Dive into the archives.
- Increasing Dominance of the Nonhuman Environment
The New York cooperative building was facing a city ordered renovation that would cost each shareholder an additional $5000 this year, in excess of their 6% maintenance increase. It was a heavy burden; but there was nothing else for the board of directors to do, except to approve it. The work was ordered. There was [...]
- When Internal Space Meets the Outside
It was one of those perfect days. And I chanced to fall asleep, mid-afternoon. Waking, looking out at a perfectly placid and receptive Manhattan, I had one of those connective moments of thought that are each time, new and precious. It connected “flow”, that psychological sense of competence, challenge and contentment, with another, more developmental [...]
- On Twitter: Productive Narcissism
I am a late adaptor. A post-Luddite. Yesterday, I sent my first tweet. And my wife now claims that she is a “twidow”. There is some truth to this. I’m fascinated by the bricolage: the carnival and the possibility. This morning, having replied to a posting sent from an Irish academic, he and I exchanged [...]
- The line is dead, but “If it ain’t broke…”
Friends have been e-mailing me, “are you all right, we’ve been calling and can’t get through”. Truth is, I’m fine; but with the phone down, I’m also unable to reset the pin number to retrieve my home voicemail— which must be accessed through the now incapacitated phone. Another minor example of customer dissatisfaction. But as [...]
- Thinking Out Loud: Making Explicit Individual & Organizational Similarity
An ongoing interest of mine is in linking the similarities across different psychological systems. Individual, group, and organizational systems share a number of common attributes. These include: a recognizable systemic identity; distinct rituals and practices; differences between the subject and other entities; specific intra-system roles and specializations; a capability to change; the fact that change [...]
- Working Knowledge Initiative: The Midlife “NO!”
The first hurdle facing consideration of independent employment for the midlife professional is internal. Its that assertive inner voice that says, “Hey—I’m 45, 50, 55, 60 years old. If I were a risk-taking entrepreneur, I would have been doing it years ago. I wouldn’t have worked the way I’ve worked, throughout my work life.” The [...]
- Developing Virtual Muscle
The Working Knowledge Initiative is learning as it progresses: and this is learning that passes along to its participants. It wasn’t long ago, in my clinical practice, that I’d check in and out of my emails at the beginning and end of the day (listening to messages on the telephone answering machine sporadically). Like many [...]
- Composing a Language
One of the results of studying different disciplines– clinical psychology, psychoanalysis, group relations, business administration, organizational development, and industrial-organizational psychology—is a parochial confusion of tongues. What one discipline holds as the meaning of a word or concept is not its understanding within another, related discipline. For example, “personality” within the i-o world conjures the very [...]
- On Learning How
A great “Aha!” in the history of psychotherapy came with the recognition (roughly 50 years ago) that the “lifting” or resolution of emotional disturbance did not mean a necessary turn toward emotional well-being. The effect of the original disturbance had blocked learning. If well-being was to be achieved, productive and healthy experiential learning was essential. [...]
- Bridging Disciplines
Psychological consultation, despite its qualitative breadth, runs a risk familiar to most organizations— from family units to multinational corporations: the silo. Silos are exactly what their agricultural images suggest: bounded containers within which a particular kind of stuff, product, or service, is kept. When the “stuff” is social science consultation, however, the separation of social [...]
