Intersubjectivity and Large Groups: A systems psychodynamic perspective
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The Relational Arc of Coaching: A Practice-Led Exploration of Co-Creating Insight into Action
The Relational Arc enables learning to unfold between coach and leader as they navigate their dynamic. It offers a shared language and structure for working together with intention and systemic awareness, while remaining attuned to the emotional, biological, and contextual dynamics that shape behaviour.
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The Changing Social Politics of Meat: a systems psychodynamic exploration of the complex dynamics surrounding behaviour and conversations about the treatment of animals and meat eating
Using a systems psychodynamic approach, this thesis explores the social defences and complex dynamics (conscious and unconscious) surrounding behaviour and conversations about the treatment of animals and meat eating. It is an exploration of the ‘social politics of meat’, in other words, what people talk about, and don’t talk about, with regards to the eating of animals. A major intent behind the research is to raise awareness and encourage discussions about the current plight of farmed animals, particularly those within industrial agriculture, i.e. factory farms, in Western, developed countries. Within the field of anthrozoology, much research has been done on how humans relate and interact with animals, but to date there has been little study into how people relate to one another, about the eating of animals. Taking a wide interdisciplinary approach, the thesis integrates the fields of systems psychodynamics and anthrozoology and presents many parallels between the two. Using the systems psychodynamics research methods of auto- ethnographic stories, socio-analytic interviewing, socio-analytic drawing and focus group discussions, as well as background knowledge from the discipline of anthrozoology, the research explores the core question: what are the current social politics of meat in Australia, as representative of Western, developed countries? The thesis also narrates the journey of the researcher as she explores the core question, stumbles through the ethical minefield of asking others to help her explore discomforting topics, and ‘lives’ the research. Constantly questioning herself, her views, feelings, power and influence is a key part of the work. Three hypotheses are presented on the issue. The first suggests a collective social dynamic coined by the researcher as ‘meat-eating fragility’. A second discusses the entwined systemic influences which all encourage and promote the eating of animals, creating an almost impenetrable barrier to change. The third suggests that the phenomenon of meat- eating fragility is both a defence against change, and a sign of change, as is the small group of outliers challenging the dominant invisible ideology of carnism. This thesis explores and challenges hidden paradigms, worldviews and values around the eating of meat. The exploration uncovers collective denial, dissociation, and collusion about the plight of farmed animals in Western, developed nations. Nonetheless, the final hypothesis and suggestions for further research are both optimistic and hopeful.
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Systems Psychodynamic and Consulting to Organisations in Australia
Systems Psychodynamics is unique as an approach to consulting to organisations in the way it integrates three theory streams: psychoanalysis; group relations and open systems theory. Consultants who work in this way focus on the many layers of interactions and exchanges taking place both within organisations and at the interface between an organisation and its external environment. The territory for collaborative exploration with clients extends from interpersonal and group dynamics to service and product- related systems and processes. It is a holistic approach that creates opportunities for transformational learning at every level of the organisation. As a practice, consulting with a systems psychodynamics approach is complex and difficult to master. Arguably, the most challenging dimension of this work for consultants is developing a capacity to think within a psychoanalytic conceptual framework: to discern and hypothesise about unconscious processes in organisations. But what precisely does this mean and what is this experience like for the consultants? This research project was designed to explore and describe the experience of working with a systems psychodynamic approach from the consultants’ perspectives within the Australian context. To this end, 20 consultants who self- selected as working with a systems psychodynamic approach were involved in this research. From the data created in this process, what is documented in this thesis is the first detailed description of the experience of ‘working in this way’ taken from the combined perspectives of these 20 consultants. Further, a systems psychodynamic approach to research is defined and applied in this thesis. In this way, the systems psychodynamics within the temporary ‘system’ created by the research was part of the territory under investigation. This process led to an important discovery. 18 of 20 consultants strongly asserted the importance of working with colleagues in pairs or teams when adopting a systems psychodynamic approach. However, at the time of interviewing, all 20 consultants were working alone and only 3 had immediate plans to work with others. An exploration of the reasons for this gap between beliefs about best practice and actual practice became the focus for the analysis of the data. 2 What is discovered through this analysis is that the reasons why consultants are predominantly choosing to work alone are likely to be complex and irreducible. An exploration of the issues that working together can surface for consultants who apply a systems psychodynamic approach is presented under four sub-topics: system domain issues; theory-related issues; interpersonal issues and intrapsychic issues. In this detailed analysis, what is revealed is an absence of ‘good enough’ containment for the anxieties that are likely to be aroused when consultants work together. To this end, four ‘containers’ are proposed: organisation/brand-as- container; management-as-container; supervision-as-container and theory/praxis-as container. This research has uncovered some important challenges facing the community of practitioners in Australia. It is the contention in this thesis that they need to be addressed if the practice of consulting with a systems psychodynamic approach is to flourish and continue to grow.