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Article
Publication date: 2 September 2013

Gilles Arnaud and Stijn Vanheule

This paper aims to reflect on how Lacanian psychoanalysis might inform management studies, and discuss limitations and consequences of adopting this particular framework for doing…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper aims to reflect on how Lacanian psychoanalysis might inform management studies, and discuss limitations and consequences of adopting this particular framework for doing research in organizations.

Design/methodology/approach

The authors integrate existing literature on the topic, and try to articulate what Lacanian psychoanalysis contributes to the study of organizations and management; what its conceptual premises are; and which methodological consequences these premises have. Special attention is paid to the epistemological position of Lacanian psychoanalysis, and to potential pitfalls in using Lacanian theory.

Findings

The authors highlight the danger of Lacanian theory functioning as a dogmatic interpretative frame, and suggest countering this tendency by accentuating both the spirit of investigation fostered by Lacan and the ethical stakes of psychoanalytic intervention. The authors equally contend that Lacanian psychoanalysis problematizes the underpinnings of scientific discourse in general, with the epistemological foundations of the social sciences being called into question. Finally, they note that the scientific character of Lacanian psychoanalysis is itself open to contestation if approached from a positivistic point of view. Addressing these objections, the authors argue for the possibility of a promising epistemological convergence between psychoanalysis and management studies.

Originality/value

Overall, the authors' point is that Lacanian theory is unique in its systematic study of the dimension of the excluded and that it is in the study of this dimension that the benefit for organization and management research is to be found.

Details

Management Decision, vol. 51 no. 8
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0025-1747

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 30 January 2020

Nathan Gerard

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the relevance of psychoanalysis to an emerging sub-field known as “critical healthcare management studies” (CHMS).

Abstract

Purpose

The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the relevance of psychoanalysis to an emerging sub-field known as “critical healthcare management studies” (CHMS).

Design/methodology/approach

Building upon a wave of critical scholarship in the broader field of management, scholars and practitioners of healthcare management have begun to forge a critical scholarly movement of their own. CHMS, short for “critical healthcare management studies,” formally denotes a new subfield of inquiry dedicated to challenging entrenched assumptions, exposing power relations, and cultivating critical praxis, all the while serving as a vital counterpoint to mainstream scholarship. This paper seeks to augment the CHMS movement with psychoanalysis, and particularly the critical vein of organizational psychoanalysis already well-established in critical management studies.

Findings

The argument is made that a greater engagement with psychoanalysis offers novel avenues for critical theorizing and practice in healthcare management. Specifically three areas are considered: 1) the exploitative role of guilt in the caring professions, 2) the resurgence of authoritarianism and its implications for unconscious organizational dynamics, and 3) the potential for a psychoanalytically informed critical healthcare praxis.

Originality/value

While there remain wide differences of opinion about the utility of psychoanalysis outside of the clinical arena, this paper reveals just how psychoanalysis can inform today's healthcare organizations, and more broadly the social and political organization of health in society.

Details

Journal of Health Organization and Management, vol. 34 no. 2
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1477-7266

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2002

Leroy Lowe, Albert Mills and Jane Mullen

By the very nature of its concerns (i.e. a search for deep‐seated meanings within our understandings of organizations and the people who enact them), psychoanalysis has much to…

1899

Abstract

By the very nature of its concerns (i.e. a search for deep‐seated meanings within our understandings of organizations and the people who enact them), psychoanalysis has much to offer management practice in the twenty‐first century. We contend that, given its focus, the growing concerns with the dynamics of gender at work places a particular burden on psychoanalysis. Drawing on insights from debates within feminist psychoanalysis, we suggest a strategy for applying psychoanalysis that is capable of dealing with the gendered aspects of organizational dynamics.

Details

Journal of Managerial Psychology, vol. 17 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0268-3946

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 November 1998

Thibault de Swarte

Psychoanalysis and management are “strangers” to one another for epistemological reasons mainly related to their different spiritual fathers, scientific goals, validation criteria…

1858

Abstract

Psychoanalysis and management are “strangers” to one another for epistemological reasons mainly related to their different spiritual fathers, scientific goals, validation criteria and dominant methodologies. However, some of these spiritual fathers did, in the early twentieth century, have the intuition of interesting partial convergence. Today, there is some good research, even if marginal, in both the managerial and psychoanalytic fields, being conducted at the intersection of psychoanalysis and management. This research focuses more on a psychoanalytical attentiveness to management acts than on a managerial use of psychoanalysis, which would, in fact, contradict basic psychoanalytic hypotheses and methodologies.

Details

Journal of Managerial Psychology, vol. 13 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0268-3946

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 14 March 2024

Philip John Archard, Michelle O'Reilly and Massimiliano Sommantico

This paper contributes to a dialogue about the psychoanalytic concept of free association and its application in the context of qualitative research interviewing. In doing so, it…

Abstract

Purpose

This paper contributes to a dialogue about the psychoanalytic concept of free association and its application in the context of qualitative research interviewing. In doing so, it also adds to wider discussion regarding the relationship between clinical psychoanalysis, psychoanalytic psychotherapy and qualitative research.

Design/methodology/approach

Critical consideration of different perspectives on the application of free association in the qualitative research interview, extending earlier work addressing this issue. Differences and similarities in the way the concept of free association is articulated are examined regarding its framing in psychoanalysis and psychoanalytically oriented psychotherapy.

Findings

Whether researchers see themselves as borrowing, applying or drawing inspiration from free association, there is scope for muddling distinct ways of viewing it as it is conceived in psychoanalysis.

Originality/value

Considerations are outlined for researchers interested in psychoanalytically informed methods to be mindful of.

Details

Qualitative Research Journal, vol. ahead-of-print no. ahead-of-print
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1443-9883

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 27 July 2022

Robert Douglas Hinshelwood and Gary Winship

A one-day conference organised by the University of Essex and the Consortium of Therapeutic Communities, 10 December, 2021 with the theme, “The Unconscious and Organisations”…

Abstract

Purpose

A one-day conference organised by the University of Essex and the Consortium of Therapeutic Communities, 10 December, 2021 with the theme, “The Unconscious and Organisations”. Presentations and discussions throughout the conference had the aim of generating ideas and sharing knowledge about the unconscious and how this can inform practitioners working in therapeutic communities and other organisations meeting the challenge of emotional distress.

Design/methodology/approach

Interview with Professor Robert (Bob) Hinshelwood (RH), now 83 years old, who has been involved in therapeutic communities (TCs) since 1969, part of the initial founding of the Association of Therapeutic Communities in 1974, is presented. He qualified as a psychoanalyst in 1976. In 1980 he instigated the founding of the International Journal of Therapeutic Communities along with Nick Manning, David Kennard, Jeff Roberts and Barry Shenkar. In 1984 he founded the British Journal of Psychotherapy, and edited it for 10 years. He was Director of the Cassel Hospital 1993–1997. In 1999 he founded the journal Psychoanalysis and History. He was part of the Free Associations Group (founded by Bob Young and others) which ran the journal Free Associations, and with Mike Rustin and the University of East London, the “Psychoanalysis and Public Sphere” conferences in the 1990s. He has written a great deal about the dynamics of organisational cultures in complex settings. He is Fellow of the British Psychoanalytical Society, Fellow of the Royal College of Psychiatrists and Professor Emeritus of the University of Essex. The interviewer was conducted by Dr Gary Winship (GW) is an associate professor at the University of Nottingham where he leads the MA in Trauma Informed Practice, visiting professor Moscow Institute of Psychoanalysis, and also visiting professor at the Russian State Humanities University, editor of the International Journal of Therapeutic Communities.

Findings

Hinshelwood reflects on the question of the unconscious and the impact of destructive tendencies on organisational process. He shares his personal experience being a young evacuee during the Second World War and considers the impact of trauma, losing his religion and his subsequent career choices in medicine, psychiatry and psychoanalysis. He discusses his experience of supervision with Isabel Menzies Lyth and reflects on the different groups in the Institute of Psychoanalysis. He turns to the question tribalism in TCs and regrets that there had not been more bridge building and collaboration. He talks about his own prolific writing and publishing career which he describes as obsessional rather than passionate, and finally candidly reflects on the prospect of facing death.

Originality/value

The interview was transcribed.

Details

Therapeutic Communities: The International Journal of Therapeutic Communities, vol. 43 no. 3/4
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0964-1866

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 November 1998

Roland Brunner

Psychoanalysis has nothing to say about firms or management as such; inversely, psychoanalytic coaching can aid managers to develop a better understanding of the role they…

2211

Abstract

Psychoanalysis has nothing to say about firms or management as such; inversely, psychoanalytic coaching can aid managers to develop a better understanding of the role they exercise within the firm and to better position themselves in decision making and communication with other people. While it is a practice that takes place outside the classical psychoanalytic framework, psychoanalytic coaching must meet certain criteria in order to justify a psychoanalytic filiation: amongst others, the recognition of the unconscious and of the mechanisms of transference and counter‐transference. Crucially, the analyst is at the service of the subject (the manager) ‐ even if it is the firm that pays for the treatment. While there are risks involved for all parties concerned (the manager, the firm and the analyst), psychoanalytic coaching offers a way of rendering meaningful a management that encompasses the respect of oneself and of others.

Details

Journal of Managerial Psychology, vol. 13 no. 7
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0268-3946

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 August 2002

Yiannis Gabriel and Adrian Carr

An overview is presented of some basic psychoanalytic insights into organisations that collectively reinforce the reasons why management studies should concern itself with…

5647

Abstract

An overview is presented of some basic psychoanalytic insights into organisations that collectively reinforce the reasons why management studies should concern itself with psychoanalysis. The paper highlights the different psychoanalytically informed approaches that have been adopted thus far in the organisation literature and then raises some issues related to those who seek to use psychoanalytically informed insight to make interventions and manage organisation dynamics.

Details

Journal of Managerial Psychology, vol. 17 no. 5
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 0268-3946

Keywords

Article
Publication date: 1 March 2009

Adrian N. Carr and Cheryl A. Lapp

This paper introduces this special issue and initially provides some contextual background to the field of psychodynamics, its significance to organisational studies and the…

Abstract

This paper introduces this special issue and initially provides some contextual background to the field of psychodynamics, its significance to organisational studies and the understanding of behaviour in organizations. The internationally-based papers in this special issue are then introduced and summarised.

Details

International Journal of Organization Theory & Behavior, vol. 12 no. 3
Type: Research Article
ISSN: 1093-4537

Abstract

Details

Mad Muse: The Mental Illness Memoir in a Writer's Life and Work
Type: Book
ISBN: 978-1-78973-810-0

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