Thoughts on Psyche at Work: Implications of Jungian analysis for social groups

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Thoughts on Psyche at Work

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Psyche at Work is a new book (Wilmette IL, Chiron, 1992), edited by Murray Stein and John Hollwitz, that aims to indicate the relevance of Jungian analytical psychology to issues of organizational development, notably at the workplace. This note endeavours to highlight, in the light of the contents of the book, where new challenges lie. Thus despite full support for what the book achieves, the concern in this note is with the challenges for analytical psychology beyond those on which it focuses there. As part of a dialogue, these points are strongly made without contextual niceties -- and for that apologies may be due!

1. The book acknowledges that Jungian psychology has traditionally concerned itself with the individual. Two reasons are given:

• Jung's opposition: Jung was known for his antipathy to groups and organizations. It was his wish that the C G Jung Institute, if it were to exist, should be "as disorganized as possible" (Auger, p. 40) He argued that "Large political and social organizations must not be ends in themselves, but merely temporary expedients." Apparently Jung's crucial concern was that "organizations are destructive to individuals". The primacy of the individual is almost holy writ to Jungians (Auger, p. 44). Whilst such views carry truths, in such a simplistic form they distort the challenges and opportunities of a complex society -- especially for those non-western cultures for which the individual is secondary to community. If they are maintained as truths by the discipline of analytical psychology, that would suffice to establish its current irrelevance to the problems that many face.
  
  
• Introverted analysts: The book reports research that 85 percent of Jungian analysts "are introverts who find it difficult or unrewarding to relate to the world of organizations" (Auger, p. 50).

It is a matter for some wonder that a discipline that is so intensely self-aware should allow itself to be constrained by a particular set of biases for so long. This is especially the case when the discipline is professionally concerned with such biases and their consequences in the processes of psychotherapy. From the point of view of organization theory, it might even be asked whether the kinship group, nuclear family, or the analyst/analysand couple, did not also constitute organizations -- to which the same opprobrium should therefore be attached.

2. For outsiders, it remains a further matter of wonder that the relationships between the various psychological and psychotherapeutic disciplines should be so strained -- even hostile. Again there is concern that the skills of such disciplines are not used more effectively to analyze these tensions and shift their relationships to a higher level. Failure to do so makes it only too easy for outsiders to reject the use of any of these insights in other areas, and notably those relating to the collective. Again one wonders whether, as with all disciplines, sufficient attention has been given to the nature of the shadow of analytical psychology and the challenge that it represents for the evolution of that discipline.

3. In this period when all insight frameworks have been challenged and are considered wanting (at least by their competitors), there is a real obstacle to acceptance of insights from any particular framework -- especially if it is labelled (if only for convenience) by a particular person's name. It is interesting that Jungian thinking is best known under that label. The label "analytical psychology" does not convey the richness with which it is associated. For outsiders there is much confusion and overlapping of images between the different psychologies and psychotherapies. How does analytical differ from depth psychology? It is unfortunate, for example, that the International Association for Analytical Psychology should be known under the same initials as the International Association for Applied Psychology. For a school of thought renowned for its concern with integration, it is regrettable that its formal title should focus on "analytical". Much of the intellectual tragedy of the times is due to the unfortunate success of "analysis" unmatched by any corresponding insights into integration and synthesis. Analytical psychology has many such integrative insights which it effectively hides under an analytical barrel. In organizational terms it would be described as having an "image" problem -- which paradoxically is to be expected because of its specialist interest in images.

4. Unfortunately few of the insights from the discipline have been used to heal the relationships between the psychotherapeutic disciplines or within disciplines ("one only needs to observe how organizations of Jungian analysts are operated to realize how greatly organizational development could make positive contributions to them" Auger, p. 50). The status quo appears to suit most of those involved. But there is a heightened level of impatience in the wider world.

5. The book notes that there have been previous attempts to apply such Jungian approaches to group dynamics and processes, to world politics and to the arts "to varying degrees of success". The focus here is on organizational development. However some authors note that organizational development (OD) was itself born in rather conservative times. It has already been abandoned by some in favour of organizational transformation (OT). Whilst the shift from the individual to the organization is much to be welcomed, it is important to recognize that the challenges of the times have also shifted. Whilst the development of organizations remain of interest for all the reasons indicated in the book, the tragedy is that this avoids the locus of real difficulties in improving social governance.

6. The principal argument in this note is that the locus of difficulty is no longer within organizations, it is now between organizations. Considerable expertise has been applied to improving the functioning of individual organizations. Whilst there may be much scope for improvement, it is useful to assess whether this is an appropriate allocation of resources or simply an allocation of effort where resources are often available. What resources are available to respond to the needs of groups of organizations torn apart by a range of dynamics? Obvious examples are the "greens", peace movement organizations, civil rights groups, religious/spiritual groups, etc. Token collaboration is now being used to disguise the limited ability to deal with mutual suspicion and hostility. The desperate pursuit of "consensus" and "universal" values, and the radical rejection of any "negativity" or "criticism", signals the emergence of a new form of fundamentalism that is terrified of its own shadow. Only "equality" is accepted, with any "differences" being tolerable only as an unfortunate precursor of "agreement". Even in hierarchical structures only positive reporting is acceptable if career advancement is to be ensured.

7. Both analytical psychology and OD give a focal role to the intervening expert. This is fine in situations where such a relationship can be successfully contracted. In individual therapy the client contracts into the process. In organizational "therapy", the OD consultant usually negotiates a contract with the "boss", whether the CEO or a department head. The emerging challenge in society is however the need for integrative insights in situations where no one is authorized or empowered to position the therapeutic catalyst so that he/she can control (or even facilitate) the process. At the individual level this is best seen in the challenge faced by a community development worker in a community in which he/she is given no power but nevertheless has to act as an integrative catalyst in bringing people together more constructively. At the collective level this is seen in the role of the mediator/negotiator in situations where that role cannot be imposed on the opposing groups (as was done by the US in the current Middle East peace negotiations). And in the case of the psychotherapeutic disciplines, this is most dramatically seen in the improbability of any one person being accepted as the mediating figure to heal the relationships between those disciplines (or the organizations representing them).

8. In the above sense many arguments in the book contrasting individual and organizational situations need to be shifted to apply to sets of organizations. Much of what is stated in terms of projections of the individual onto single organizations also applies with a set or network of organizations. In a sense a set of organizations is a superordinate organization waiting to be born -- a primodial state of institutional chaos.

9. "How can organizations acknowledge their unconscious and do something about it? Where are their creative sources? What are the possibilities for transformation in the structures of traditional organizations...?" These questions apply as much to a set of organizations in sub-optimal relationship. Interventions in organizational sets should be similar to those with individuals. The book makes allusions to larger social groupings, including world politics. It is questionable whether breakthroughs can be sought at this level -- as one might have hoped in the case of the relations between nation states. Intergovernmental systems are especially resistan

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