by all present, able to be free associated to, able to become an object that can be mentally played with by the participants.

A Social Dreaming Matrix composed of heterogeneous people, gathered for the purpose of exploring dreams is highly complex and yields much about the society and the shared cultural milieu. When a Social Dreaming Matrix is convened in a system, like a company, the participants tend to dream of the system and their roles in it. Often what will be voiced is the 'unthought known' of the system, i.e. what cannot be voiced in the system, for it is 'secret', but is recognised as a factor in the being of the system. Alastair Bain, who identified the discipline of Socio-Analysis, has proposed 'organizational dreaming' to capture this.