Jerusalem 1998

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Drawing Boundaries and Crossing Bridges: Psychoanalytic Perspectives on Alliances, Relationships and Relatedness among Groups, Organizations, and Cultures

Chair: Rina Bar Lev Elieli

The 1998 Symposium was held from July 1 to July 3 at the Hyatt Regency in Jerusalem. The theme focused on a consideration of how the changing context of work, technology, the political and social environment, and shifts in values and attitudes confront us as individuals, groups, institutions and societies with increasing complexity and difference-and the inevitable anxieties as well as gratification that may accompany them-as we attempt to collaborate and form robust relationships.

For example, joint ventures and alliances of all kinds are rapidly becoming a necessity, as the simultaneous requirements of advanced technology, human and capital investments and/or global capability in production, marketing and sales make it nearly impossible for even the largest enterprises to successfully mount some projects entirely on their own. However, on almost a daily basis, such relationships often pose critical dilemmas for those entering into them. Central among these are collaborating across the boundaries and building bridges between what are not uncommonly marked differences in cultures, each with its own attendant norms, values and patterns of work.

It is our belief, therefore, that psychoanalytic perspectives on the psychic and emotional factors that may infuse societal and organizational relationships and alliances at all levels-especially the deeper, less conscious and more irrational processes that shape them-can make a significant contribution to our theory and practice.

The papers presented at the Symposium, listed in the alphabetical order of the authors' names, were:

Virtual Teamworking using Networking Technologies: An Investigation into its Impact on Organizational Dynamics, Eliat Aram

"Psychic Retreats": The Organizational Relevance of a Psycho-Analytic Formulation, David Armstrong

Relationship and Relatedness Between the Elementary School as a System and its Violent Parts, Hana Biran

Touching the Softness of the Israeli National Defense College, Moshe Cohen

Using Technology to Increase Security: Psychodynamic Responses, William M. Czander

The Search for the Subject and the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations, Shmuel Erlich

Mental Health under Fire: Organizational Intervention in a Wounded Service, Mira Erlich-Ginor & Shmuel Erlich

Friendship: The Human Capacity for Drawing Boundaries and Crossing Bridges, Robert B. French

Organizations, from concepts to constructs:Psychoanalytic theories of character and the meaning of organization, Yiannis Gabriel and Howard S. Schwartz

Between Market and Polity: Defensive & Adaptive Mechanisms in Insulated Organizations, Thomas Gilmore & Don Ronchi

Dialogue, Leadership and Transformation on the Fault Lines of Israeli Society, Avner Haramati, Shelley Ostroff, Jona Rasenfeld & Miriam Shapira

Beyond Anxiety: Passion and the Psychodynamics of Work: Learnings from Lacan, Larry Hirschhorn

Engaging the Task: The Organization-In-Experience, Susan D. Long

The Bereaved Consultant and the Termination of a Long-Term Consultation: Lesson Learned, Rose Redding Mersky

Some Problems in Bridging the Gap Between Collaborators from Different or Opposing Groups-As Examined in Palestinian-Israeli Collaboration, Rafael Moses & Rena Moses-Hrushovshv

The Container and its Containment: A Meeting Space for Psychoanalytic and Open Systems Theories, Avi Nutkevitch

The Tribe in White: An Integrated Analysis of the Collective Medical Self-The Israeli Variant, Phyllis Palgi & Joshua Dorban

From 'Organization as Container' to 'Organization as Contained', Vega Zagier Roberts

Two Basic Assumptions in the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations, Andre Schonberg

"Psychotic Organization" as a Metaphoric Frame for the Study of Organizational & Interorganizational Dynamics, Burkard Sievers

From Group to Organization: Engaging in Organizational Life, Redrawing Boundaries and Relationships, Marlene Spero

Leadership: Creativity and Violence, Lionel F. Stapley

Where are the Boundaries?, Jon Stokes

The Inner Drama of Role Taking and the Group Process, Joseph Triest