Psychoanalytic Studies of Organizations

This book samples the groundbreaking work that has been developed over the last twenty-five years by psychoanalysts, writers and practitioners associated with the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO). What characterises this collection of original papers is an attempt to look at organizations, groups, teams and organizational role holders using psychoanalytic, systemic and psychodynamic perspectives that collectively eschew superficial, linear, prescriptive and mechanistic views of both the system and the individual within. These papers, delivered as presentations to the Society during the Annual Symposia of the ISPSO from its inception in 1983 to date, collectively form an important commentary on the changing societal dynamics and current preoccupations facing contemporary organizations, their leaders and their workforce. As such, these papers are representative of many that have contributed to, and documented, the development of the thought and praxis from a psychoanalytic perspective and systems thinking over the last quarter of century. Whilst most of these papers have already been published elsewhere, the ISPSO as an organization wished to include them in this volume, recognising their lasting influence and legacy as well as their ongoing impact upon the thinking and the practice of its membership and beyond.