A History of Group Study and Psychodynamic Organizations

A History of Group Study and Psychodynamic Organizations PDF Author: Amy Louise Fraher
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 236

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Book Description
Many people hold a piece of the puzzle of group relations, yet few people are able to put them together in a meaningful way. In this breakthrough study, Amy L. Fraher provides the most comprehensive account yet written of the history of institutes of group study. The book draws on original documents as well as extensive interviews with key practitioners. The result is a fascinating story of the complex dynamics of organizational life. Developing the construct of idea organizations - organizations designed to generate intellectual concepts, rather than to produce goods or services - Fraher examines the psychodynamic workings of the National Training Laboratories, Tavistock and A.K. Rice Institutes, as well as early psychoanalytic societies. She shows how the innovatory forces that energize these idea organizations can become the focus of inter-group rivalries, creating a cycle that puts the organizations themselves at risk. Fraher details the cycle of idea organizations through the contributions of experts in the field such as David Armstrong, Gordon Lawrence, Isabel Menzies Lyth, Laurence Gould, Eric Miller, and Kathleen Pogue White, and others. She also uses A.K. Rice's previously unavailable field notes and director's reports to provide a documented overview of group relations theory and conference methodology not offered since Rice's own Learning for Leadership in 1965. This is an accessible and absorbing study, suitable both for experts and those new to the study of groups.

A History of Group Study and Psychodynamic Organizations

A History of Group Study and Psychodynamic Organizations PDF Author: Amy Louise Fraher
Publisher:
ISBN:
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 236

Get Book Here

Book Description
Many people hold a piece of the puzzle of group relations, yet few people are able to put them together in a meaningful way. In this breakthrough study, Amy L. Fraher provides the most comprehensive account yet written of the history of institutes of group study. The book draws on original documents as well as extensive interviews with key practitioners. The result is a fascinating story of the complex dynamics of organizational life. Developing the construct of idea organizations - organizations designed to generate intellectual concepts, rather than to produce goods or services - Fraher examines the psychodynamic workings of the National Training Laboratories, Tavistock and A.K. Rice Institutes, as well as early psychoanalytic societies. She shows how the innovatory forces that energize these idea organizations can become the focus of inter-group rivalries, creating a cycle that puts the organizations themselves at risk. Fraher details the cycle of idea organizations through the contributions of experts in the field such as David Armstrong, Gordon Lawrence, Isabel Menzies Lyth, Laurence Gould, Eric Miller, and Kathleen Pogue White, and others. She also uses A.K. Rice's previously unavailable field notes and director's reports to provide a documented overview of group relations theory and conference methodology not offered since Rice's own Learning for Leadership in 1965. This is an accessible and absorbing study, suitable both for experts and those new to the study of groups.

Being a Systems Psychodynamic Scholar

Being a Systems Psychodynamic Scholar PDF Author: Frans Cilliers
Publisher: AFRICAN SUN MeDIA
ISBN: 1928314643
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 482

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Book Description
This Festschrift has been compiled by Sanchen Henning in honour of the work of Professor Frans Cilliers. On behalf of colleagues and friends in South Africa and abroad, she illustrates their appreciation and respect for his role as scholar in Systems Psychodynamics. He produced various pioneering research projects in Organisational Psychology as his field of study, through the Systems Psychodynamic lens. A specific feature and contribution of the book is the application of Systems Psychodynamics to organisational matters and leadership consulting as well as to the lived experiences of postgraduate students and academics. The chapters include themes relevant on individual, group and organisational levels and are intended to contribute to the body of knowledge in the field.

Group Relations and Other Meditations

Group Relations and Other Meditations PDF Author: Carlos Sapochnik
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000424839
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 189

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Book Description
This book examines the Tavistock tradition of using group relations conferences as temporary training organizations for groups and institutions, and how those can inform and enrich the theory and practice of experiential learning more generally. First, this book analyses the structures, rituals, and beliefs of group relations conferences, drawing on the author’s learned experience in the field, followed by meditations extending to broader areas, such as the social nature of corruption, martial arts, Western culture’s longing for creativity, and the use of drawing in social science research. It addresses the tension between psychoanalysis and systemic theory in group relations thinking, refining and re-defining key concepts of the practice, challenging notions of dependence and dependency, performative poetics, learning, the politics of power, nostalgia, and the unspoken reasons for the wish to join conference staff teams. It offers a critique of the polarity concerning terms such as spontaneity, the sense of mystery, openness to the unexpected, and trust in unconscious processes, as opposed to the desire for certainty and the confusion, anxiety, and aggression evoked when groups find themselves without familiar signposts. Drawing on his thinking developed over the course of a professional life as organizational consultant, artist, designer, teacher, researcher, and poet, the author invites the reader to challenge boundaries towards a less inflexible and defended engagement with the Other. The metaphor of bricolage, an activity that inspires creativity and originality, suggests possible ways of putting known things together to approach new meaning as provisional and shifting. The many strands thus gathered reveal new dimensions of group life that crucially affect our everyday living and surviving, both as individuals and as members of society. This work will allow psychoanalysts, psychotherapists, group therapists, organizational consultants and trainers to put the lessons learned from group relations conferences into everyday practice.

Disavowed Knowledge

Disavowed Knowledge PDF Author: Peter Maas Taubman
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1136815791
Category : Education
Languages : en
Pages : 225

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Book Description
This is the first and only book to detail the history of the century-long relationship between education and psychoanalysis. It provides not only a historical context but also a psychoanalytically informed analysis.

The Oxford Handbook of Group Counseling

The Oxford Handbook of Group Counseling PDF Author: Robert K. Conyne
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199909334
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 599

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Book Description
Group counseling is a dynamic and valuable treatment device used by therapists throughout the psychological disciplines, one that has proven effective in promoting change and growth in a variety of populations and settings. The Oxford Handbook of Group Counseling takes an innovative approach to this expansive topic, providing both a comprehensive field manual for practitioners and an authoritative reference work for teachers and researchers. Comprising 31 topic-based chapters by leading practitioners and researchers, this handbook covers the full spectrum of current and relevant topics in group counseling, including: - definitions and background - history and efficacy - key change processes (e.g., therapeutic factors, group cohesion, group climate) - group leader strategies and characteristics - new applications for group counseling strategies, including online groups - group counseling with special populations - the future of group counseling With roots in the most recent and relevant literature, The Oxford Handbook of Group Counseling is an ideal text for training programs (counselor education, clinical psychology, social work, or human services) or as a reference for researchers in counseling psychology. Whoever the reader, it a valuable and comprehensive guidebook for both students and practitioners in the growing practice of group counseling.

An Introduction to Systems Psychodynamics

An Introduction to Systems Psychodynamics PDF Author: David Lawlor
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 1000486958
Category : Business & Economics
Languages : en
Pages : 341

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Book Description
This book provides an introduction to systems psychodynamic theory and its application to organisational consultancy, research and training, outlining systems dynamics methods and their historical and theoretical developments. Systems Psychodynamics is an emerging field of social science, the boundaries of which are continually being refined and re-defined. The ‘systems’ designation refers to open systems concepts that provide the framing perspective for understanding the structural aspects of organisational systems. These include its design, division of labour, levels of authority, and reporting relationships; the nature of work tasks, processes and activities; its mission and primary task; and the nature and patterning of the organisation’s task and sentient boundaries and the transactions across them. This book presents a critical appraisal of the systems psychodynamics paradigm and its application to present-day social and organisational difficulties, showing how a holistic approach to organisational and social problems can offer a fresh perspective on difficult issues. Bringing together the theory and practice of systems psychodynamics for the first time, this book provides an examination of the systems psychodynamics paradigm in action. This book gives an accessible and thorough guide to understanding and using systems psychodynamic ideas for analysts, managers, policy makers, consultants and researchers in a wide range of professional and clinical settings.

Group Analysis: Working with Staff, Teams and Organizations

Group Analysis: Working with Staff, Teams and Organizations PDF Author: Aleksandra Novakovic
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429655630
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 373

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Book Description
Featuring contributions from a range of organizational contexts, Group Analysis: Working with Staff, Teams and Organizations identifies the key features to group analytic practice as well as how different theoretical orientations, such as Systemic and Tavistock Consultancy approaches, can be incorporated into the process. The book addresses two essential features of group analysis: the exploration of unconscious dynamics in groups, and the shifts of observational attention between the group as a whole, the individual in the group, and the group in the individual. Including perspectives from both organizational consultancy and reflective practice, chapters feature analysis with groups and subgroups in a range of settings, including a forensic psychiatric hospital, a children’s hospice, an Anglican religious community and the management team of a global organization. Group Analysis: Working with Staff, Teams and Organizations is a major contribution to the developing literature on group analysis. It will be of great interest to psychotherapists, organizational consultants, facilitators of reflective practice groups, coaches, trainees in these disciplines, and any professionals who work with staff, teams, and organizations.

The Perverse Organisation and its Deadly Sins

The Perverse Organisation and its Deadly Sins PDF Author: Susan Long
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429921721
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
The Perverse Organisation and its Deadly Sins begins by examining the nature of perversity and its presence in corporate and organisational life. Then, four chapters examine the "corporate sins" of perverse pride, greed, envy and sloth, each taking case studies from major organisations suffering their effects. Finally, the book enquires into the nature of the consumer/provider pair as a centrepiece of the perverse cultural dynamics of current organisational life. The emphasis in the book is on perversity displayed by the organisation as such, rather than simply by its leaders, or other members, even though they may embody and manifest perverse primary symptoms to the extent that they at times engage in corrupt or criminal behaviour. What is explored is a group and organisation dynamic, more deeply embedded than conscious corruption. Within the perverse structure some roles become required to take up corrupt positions. They become part and parcel of the way things work. The person may condemn certain practices, but the role requires them. Tensions between person and role may mean that the person in role acts as they would not while in other roles. Such tensions may lead to the dynamics of perversity. This book is important reading for managers, consultants, and all who are interested in the dynamics propelling what seem to be the out-of-control dynamics within contemporary organisational life. It helps us understand how many people in positions of trust may end up abusing those positions. It looks at how we may be collectively perverse despite our individual attempts to be otherwise.

Humanness in Organisations

Humanness in Organisations PDF Author: Leopold S. Vansina
Publisher: Routledge
ISBN: 0429914652
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 309

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Book Description
Humanness in Organizations is a unique contribution from the social sciences to the betterment of organizational life. The authors argue that working life can only become more humane when we change the conditions that consciously or unconsciously steer people away from consideration, friendship and integrity. The aim of this book is twofold: first, to take a closer look at the current practices of managers, academics, and consultants, and how they affect organizational conditions, work and the well-being of people. The critical studies presented here explore and develop the likely consequences of these practices for the future. Second, the authors wish to familiarize readers with 'actionable knowledge' in order to create alternative practices and conditions that enable the whole person to engage in healthier interactions both in and with his organization. Nine social scientists from Europe or the United States, each with an established reputation in the field of consulting with a psychodynamic or 'clinical perspective', have contributed their experiences and studies to the book.

Racial and Cultural Dynamics in Group and Organizational Life

Racial and Cultural Dynamics in Group and Organizational Life PDF Author: Mary B. McRae
Publisher: SAGE Publications
ISBN: 1483302156
Category : Psychology
Languages : en
Pages : 193

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Book Description
"The field has been waiting for a masterpiece like Racial and Cultural Dynamics in Group and Organizational Life for a long time. It provides a thoughtful account of the subtle, barely visible, and sometimes unspeakable influences of racial and cultural dynamics that occur in groups." —Leo Wilton, Binghamton University, State University of New York "I believe that by focusing on group diversity, this book aligns with a major trend that has not received enough attention." — Christopher J. McCarthy, University of Texas at Austin This book presents a theoretical framework for understanding leadership and authority in group and organizational life. Using relational psychoanalytic and systems theory, the authors examine conscious and unconscious processes as they relate to racial and cultural issues in the formation and maintenance of groups. Unique among group dynamics texts, the book explores aspects of racial and cultural influences in every chapter. Readers will enhance their analytic and practice skills in addressing factors that impact diverse groups and organizations, including ethical considerations, social roles, strategies for leadership, dynamics of entering and joining, and termination. Key Features Case examples help readers integrate theory and practice, as illustrated in transcripts of interactions from group sessions. A group work competencies list ensures that readers master concepts as they progress through the book. An assessment form allows the student or practitioner to evaluate concrete dynamics of groups, such as size, and gendered and racial composition. This text is appropriate for graduate-level courses incorporating group dynamics and multicultural topics in departments of psychology, education, counseling, and social work. It is also a valuable resource for counselors, psychologists, and other mental health professionals in preparation for group work.