Unconscious At Work

Product Description

Working in the human services has always been stressful & the current massive changes in the organization of these services together with dwindling resources & ever greater demands for cost effectiveness add to the stresses inherent in the work. Even in the best run & best resourced organizations there are pockets of irrationality where unconscious institutional processes undermine both effectiveness & morale. The contributors to this book use ideas drawn from psychoanalysis open systems theory Bions work with groups & group relations training to explore the difficulties experienced by managers & staff in a wide range of care settings. Each concept is illustrated with examples from practice to make it recognizable & useful to the reader. Each chapter develops a theme relating to work with a particular client group or setting (including hospitals schools day centres residential units community services & many others) or explores aspects of work organization (for example the supervisory relationship facing cuts & closure or intergroup collaboration). By describing both the difficulties & their own feelings & thoughts while consulting to these institutions the authors offer the reader new ways of looking at their own experiences at work which will be both enlightening & helpful.