Research

The psychoanalytic approach to the study of organizations goes beyond observation of manifest behaviors to attempt to become aware of the unconscious dimensions of those behaviors. In particular, contemporary psychoanalytic theories of work pay close attention to relational dynamics and how individuals define self and other in the context of work relationships. Psychoanalytic concepts such as mother-child interaction and regression, along with related concepts in attachment theory, are especially important for explaining individual and group responses to changing workplace environments within this perspective.

Our collective research efforts, connected by a psychoanalytic approach, explore a variety of organizations and facets of organizational life including:

  • the psychodynamics of organizational culture and change
  • governance and nonprofit management
  • mental health service delivery
  • qualitative (psychosocial) methods and methodologies
  • creative entrepreneurial processes
  • entrepreneurial imagination
  • arts entrepreneurship
  • aesthetics in organizations and entrepreneurship
  • motivation, meaning, and alienation at work
  • the intersection of psychoanalysis and critical theory.
  • marginalized and intersectional lived experiences of working and organizing
  • application of feminist and Freudian psychoanalytic frameworks
  • postcolonial approaches to organization studies