In this paper Edling and Frelin strive to incorporate the features of complexity in discussions about democracy as a form of life and especially teachers’ moral responsibility for others. By placing the unconscious in relation to mainstream educational policy documents (deliberate democracy) the authors strive to illuminate the conditions these imply for teacher responses. In this paper they discuss the restrictions present in a predefined democratic model and argue for a view of responsibility and learning that takes its beginning in the complexity of the educational process in which the unconscious is a significant force.