Deep Democracy: Deepening democracy and integrating perspectives

"Our circumstances, history and experiences determine our view of things. Everyone sees the world from their own point of view in their own way. No one has the complete picture, but no one is 100 percent wrong either." (Ken Wilber) How do we manage to combine different perspectives in such a way that our picture (and understanding) of a problem becomes more complete? How can we specifically recognize and integrate neglected perspectives? What is shadow work and why is it important? How do we make difficult topics in our society discussable again? Deep Democracy offers impulses for rethinking as well as numerous methodological tools. Originating from Arnold Mindell's process-oriented psychology and further developed by Myrna and Greg Lewis, it provides us with practical tools to resolve tensions, conflicts and difficult issues in group contexts in depth - and thus to use them constructively before they lead to polarization or escalate. The seminar provides an introduction to the theory and practice of Deep Democracy as a contribution to a new political culture that serves to deepen our democracy.

Course leader: Dr. Fein, Elke. Dr. Elke Fein is a political and social scientist and managing director of the Institute for Integral Studies (IFIS) in Freiburg. Her book "Integrale Politik - Grundlagen, Prinzipien und Inspirationsquellen" was published in 2023. As part of the "Integral Policy Workshop", she works together with colleagues on a new, integral political culture and conducts dialog processes, round tables and other participation formats. More at https://www.ifis-freiburg.de/mitglied/dr-elke-fein