10.15am Saturday 10 July 2021
PP11 : Stuart & Ryan: Regression & Reparation – Changing Spatial and Psychic Walls – A Case Study
This paper describes an intervention in three early childhood education and care centres (hubs) in a local government organisation (‘City Council’), and proposes hypotheses about the impact of organisational changes on the workers’ experiences of the shifting physical and psychic walls. The case study uses a psychoanalytic framework to analyse the changes, it examines the organisational roles and relationships, the challenges involved in creating adequate psychic and physical workspaces, the effects of dependency and challenged leadership, and the impact of insufficient attention being given to transitional processes. We were engaged to conduct an organisational culture diagnosis of the hubs which provide long day care, kindergarten and maternal & child health services, and have a total of more than 150 staff. They had been established recently and four pre-existing smaller centres were decommissioned, with many staff moving into the three new large hubs. read more (PDF)
PP12 : Brigid Nossal: The Narcissism of Small Differences’: exploring the walls within and between ourselves
Contemporary popular discourse seems preoccupied with conflicts and discrimination as between groups that, for the most part, are readily identifiable, either visibly or by their stated identification of gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, religion, political affiliations etc. By contrast, there is little public discourse about the very human way in which we create defensive and often destructive walls between others and ourselves in what Benjamin (2004) describes as ‘the confusing traffic of two-way streets’ that characterises all human relations. The title of this paper ‘the narcissism of small differences’ is borrowed from Freud’s (1930) observation in Civilisation and its Discontents that hatred seems to be strongest between people with the least observable differences. So while the examination of and work with inter-cultural dynamics as between those of us with visible differences remains an important challenge of our time at societal, national and global levels, this paper will argue that our theory and practice as it examines and works with intra-psychic, interpersonal and intergroup dynamics within organisational contexts can perhaps offer useful insights to the broader challenges and discourse. read more (PDF)
PP13 : Martin Lüdemann: “Walls” to protect innovation? A case from industry
This paper “walls to protect innovation” is about a consulting case in industry. The client asked the consultant to support him with a communication issue but further exploration showed that the structure of the system where the client is part of might be constructed to prevent the employees from the frustration to cooperate. What kind of defence mechanism is working in this system? read more (PDF)
PP14 : Daphna Bahat: Nothingness – a 7th BA? The wall of devaluation, detachment and cynicism
This paper will further develop the idea of ‘Nothingness’ as a group phenomenon (presented in a previous paper) in which group members or society share an unspoken idea by which nothing in the group has any meaning, nothing is worthwhile working or striving for, there is nothing to gain, nothing to learn. This shared idea (often unconscious, particularly in relation to its origins) functions as a defense against competition, fear of failing and other anxieties, but perhaps mainly against learning. read more (PDF)
PP15 : Bermudez & Echegoyen: Community Psychoanalysis: An Emerging Paradigm
In the words of Psychoanalyst Francisco Gonzalez, ( 2019) , who advocates as the authors of this paper presentation do for a new, more expansive and inclusive paradigm –a “community psychoanalysis”: “The established order has been wracked by tectonic forces—globalization, convulsive capitalism, climate change, unprecedented migrations, technological accelerations.” At a keynote speech (2019, Division of Psychoanalysis Conference, American Psychological Association), Dr. Gonzalez expanded his vision and articulated a call, in response to our global crises (moral, socio-political, and environmental), for social justice, advocacy, and community building, which would mean a radically transformative socio-centric turn and application of psychoanalytic principles. read more (PDF)