Exploring SDM in Covid Times - A Case Study of a Students’ peer-to-peer Support Group

Abstract

This short article presents an experience hosted by four young educators in training, during the confinement period of the Covid pandemic in Italy. It is a support group run using the Social Dreaming Matrix, to fight against the sense of solitude and deprivation that students experienced when the university became an online arena. The article is an honest and candid report of how the SDM was designed and developed, given that none of the hosts had a specific in-depth training on it. It highlights the intertwining of individual dreams with the social unconscious, as most of the emerged themes (the house, the journey, the violence) show a deep connection between the psychic matrix and how the Covid events affected it. It is a blunt account of all the vulnerabilities of the actors involved and of the times we all live through. But it also shows the generative power of desire when a relationship between teacher and pupils becomes a real educational space, encouraging youngsters to explore their unknown potential.