Psychodynamics for Consultants and Managers

About the Authors.
Contributors.
Acknowledgements.
General Introduction.

Part One: A Psychoanalytic Perspective on Groups and Organisations (Marie–Jeanne Vansina–Cobbaert).
Chapter 1: Original, Primary Mental Processes (Marie–Jeanne Vansina–Cobbaert).
Illustrations.
Stepwise transformations.
Chapter 2: Languages from Another World (Marie–Jeanne Vansina–Cobbaert).
The language of images.
The language of actions.
The language of relations.
Putting the information from ′atlantis′ to use.
Chapter 3: Supportive ′Process Structures′ (Marie–Jeanne Vansina–Cobbaert).
Holding and containment.
Transitional phenomena.
Chapter 4: Defensive Processes and Behaviour (Marie–Jeanne Vansina–Cobbaert and Leopold Vansina).
Individual defence mechanisms.
Defence mechanisms in groups.
Social defences.
Social repression.
Defensive strategies.
Working with and through defences.
Conclusions.
Chapter 5: The Capacity for Creative Living and Its Importance in Organisational Life (Marie–Jeanne Vansina–Cobbaert).
Origins and functioning of the capacity for creative living.
Destructiveness in the context of creative living.

Part Two: A Psychodynamic Approach.
Introduction (Leopold Vansina).
Chapter 6: Psychodynamics: A Field of Study and an Approach (Leopold Vansina).
Some major differences with psychoanalysis.
An attempt to define psychodynamics.
Creating supportive process structures.
Small things that matter: a look at some neglected potential benefits of a psychodynamic approach to organisational issues.
Finalising comments.
Chapter 7: ′Me′ in the Problem Situation (Leopold Vansina).
The problem with problem definition.
Building continuation.
′Me′ in terminating a project.
What about transference and counter–transference in our practice?
Chapter 8: Groups as the Tip of an Iceberg: Locating Issues in Their Context (Leopold Vansina).
Introduction.
Management teams as the tip of an iceberg.
The iceberg in project teams.
Import and export mechanism of problems.
Chapter 9: Being in and Working with Experiences in the ′Here–and–Now′ (Leopold Vansina).
Various mental modes of being present.
The relevance of working with or without specific frames in the ′here–and–now′.
From interpretations to sense making.
Chapter 10: The Art of Reviewing: A Cornerstone in Organisational Learning (Leopold Vansina).
Reviewing.
What could be reviewed?
When to review and with what frequency?
Special or institutionalised reviews.
How to review?
Conditions for reviewing.
The role and stance of the person(s) leading the review.
Limits to learning from reviewing.