Why Dreaming Now? Oneiricopolitics in Eco-Exitentially Threateining Times

Fanny Guglielmucci^1,2*

• ¹university of Rome3, Rome, Italy
• ²Universita degli Studi Roma Tre, Rome, Italy

The early twenty-first century is marked by overlapping crises—climate disruption, war, displacement, and digital hyper-connectivity—that destabilize the very grounds of being. This eco-existential conjuncture produces collective disorientation and symbolic paralysis: language hardens, affective climates polarize, and the capacity for dreaming collapses. Building on psychoanalytic discussions of denial and disavowal (Layton, 2020; Weintrobe, 2021) and large-scale findings that crises reactivate the dreaming function (Scarpelli et al., 2022), this Perspective expands the emerging theory of Oneiricopolitics—a psychoanalytic and ethical framework that conceives dreaming as a collective, future-oriented, and reparative act. Within this framework, the paper introduces the Dream Box™ method, developed at PSYLab (Roma Tre University), as a device for studying and facilitating group symbolization. Dreams are collected, shared, and discussed collectively; free associations and the emotional atmoshere that emerge in the field are analyzed hermeneutically, following Rennie’s (2012) methodical hermeneutics, which emphasizes reflexive documentation and intersubjective validation as sources of rigor. A preliminary eight-week pilot study conducted within an academic community (N=31, all females) is presented, showing consistent improvements in five constructs (i.e. symbolization, affective climate, belonging, collective agency, and hope/anticipation), categorized through a 5-steps procedure and assessed through an ad-hoc qualitative rubric (-1/+1) by two analysts. By integrating Bion’s conception of the dreaming function, contemporary field perspective, and Bloch’s anticipatory consciousness, the article positions dreaming as a symbolic politics of resistance and repair. Restoring the capacity to dream thus emerges as both a clinical and cultural imperative—a means of reopening imagination, meaning-making, and futurity amid planetary uncertainty.