On psychoanalysis and its relevance to management
September 19, 2007
Whereas all human sciences advance towards the unconscious only with their back to it, waiting for it to unveil itself as fast as consciousness is analysed, as it were backwards, psychoanalysis, on the other hand, points directly towards it, with a deliberate purpose – not towards that which must be rendered gradually more explicit by the progressive illumination of the implicit, but towards what is there and yet is hidden.
M Foucault (1970) The Order of Things: An Archaeology of the Human Sciences, Vintage Books, New York, NY.
in
GABRIEL, Y. & CARR, A., (2002) Organizations, management and psychoanalysis: an overview. Journal of Managerial Psychology, 17, 5, 348 – 365.
Though Foucault also called psychoanalysis a “monologue of reason about madness” which isn’t quite so flattering but which is perhaps quite as accurate a description of a lot of management practice.
Nice point Michael – speaks to the Emotional Intelligence industry actually – the rationalisation of emotion etc etc…