Philadelphia 1997

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The Complexity of Organizational Life: How Does Psychoanalytical Thinking Broaden Our Understanding?

Chair: Marlene Spero

The 1997 conference was held from June 27 through 29 at the Korman Suites Hotel in Philadelphia. The theme provided an opportunity to consider how the changing context of work, technology, politics and the environment confronts us with ever increasing complexity and difference. These changes require constant adaptation and adjustment, as well as a commitment to continual learning.

We are confronted by different cultures, languages, systems and values as well as with different theoretical perspectives to guide our understanding. The Symposium provided a space to explore and reflect on how psychoanalytic thinking can further our understanding and ability to work with these complexities and differences.

The following papers, listed here in alphabetical order by author, were presented:

The Architecture of Quality: The Case of the Specialist Care Organization, Philip Boxer and Barry Palmer

University Consortia Case Study, Patricia L. Buckley

On the Vicissitudes of Cyber-Space as Potential Space, Michael A. Civin

Work Related Fantasies-Corporate Downsizing & Team Building, William Czander

Administrative Assault: A Contemporary Psychoanalytic View of Violence and Aggression in the Workplace, Michael A. Diamond

Insults, Anger and the Emotional Life of Organizations, Yiannis Gabriel

Teamwork at Barton Company: A Psychodynamic Perspective, Marisa Guerin

Ambush in the Night: Doormen Working on an Organizational Boundary Symbolized by the Bodies - A Crisis Intervention, Lars Gustafsson, Marika Lindbom-Jakobson, Renate Gronvold-Bugge

Design, Form and Reparation, Robert Gutman, School of Architecture, Princeton University

The Primary Risk, Larry Hirschhorn

Psychodynamics & Inter-Occupational Relations in an Industrial Sector: The Case of UK Construction, Richard Holti & Hilary Standing

Making a Space for the Family. The Ambivalence of Group Life and The Work/Family Dilemma of the Executive, James M. Hunt

Centering of the Sphinx for the Psycho-Analytic Study of Organizations, Gordon Lawrence

Collaborative Action Research in an Organization: Can Psychoanalytically Informed Thinking Deepen the Collaboration?, Susan N. Long & John Newton together with Jane Chapman, Janies Oakleish, Chris Foley and Charles Langley

Women, Envy and Contemporary Organisational Life, Jean E. Newman and Debra A. Noumair

Learning to Learn What We Forgot We Didn't Know, Marc Maltz and Martin E. Walker

"We Had No Choice. It Was Inevitable": Some Thoughts on Organizational Change, Jan Schapper

The Links Between Complexity Science and Psychoanalytic Thinking of Organizations, Ralph Stacey

Living in the Valley of the Shadow: the Role of Non-Verbal Behaviour and of Trauma, Repetition and Mastery in an Organizational Consultation Following the 1995 Oklahoma City Bombing, Howard F. Stein

Interests, Passions & Politics: The Psychodynamic Assumptions of the U.S. Constitution, Glenn Swogger, Jr.