Chapter 12 – Psychodynamic Approach
Questions for Study
1. Explain how the Psychodynamic Approach differs from other leadership theories.
The Psychodynamic approach focuses on the dynamics of human behavior and acknowledges that people are complex, unique and paradoxical beings with rich and myriad motivational drivers and decisionmakers. This approach is different because it doesn’t address observable, conscious and rational phenomena.
2. Explain what is meant by the Clinical Paradigm.
The Clinical Paradigm is the framework through which we apply a psychodynamic lens to the study of behavior in organizations.
3. Explain the four basic premises of the Clinical Paradigm.
-There is a rationale behind every human act: there’s a logical explanation, even for actions that seem irrational
-Mental life-feelings, fears, and motives-lies outside of conscious awareness, but still affects conscious reality and physical well-being
-regulating and expressing emotion: emotion color experiences with positive and negative connotations
-We are all products of our experiences
4. What is Freud’s contribution to the Psychodynamic Approach?
Theory of human behavior and how sources of energy and motivational forces drive human’s actions
5. Explain the four streams of research from the Tavistock Institute.
6. How did the Menninger Clinic apply the Psychodynamic Approach to the world of work?
Through the work of Will Menninger and Harry Levinson with the Menninger Foundation Division of Industrial Mental health. A survey was given about mental health problems and how to help them, and they offered weeklong seminars on how to deal with these issues.
7. What insights did Zaleznik contribute to our understanding of how the Psychodynamic Approach applies to the workplace?
Argued that business people focus too much on process and structure, and not enough on ideas and emotions, and suggested that leaders should relate to followers in more empathetic and intuitive ways.
8. How did Larry Hirschhorn use “applied clinical practice” to study organizational behavior?
He used applied clinical practice to describe organizational consulting interventions that included diagnostic methods and actions based on a clinical, applied approach: exploring the organization systemically, and drawing on personality theory and group and organizational processes.
9. What are fantasies, projections, and identifications, and how do they express themselves in organizational life?
They are psychoanalytic conceptualizations to better understand them and play themselves out in groups, as well as the processes of repression, suppression, and idealization that are manifest in organizational life.
10. Explain the concept of the inner theater and how it relates to leadership.
The stage filled with people who have influenced, for better or worse, our experiences in life. Early experiences with key individuals (such as early caregivers) contribute to the creation of response patterns that have a tendency to repeat themselves in other contexts with different people.
11. Explain the following terms: dependency, fight-flight, and pairing.
Dependency: people are united by feelings of helplessness, inadequacy, neediness and fear of the outside world.
Fight-flight: there is a tendency to split the world into camps of friend or foe. Fight reactions manifest themselves in aggression against the self, peers, or authority and include avoidance, absenteeism, and resignation
Pairing: people fantasize that strength will take place in pairs, which also implies splitting, which may result in intra- and intergroup conflict and building of smaller systems within the group. It also manifests itself in ganging up against the leader perceived as an aggressor or authority figure.
12. What are social defense mechanisms and how do they relate to leadership?
Social defense mechanisms are splitting (seeing everything as black or white); projection (seeing one’s shortcomings in others); displacement (expressing negative emotions by focusing on a less threatening target); and denial (refusal to accept facts). These mechanisms can be used to help keep structure and processes to “contain” anxiety.
13. What are mirroring and idealizing, and how do they relate to leadership?
Mirroring is taking our cues about being and behaving from those around us-becomes an ongoing aspect of our daily life and of our relationships with others. Followers are eager to use their leaders to reflect what they would like to see. Leaders find the affirmation of followers hard to resist.
14. Under what circumstances do followers identify with the aggressor?
Individuals impersonate the aggressor, transforming themselves from those threatened to those to making threats.
15. Describe Freud’s definition of narcissism and how it affects leadership.
He summarized as behaviors that range from a normal self-interest to a pathological self-absorption-offers leaders the conviction about the righteousness of their cause, which in turn inspires loyalty and group identification. Constructive narcissists tend to be relatively well balanced and have vitality and a sense of self-esteem, capacity for introspection, and empathy.
16. Explain the group coaching method for applying the psychodynamic principles to leadership development.
Analysis of the self but also of the self in relation to others and to the context in which he or she exists. Leaders will eventually internalize the ability to learn, work, and reflect with the psychological realm in mind, and in doing so improve their organizational relationships and team performance.
17. What are strengths of the Psychodynamic Approach?
The strengths are that it addresses the undercurrents of organizational life through issues such as interpersonal communication, group processes, social defenses, and organization-wide neurosis. It focuses on personal and collective insight on the part of the leader and the follower-it strives to create reflective practitioners. It involves an in-depth and systemic investigation of a single person, group, event, or community. It emphasizes the relationship between leader and follower by focusing on the underlying drivers of each and what accounts for the type of relationship between them.
18. What are criticisms of the Psychodynamic Approach?
Many concepts central to Freud’s theories are subjective and difficult to prove scientifically. It does not lend itself to training in a conventional sense. It situates the intervention at the individual level, focusing to the second, is that it situates the intervention at the individual level, focusing on the leader’s personality and leadership style, and more structural and systemic organizational issues.