Book dossier

The Unconscious at work

by Anton Obholzer, Vega Zagier Roberts

"Working in the human services has always been stressful, and the current massive changes in the organization of these services in Britain and elsewhere have added to the stresses inherent in the work. The Unconscious at Work explores the difficulties experienced by managers and staff in a wide range of care settings, and investigates the unconscious processes that add greatly to the stress inevitable in caring work." "The authors, all past or present members of the Tavistock Clinic Consulting to Institutions Workshop, make use of ideas from psychoanalysis, open systems theory, Bion's work with groups, and group relations training. Drawing on their experience of consulting to individuals, teams and organizations, they distil what they have learned about institutional processes, and present this in an accessible and practical way. Each concept is introduced in as non-technical a way as possible, with examples from practice to make them recognizable and useful to the reader. Individual chapters develop themes relating to work with a particular client group or in a particular setting - including hospitals, schools, day centres, residential units, therapeutic communities and community care agencies. They also explore aspects of work organization - for example, the supervisory relationship, facing cuts and closure, and intergroup collaboration. In each situation the authors describe both the difficulties for which consultation was requested and their own feelings and thoughts while consulting to these institutions." "The Unconscious at Work is designed for people managing and working in the human services, and it offers readers new ways of looking at their own experiences of stress at work. It will greatly increase their understanding of the processes which can undermine effectiveness and morale, and will also be of value to consultants, trainers, and students of organizational behaviour."--BOOK JACKET.