A History of Group Study and Psychodynamic OrganizationsMany people hold a piece of the puzzle of group relations, yet few people are able to put them together in a meaningful way. In this breakthrough study, Amy L. Fraher provides the most comprehensive account yet written of the history of institutes of group study. The book draws on original documents as well as extensive interviews with key practitioners. The result is a fascinating story of the complex dynamics of organizational life. Developing the construct of idea organizations - organizations designed to generate intellectual concepts, rather than to produce goods or services - Fraher examines the psychodynamic workings of the National Training Laboratories, Tavistock and A.K. Rice Institutes, as well as early psychoanalytic societies. She shows how the innovatory forces that energize these idea organizations can become the focus of inter-group rivalries, creating a cycle that puts the organizations themselves at risk. Fraher details the cycle of idea organizations through the contributions of experts in the field such as David Armstrong, Gordon Lawrence, Isabel Menzies Lyth, Laurence Gould, Eric Miller, and Kathleen Pogue White, and others. She also uses A.K. Rice's previously unavailable field notes and director's reports to provide a documented overview of group relations theory and conference methodology not offered since Rice's own Learning for Leadership in 1965. This is an accessible and absorbing study, suitable both for experts and those new to the study of groups. |
Contents
Searching for Group Relations | 1 |
Influences Behind the Innovation | 25 |
Influence of | 43 |
Copyright | |
12 other sections not shown
Common terms and phrases
A. K. Rice Institute AKRI AKRI National Conference AKRI's American analysts Anna Freud Armstrong Army Authority Baxter became Bion Bion's boundary Bridger CASR Center conference design consultant Dartington dynamics Eisold Elliott Jaques Eric Miller Eric Trist experience February 16 Ferenczi field of group Freud Gordon Lawrence Gould group relations conference group relations theory group study GRTP held at Mount Human Relations Ibid idea organizations individual influence innovation Institute staff Institute's Isabel Menzies January 12 Jaques Jones laboratory Laurence Gould Leadership and Organisation Leicester Conference Lewin London Melanie Klein membership mental health Menzies Lyth methods Mount Holyoke College Northfield NTL's Olya Khaleelee organizational personal communication perspective psychiatry psychoanalytic psychodynamic psychological R. W. Herrick recalled result Rice's Rickman Rioch role Shapiro shell-shock social science soldiers staff members structure task Tavistock Clinic Tavistock Institute archives Tavistock model TIHR training group treatment Trist University Wilfred Bion William Hausman