Resource Library

ISPSO Research Inventory

The ISPSO Research Inventory Project was announced in October 2009 as new activity for members.
A liaison is in…

Psychoanalytic reflections on the war in Ukraine

Halina Brunning, Sheila White, and Claudia Nagel

Halina Brunning, Sheila White, and Claudia Nagel Organisational & Social Dynamics 22(2) 226–244 (2022) This…

Using Future Search To Address Wicked Systemic Problems

Jeffrey Axelbank, Psy.D.

Most of the problems plaguing the world, including many facing psychologists, can be classified as “wicked…

Niches and Networks: Prospects for Strategic Analysis

Boxer, P. Wensley, R.

The network characteristic of markets has been widely recognized by a number of researchers particularly in the field…

An Existential Analysis of Absurdity in Organisational Life - made visible through use of metaphor and the Lacanian Plus-one group

Jennifer Smith

Paper Presentation.

When Authority Meets Love: Ambivalence in Mentorship

Bonnie Oglensky

Paper Presentation

The centre will hold - the role of Residential Childcare Leadership in Containing Emotions of Change - A journey from Despair to Potency

Brian Melaugh

This paper is available by request from the author.

What is This Thing Called Love ?

Annemette Hasselager & Birgitte Bonnerup

Paper Presentation

Hero to Partner in Emergency Management, Australia

Ms Kristina Karlsson

This paper will explore desire and defenses in the emergency management sector in the state of Victoria, Australia. T…

A fractured landscape: a systems psychodynamic investigation into the experience of a partially distributed team of therapists in an Australian child protection system

Dent, N

Using a systems psychodynamic stance, this research employs a qualitative case study based on interviews, observation…

Border protection - creating 'good enough' psychic and physical workspace in a refugee support organisation

Rob Ryan

This paper describes, analyses and draws upon the experiences of a consulting pair working on a change project with t…

The Changing Dining Hall in the Kibbutz An Empty Heart of a Prolonged Trauma - A Dialogue between an Architect and a Psychoanalyst

Gabi Bonwitt, Amnon Bar Or

Denial of traumatic history increases the danger of repeating the trauma again and again in terms of Freud's repetiti…

Experiencing outdoor spaces and places from within: Adventure therapy and systems psychoanalysis

Martin Ringer, Judit Gaspar

This paper on Experiencing outdoor spaces and places from within provides an examination of the way in which particip…

Bach is the answer, now what was the question?

Mark Argent

The starting point of this paper is a question at the OPUS conference 2016. Gerry Fromm's keynote was about the traum…

Transitional spaces vs domestic spaces: psychoanalytical reflections based on artificial intelligence and its applications

Dr Thibault de Swarte

Transitional spaces vs domestic spaces: psychoanalytical reflections based on artificial intelligence and its applications.

Enabling participation: emotions, relations and reflexive reorganization of local institutions

Dr Matias Sanfuentes & Dr Matias Garreton

This article presents a critical analysis of a participatory action research between the authors' institution and the…

Dreams always take place - An integrative theory of dreaming underlying Social Dreaming

Rose Redding Mersky, PhD

Social Dreaming has been a key offering at ISPSO annual meetings since the 1996 meeting in New York City, when it was…

Working across time and space: a fractured landscape

Nuala Dent

With recent improvements in digital technology (such as increased bandwidth, smart phones and tablets, cloud servers,…

Social Dream-Drawing (SDD): Research and Praxis

Mersky, R.R.

Social Dream-Drawing is a socioanalytic praxis conceived, developed and researched by myself as a psycho-social actio…

Reflections on Ethical Issues in Psychoanalytic and Psychological Organizations: The IPA / Lobo-Cabernite and APA / Guantanamo Scandals

Diana Gartland

It is a well known understanding that psychoanalysis and, in fact, the human mind functions best in an atmosphere of…

A personal journey of understanding the question of Muslim woman identity in Turkish and Western contexts.

Muzaffer Mustafa

My purpose in this presentation is to introduce the work of Rene Girard to those in this audience who may not be fami…

The First Fleet: Australia's unconscious chosen trauma and its impact on its asylum seeker policies.

Jenny Smith

This paper will respond to the policies of the current Australian Government on the treatment of asylum seekers who h…

Ethical Management as Meaning Making in a University

John Newton, Diana Dalton, Cathy Whelan

Hope is not prognostication. It is an orientation of the spirit, an orientation of the heart; it transcends the world…

Understanding Difference: The Role of Ethics and Self-awareness in Organizations

Sari Mattila

Increasingly we are faced with differences which people find difficult to comprehend, hold in their awareness and man…

Panel Presentation on Pathway to Power in Politics. Hillary Clinton under the lens of Organizational Role Analysis

Alicia Kaufmann

Introduction and objectives. Gender equity is a primary objective of external politics of the United States. The thre…

Whose Deontology?! Treating the Other with respect: When Swiss aid turned into Egyptian imposition

Dr. Nadine Riad Tcelebi

The proposed paper meets the following selection criteria: 1) Connection to AM Theme. The argument details a case stu…

Emotional Communications of Transference and Countertransference as an Instrument of Working with Organizational Unconscious Defenses in the Format of Psychoanalytic Business Coaching.

Irina Izotova

Modern business organizations face challenging dilemmas in how they choose to act in the new reality of low stability…

Passion or Procrastination: The psychodynamics of big bet decisions

Larry Hirschhorn

In this paper I explore the psychodynamics of big bet decisions; decisions, that if implemented, promise big payoffs…

Skating on thin ice. How to balance rights based public accountability, regulatory oversight as an obligatory governance function and the value of independence and peer evaluation in appointing judges and professors?

Ajeet Mathur

The appointment of judges and professors is of profound significance in any society. The free and fair functioning of…

Fifteen words on a Portal - Ethical Dilemmas in a Government School

Rob Ryan

In October 2015, a large Melbourne-based daily newspaper had a headline:' State school fee shock on enrolment'. The a…

Forsaken desires: The dark side of Employee Engagement

Mark Stringer

What is being demanded from a worker's unconscious in organisational efforts to increase employee engagement? The con…

Learning from leaders in a conflict zone: A psychoanalytical inquiry into leadership within an international non governmental development aid context.

Rachel Ellison

This research asked two questions: 1. International non governmental development aid: What does it take to be an effe…

Consulting to ethical responses to boundary violations in therapy organisations: an occupational hazard in need of organisational consultation

Richard Morgan-Jones

There is growing awareness, shock and publicity about the abuse of professional boundaries by clergy as well as by th…

Political Correctness and Political In-correctness A psychoanalytictic study of new authoritarians

Dr Simon Western

Political correctness (PC) has been a growing trend since the 1980's and has been in the spotlight recently, particul…

Leadership is Cheating Management

Thomas Hoffman

The ego ideal of ethical leadership, reified and deified over decades by being trumpeted in the business literature,…

The ethics of questioning unconscious investment in turning a blind eye

Philip Boxer

This paper describes a two year intervention within an organization providing residential care for men and women wit…

The madness of an election

Mark Argent

This paper arises from the experience of being a candidate in the 2015 UK General Election. It is not primarily about…

Optimism bias: a defence against lack of presumed governance knowledge

James Walker

Optimism bias is frequently identified as a reason governance bodies 'did not look hard enough' at the dynamics of in…

The Hate that cures. Conflict resolution in modern psychoanalytic school

Ekaterina, Vladimirovna Mikhailova, Joan Coll

This case is taken from the military institution where a whistleblower has documented illegal incidents. This cannot…

Networks, borders and boundaries

Steen Visholm, Dorte Sandeger

The paper presents a number of basic concepts that we have developed to capture the impact of space and design on soc…

Relationships at work in the prison system.

Judith Bell

The presentation draws on work done in a women's prison with the original brief to 'improve relationships'. The proje…

Falling through the gaps: working ethically across health and social boundaries

Yvonne Web

This paper charts a consultancy to an NHS client who wanted an integrated care model for older people at risk of fall…

Psychoanalytic Study and the Ethical Imagination: the making finding and losing of a tradition

David Armstrong

This paper looks back to one of the founding strands in the psychoanalytic study of organisations: namely that tradit…

Task as an ethical reference point in work-systems

James Dalgleish

This paper discusses the part task, as understood in socio-technical systems (STS) theory, can play in enabling work…

The use of guided affective imagery (GAI) to unveil unconscious ethics of corporate leaders

Prof. Dr. Thomas Kretschmar, Dr. Moritz Senarclens de Grancy

In a research study in 2012-2013, we tested GAI on 32 corporate leaders in Berlin to unveil the unconscious culture o…

A force, not a labour, a struggle not a thought': Applying the concept of Duende to ethical dilemmas at work

Dr Kate Dempsey

This paper investigates the responses of 49 business leaders to questions of ethics, morality and the future of work…

Digital HR Practices and Unconscious: What's happening beneath the surface?

Muriel de Fabregues, Carlos Mario Alvarez

The development of digital practices entails heavy changes in organizations. Digital technologies are part of the tec…

The Imaginary Scapegoat

Dr Stanley Gold

The idea that if God did not exist we would have to invent him is referenced also to the construction, both conscious…

Analysis Of A Raciam Hoax At Oberlin College

Howard Schwartz

It is often alleged that American society is racist, even though it is acknowledged that overt expressions of racism…

Stress - Taboo or Opportunity for Change? Using Psychodynamic insights to evaluate executive stress

Caroline Rook Thomas Hellwig Elizabeth Florent-Treacy

Stress is a commonly recognized issue for executives. Many professionals in executive education find themselves in th…