Who Are We?

The Waging Dialogue Project is a search for new and better ways of communicating across divides. Cultural and technological forces are dividing people across modern society, leaving political systems stagnant and ineffectual. Efforts to address this toxic polarization typically stress the need for debate, empathy, and compromise, but this may not provide a complete or lasting solution. As unprecedented advances in technology radically reshape how we interact, the time to develop a model for true shared understanding may be now or never. This will require a major advancement in the science of human psychology. LEARN MORE

Let’s Build a Movement

We are proud to partner with other organizations and work together toward the goal of human understanding! If you would like to support our work or collaborate, please share your ideas. FILL OUT OUR INTEREST FORM or CONTACT US

Read Dr. Alice L Maher’s NEW ARTICLE published in the Harvard Social Impact Review

Read Dr. Alice L Maher’s PRESENTATION at the 2023 Congress of the International Psychoanalytic Association

Learn about our Education Initiatives

We are proud to work with institutions of secondary and higher education. Our sister initiative, Emotional Imprint, has K-12 educational resources available for free online. LEARN MORE

We are proud to partner with the Collaborative for Compassionate Civic Engagement on its Civics Corps Initiative at community colleges nationwide. LEARN MORE

Our full Civics Corps Intergenerational Dialogue Program for undergraduate students is AVAILABLE ONLINE

Waging Dialogue is a project of Changing our Consciousness, Inc. Please consider donating to support our work. Thank you!

Waging Dialogue Blog

• The United States Civic Wellness Movement: An Observational Report
  by June Klees
  October 7, 2023
  Overview In the early 21st century in the United States of America, people from across the country built on the work of prior generations, giving rise to the United States Civic Wellness Movement.  It is no exaggeration to say that this movement is part of a broader struggle between the forces of authoritarianism and those …

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• Moving Toward a Theory of Difference
  by Alice L Maher
  July 27, 2023
  By Dr. Alice L Maher As Presented at the 53rd Congress of the International Psychoanalytic Association: “Mind in the Line of Fire” Does psychoanalysis have anything to offer to alleviate toxic polarization? Not only does it have something to offer, it has everything to offer. Political, scientific, and moral arguments don’t work. Debates don’t work. …

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• Can We Change the Emotional Climate? It’s Just as hard, and Just as Possible
  by Alice L Maher
  December 13, 2022
  Abstract  We can’t teach our children about the brutality that our species inflicts on one another without offering them a pathway to change it. The idea of God has typically served as our moral compass and mechanism for transcending our animal instincts, but as our world becomes smaller and polarizations envelop us, religion has become …

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• Human: A Species of Brilliant Killers
  by Alice L Maher
  October 16, 2022
  Homo Sapiens is an extraordinary species. But, let’s face it, we’re a species that kills our own kind. If aliens are looking down at us, it’s one of the first things they’re noting: Homo Sapiens seems so intelligent, but because they have no insight into the fact that they keep killing one another, they can’t …

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