Private Selves in Public Organizations

This book explores organizations as not simply rational, technological structures and networks for organizing people around tasks and services; it defines organizations as relational, experiential, and perceptual systems.

"This pioneering comprehensive volume establishes the new field of psychoanalytic organizational psychology. By unifying elements from articles that have touched on the topic, Diamond and Allcorn have provided a complete and definitive volume on a subject that has previously been only tangentially and partially explored. It will endure as the fundamental volume for scholars and consultants, setting a model for the field. This is a monumental accomplishment for which readers will long be grateful." - Harry Levinson, Ph.D. Clinical Professor of Psychology Emeritus, Harvard Medical School, President Emeritus, the Levinson Institute

"What is organizational well-being and how do we understand and foster it? Drawing on decades of fieldwork, Diamond and Allcorn beautifully describe how consultants for organizational improvement uncover lurking problems in the workplace: how organizational fragmentation turns into confrontational identity units, complicated transference-countertransference issues, difficulty mourning losses, and psychological pressures of psychogeography. The book s psychoanalytically framed techniques illustrate methods for effective intervention, especially timely in light of today s concerns about globalization and the recent turbulence in financial markets." - Vamik D. Volkan, M. D., the author of Blind Trust: Large Groups and Their Leaders in Times of Crises and Terror and Killing in the Name of Identity: A Study of Bloody Conflicts

Autorentext
MICHAEL A. DIAMOND is Professor of Public Affairs, Associate Director for Academic Programs, and Director of the Center for the Study of Organizational Change at the Harry S Truman School of Public Affairs, University of Missouri. He is a founding member and past-president of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations.

SETH ALLCORN is Vice President for Business and Finance at the University of New England. He is a founding member of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations.

Inhalt
Dedication Introduction PART I: LAYERS OF EXPERIENCE Boundaries and Surfaces Silo Mentality Organizational Change and the Analytic Third Organizations as Defective Containers PART II: MORAL VIOLENCE Chaos and Complexity Shame, Oppression and Persecution PART III: SHARED EMOTIONS: TRANSFERENCE AND COUNTER-TRANSFERENCE Perversions of Democracy Immersion and Diagnosis Conclusion: Human Nature and Organizational Silos Bibliography