Dreaming the Social

John Clare is a Retired Psychoanalytic Psychotherapist, who, after being a sociology lecturer at London University, worked as a therapist in the NHS and private practice. He is a founder member of the Multi-lingual Psychotherapy Centre. He has written on Samuel Beckett and Psychoanalysis and on ‘Dreams before 9/11’. He is now an expressionist painter living in Wales, where he has been running a social dreaming matrix since 2009.Ali Zarbafi is a Jungian Analyst and Clinical Supervisor. He is a member of the Society of Analytical Psychology and a founder member of the Multilingual Psychotherapy Centre. He worked in the NHS for 30 years and has written on the refugee experience, multilingualism and working with the interpreter in clinical work.

Praise for the first edition: "This is the book I have been waiting to read. I have yearned for a book that would examine contemporary culture through the imaginative critique of psychoanalysis. I did not want a theory-poem, or authorial brilliance. I yearned for the sort of book that I knew would teach me something and which I could recommend to others. The authors’ passion embraces the subject matter in ways that is more than inspiring and hopeful. It is such a relief to read!" - Christopher Bollas, author of The Freudian Moment, The Infinite Question and Evocative Object World “We have long thought of dreams as a repository of the most private and inaccessible regions of unconscious experience. In this important and original book, the motifs and mechanisms of the dreaming unconscious - helplessness, sexual desire, denial, the pleasures and perils of knowing - are mined instead for their rich and layered social meanings. With fascinating new chapters on Brexit, Covid and Ukraine, Clare and Zarbafi show us dreams as carriers of urgent messages from and to our precarious world.” – Josh Cohen, Psychoanalyst, author and Professor of English at Goldsmiths College, University of London

• AcknowledgementsForeword by W. Gordon LawrenceIntroductionPART IWhat is Social Dreaming?1. Social dreaming and the selfJohn Clare2. The night train of social dreamsAli Zarbafi PART IISocial Dreaming in practice3. Dreaming after 9/11John Clare and Ali Zarbafi4. Sweet honey in the rockJohn Clare and Ali Zarbafi5. The end of the dance: Dreams at a literary festivalJohn Clare, appendum by Jane Storr 6. We are all slaves to babble—land: A mass dreaming experimentJohn Clare7. Dreaming in the inner cityJohn Clare and Ali Zarbafi8. Social Dreaming: A no-goal method?Ali ZarbafiPART IIIThe long matrix Hay-on-Wye 2009-239. Where are we going? John Clare10. Covid: The invisible invasionJohn Clare11. War in EuropeJohn Clare12. ConclusionJohn Clare and Ali ZarbafiGlossaryBibliographyIndex