Flint In Depth

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The River is Dreaming:
Tending the Nightmare of the Flint Water Crisis 

Amy Beth Katz, M.A.

Fieldwork Project for Doctoral Program in Depth Psychology: Community/Liberation/Eco-Psychology  at Pacifica Graduate Institute

 

 

The Flint Water Crisis is a nightmare for residents of Flint, MI who have been poisoned by government negligence, after suffering decades of racial, economic and environmental injustice. This fieldwork project provided psychosocial accompaniment to resident-artists of the Flint Public Art Project and community members at-large via Dream Tending, storytelling, and art-based community service project collaboration. Guided by the tenets of The Global Dream Initiative, which values indigenous Ways of Knowing, I sought to honor Flint’s original occupants and the Earth by asking, “What is the River dreaming through its human inhabitants? What are the landscape and cityscape trying to communicate regarding their need for restoration?” Methodology was emergent, phenomenological, and shamanic. Jungian and liberation psychology lenses were applied to the analysis of data. Residents disclosed nightmares and dream narratives of hauntings, murder, inter-generational trauma, uncleanliness, vampires, and conspiracy theories. They also reported increased self-esteem through volunteerism, improved ecological awareness, and hope.

 

Key Words: Flint, Michigan, water crisis, dreams, nightmares, psychosocial accompaniment, Flint public art project, Global Dream Initiative, Flint River, synchronicity, indigenous ways of knowing

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Special thanks to collaborators/mentors/colleagues

who informed or assisted with this project :

My entire CLE cohort

Linda Buzzell 

Mary Watkins 

Naomi 
Joseph Schipani 
Jay Rowland 
Stephen Aizenstat 
Edward Casey

Jonathon  Young

Keith Hinebaugh

Craig Chalquist

Dreamers & Citizens of Flint

Episcopal Church of Flint

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