Psychoanalytic Essays on Power and Vulnerability

Halina Brunning is a Chartered Clinical Psychologist, Organizational Consultant and Executive Coach. She has worked in the British and Polish National Health Services as a psychologist, therapist, manager and consultant and published extensively on clinical and organizational issues Her books include 'Executive Coaching: Systems-Psychodynamic Perspective' and 'Psychoanalytic Perspectives on a Turbulent World'. Halina currently works as a freelance coach and consultant and runs her own international coaching practice in Europe. She is an Associate Fellow of the British Psychological Society, member of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organisations, OPUS, Association of Coaching and founder member of the Coaching Psychology Forum.

'At a time when psychoanalysis itself may be seen both as increasingly vulnerable yet residually powerful, this important book breathes new life into the social project of the discipline. We see how power and vulnerability can be fixed polar opposites, how they can swap around, how an external variant of the one may counterpose an internal variant of the other. These complexities are then firmly placed in real world settings by a stellar cast of authors. An unexpected gift of the book is the light shed on how these dynamics play out in individual experience and in human relationships. An inspiring work, above all compassionate and humane in its attitude to the unfixability of these problems.'-Professor Andrew Samuels, Professor of Analytical Psychology at the University of Essex, and author of Politics on the Couch'For some, the disastrous effect of the poverty and vulnerability of childhood on adult behaviour has become a truism, but for others it remains a mystery or myth. This collection of essays is a compelling composite linking psychoanalytic concepts and system psychodynamics. The message is clear: psychoanalytic concepts, when intelligently applied, remain relevant to any attempt to understand organisational life or society itself. These essays focus widely, from boardroom to care facilities, and emphasise the destructiveness of power, its roots in individual vulnerability, and the development of destructive defences to deal with it. This collection is essential and absorbing reading, not only for those already working with these ideas, but also for all executives and leaders, whether organisational or political.'-Dr Stanley Gold, President of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organisations (ISPSO)'The book explores the interconnectedness of power and vulnerability from its expression in early mother-child relationships through to its effects in organisational life and in broad societal and global dynamics. The stance is from the systems psychodynamic or socioanalytic perspective: examining the underlying and largely unconscious drivers of overt behaviours. Our learning comes from each of the fascinating chapters as they throw light on how the balance between power and vulnerability is revealed and shifted; held or shattered; with resounding consequences. This focus is much needed and welcomed. The book is an important addition to the libraries of those wanting to understand more about the complexities of organisations and society.'-Professor Susan Long, management educator, organisational consultant, author of The Perverse Organisation and its Deadly Sins, and editor of Socioanalytic Methods

• Note from the Editor -- Introduction -- Power and Vulnerability in Leadership and Organisations -- The relevance of early development to the psychodynamics of power and vulnerability -- Power and vulnerability in the board room: addressing fear and insecurity through dialogue and self-reflection -- The power of envy: a poison for workplace and organisational life -- Who is the boss? Balancing power and vulnerability in the client–consultant relationship -- “Surely this can’t be true?” Unexamined relations of power in the care of vulnerable people -- Power and Vulnerability in the Political Arena -- Inspirational leadership: Hitler and Gandhi—avoiding the corrosive power of corruption -- Power in the face of vulnerability: the Norwegian experience -- The US Navy SEAL culture: power, vulnerability, and challenge* -- An inversion of power: an analysis of the British riots of 2011 -- Poland: a case of powerful recovery from vulnerability -- The Power and Vulnerability of Global Finance -- The vulnerability of the European nation state and its citizens in a time of humbling -- The power of symbols, vulnerability of trust, and securitisation -- A culture of mania: a psychoanalytic view of the incubation of the 2008 credit crisis*,† -- Concluding Remarks