Work and the Evolving Self

Theoretical and Clinical Considerations

Steven D Axelrod

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2018
• Print ISBN: 9781138005280
• eBook ISBN: 9781135828431
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Psychology
• Subtopic: Applied Psychology
• Index: Psychology

In Work and the Evolving Self, Steven Axelrod begins to remedy this serious oversight by setting forth a comprehensive psychoanalytic perspective on work life. Consonant with his analytic perspective, Axelrod sets out to illuminate the workplace by examining the psychodynamic meaning of work throughout the life cycle. He begins by exploring the various dimensions of work satisfaction from a psychoanalytic perspective and then expands on the relationship between work life and the adult developmental process. This developmental perspective frames Axelrod's central task: an examination of the typical work-related problems encountered in clinical practice, beginning with a psychodynamic definition of a "work disturbance." Moving on to treatment issues, Axelrod elaborates on the manner in which assessment, supportive, and exploratory interventions all enter into the treatment of work disturbances. Axelrod concludes by considering issues of career development that emerge in individual psychotherapy and exploring the psychological implications of dramatic changes now taking place in the workplace. As such, Work and the Evolving Self is an impressive contribution to the task with which psychoanalytic therapists are increasingly engaged: that of broadening their identities and treatment approaches in a world that increasingly demands flexibility and innovation.

1

Work and Its Satisfactions

Obtaining personal satisfaction from work is a central animating force in our lives. Those who derive pleasure from their work are considered most fortunate, and those who change their lives to obtain more satisfaction from work are most admired. As clinicians, though, we understand little about the psychological dimensions of work satisfaction. If we are to help remove the emotional barriers to satisfaction in work, we need to start from a psychoanalytic understanding of work’s inherent functions and satisfactions.

Work has been considered primarily a sociological concept. Work is carried out in groups or at least with reference to social groups. A society’s survival depends on a viable organization of its work. Through work, the individual obtains recognition from others and establishes a place in the world. Work often holds the key to a person’s status and prestige. In sociological terms, then, the basis for satisfaction (and thus for dissatisfaction) in work life seems relatively clear.

A psychoanalytic understanding of work’s satisfactions has been more elusive. As clinicians, we have no models of mature working to guide us as we do varied and sophisticated models of mature loving (Bergmann, 1987; Kernberg, 1991). Lantos (1943,1952) first suggested the possibility of “work primacy” corresponding to genital primacy, but little has been done to extend and update her concepts. As I will show later, the early psychoanalysts gave at most grudging recognition to the pleasure that can be obtained from work, thereby limiting our efforts to develop a psychoanalytic psychology of normal work life.

In this chapter I describe the most salient dimensions of a psychoanalytic understanding of normal work life. I look at the initial forays into this area by the early psychoanalysts and critically evaluate the contributions of instinct theory and early ego psychology. I show that these early psychoanalytic models could not capture the richness and complexity of work life, especially as the roles, tasks, and organizational structures of the workplace have evolved. Yet, as the ideas of these pioneering psychoanalysts have faded from view, few contemporary theories of normal working have emerged.¹ I believe, though, that advances in psychoanalytic theorizing, exemplified by Pine’s (1990) broad multimodel perspective, now make it possible for us to appreciate more fully the dynamic interplay between work life and personality.

Normal work life both depends on and makes possible multiple dimensions of personality development. These include not only drive and ego development, but also the evolution of ideals, self structures, object relations, and the capacity for imagination and play. I believe that the pleasure derived from working is inextricably tied to its central place in personality development. It is the essential role played by work life in the growth and development of the total personality that makes possible a fundamental pleasure in working, but that also makes dissatisfaction with work such a critical area of attention for the clinician.

EARLY PSYCHOANALYTIC
CONCEPTION OF WORK

Freud (1930) was pessimistic about the potential for deriving pleasure from work. His few comments on work were made later in life, when he elaborated the tragic opposition between instinctual gratification and civilization. Freud posited that human civilization requires the renunciation of instinct and thus a certain degree of suffering and unhappiness. The renunciation of instinctual gratification is the cornerstone of the “compulsion to work” that human civilization requires. From this perspective the likelihood of deriving pleasure from work is slim: “And yet, as a path to happiness, work is not highly prized by men. They do not strive after it as they do after other possibilities of satisfaction. The great majority of people only work under the stress of necessity, and this natural human aversion to work raises most difficult social problems” (p. 80n).

Freud noted that work is of critical psychological value in its function of channeling instinctual energies. For Freud, all pleasure is linked to the drives, and work can be experienced as pleasurable if it becomes a vehicle of sublimated instinctual expression. While work may be resented by most because it stands in opposition to the pleasure principle, it is valuable to some for its sublimatory potential. Freud, however, seemed to think that such opportunities were limited to a small segment of the populace, mainly in the professions. Typical paradigms would be the scientist’s gratification of the scopophilic instincts or the surgeon’s expression of the aggressive instinct through his work.

Freud’s perspective on work life reflected the realities of work in his society and concepts of mental functioning that made sense in that culture. His jaundiced view of work grew out of an era in which most of the world’s economies were still primarily subsistence and agrarian. Industrial economies were based on manual labor, brute strength, and the rote activity of “making and moving things” (Drucker, 1993). A conceptualization of work in terms of the strength of the instincts and the forces mobilized to counter it reflected the dominant economic and social realities of Freud’s time. As the populace has become more educated and economies become more knowledge based (Hirschhorn, 1988; Drucker, 1993), however, a much greater proportion of the workforce has become engaged in the kind of professional or quasi-professional work that in Freud’s time was limited to the few. This requires a different psychoanalytic conceptualization of work life, as I will show later in this chapter and in chapter 9.

That said, I believe there is still a place for Freud’s drive theory in our understanding of contemporary work life and its problems. The vicissitudes of the aggressive drive, in particular, play a critical role in work life. The aggressive instinct, in the sense it is used by ethologists to understand animal behavior, is integral to acting on the environment to obtain food and establish territory. It isn’t too great a leap, I think, to see how aggression, in this sense, is identified with working.

The aggressive drive is integral to acting on the environment and thus inherent in working. It is not destructive per se, except in that it is manifested in action without particular regard for other people. In its sublimated and channeled forms, it takes the form of assertiveness and exploration But it is in the form of reactive aggression—the full panoply of frustration, anger, and destructiveness—that aggression colors work life in ways that are clinically significant.

While the role of anger in the understanding and treatment of work-related problems is discussed in more detail in subsequent chapters, I suggest that the eliciting and management of anger is an integral part of work life and the growth that can occur through working. Inasmuch as aggression mediates the struggle for survival, the aggressive drive and its derivatives are prominent in the workplace. For those with relatively intact personality functioning, or a relative freedom from problems with aggression (or both), the normal, unavoidable evoking of aggression and anger at work² is a stimulus to developing and channeling the aggressive urge. In these cases, aggressive urges give the individual direction and “drive” and are balanced by a regard for others. However, where the individual has a history of more frustration, deprivation, or traumatic aggression, even the normal circumstances of work life can elicit anger that disrupts goal directedness and interpersonal relationships. In these cases, anger at work becomes a focus of clinical intervention.

In the years immediately following Freud’s death, psychoanalysts extended and began to modify drive theory in their attempts to understand the phenomenology and psychopathology of work life. In a series of papers in the 1940s and 1950s Barbara Lantos and Ives Hendrik specifically addressed the topic of work. Their efforts to conceptualize normal working in psychoanalytic terms are unique. Although subsequent analysts have addressed impairments in work functioning, few have contributed substantially to our understanding of normal working.

Lantos (1943) defined work as “the active effort of the ego, enriched during the period of learning, to get from the outside world whatever is needed for self-preservation” (p. 117). She posited a “work primacy,” corresponding to genital primacy, that occurs when “the component instincts, sublimated during latency, are subsumed … into the productive impulse of creation” (p. 117). Lantos considered the very real phenomenon of work satisfaction in terms similar to Freud’s ideas on the sublimation of instincts: “The ego effort will be the less [in working] the more pregenital instinctual energies are being used. The more these now sublimated forces succeed in ranging themselves in the purposeful structure of work, the stronger will be the basis of work in the adult’s life” (p. 117). Lantos further hypothesized that, since work serves self-preservation, one important consequence of normal working is the relief from fear.

In a subsequent paper, Lantos (1952) elaborated her understanding of work pleasure. Drawing on Hendrik’s (1943) concept of the “mastery instinct,” she added the idea of the ego’s reaction of pleasure in achievement to that of sublimated instinctual energies linked to working. Elaborating on the role of the superego in work life, Lantos suggested that the motive of self-preservation takes the form of superego pressure. She emphasized the balance between sublimated instinctual energy and pleasure in achievement, on one hand, and the pressure of the superego, on the other, as the key to mature (and pleasurable) working:

Libidinal and achievement-pleasure, stemming from the instinctual forces and all the ego-skills which are used, should be, usually, in excess of the tension which is felt, whenever work is done under superego-pressure. We might say that the specific work-pleasure is the relief from this tension, the harmony between ego and superego [p. 442].

Hendrik (1943), writing shortly after Hartmann (1939), argued that the ego develops autonomously from the drives, made a key contribution to the development of ego psychology by positing the existence of the “instinct to master.” According to Hendrik, the instinct to master is an inborn drive the aim of which is “to control or alter a piece of the environment, an ego-alien situation, by the skilful use of perceptual, intellectual, and motor techniques…” (p. 314). The pleasure associated with the instinct to master derives from the successful carrying out of a function and is not secondary to the sexual instincts, as Freud and then Lantos had emphasized. Work is the primary means by which the instinct to master gains expression, and pleasure in working derives from the instinct to master.

White (1963), building on Hendrik’s ideas, postulated the existence of an independent ego energy termed the “effectance” motive. White suggested that acting on the environment, producing effects on it and changes in it, leads to “a feeling of efficacy which is a primitive biological endowment that is as basic as the satisfactions that accompany feeding or sexual gratification…” (p. 35). The feeling of efficacy that derives from effective interaction with the environment is inherently pleasurable.

Thus, White’s ideas have important implications for our understanding of work-derived pleasure. According to this line of thinking, pleasure in work stems from the exercise and growth of component ego functions involved in the performance of a job, as well as from the more goal-related sense of a job well done.

I believe that the ideas of Hendrik and White are most applicable to understanding the critical role of challenge in work life. The instinct to master or the effectance motive propels us toward challenging work. Most of us seek the optimal level of challenge in work: not so little as to lead to boredom nor so much as to lead to an inordinate degree of frustration. A challenging job is based on having new experiences, encountering new sectors of the environment that need to be controlled, altered, or influenced in some way. It requires the person to “stretch,” to use new skills and abilities or to refine those she already has. The exercise of these functions and the mastery of the environment associated with an optimally challenging job are pleasurable. Conversely, the lack of challenge in jobs that are repetitive or too easy, blocks the instinct to master. In these cases, a person is liable to experience a sense of depression and malaise and to feel that personality growth in a fundamental sense is not occurring.

WORK AND THE EGO

Jahoda (1966) suggested that work provides an important means by which the pleasure and the reality principles are synthesized. Work not only ties a person to reality but offers the means by which he can obtain uniquely adult sources of pleasure. Thus, the increased knowledge of reality and the growth of component ego functions obtained through work serve the end-state of pleasurable reward. The refinement of ego functions helps map the pathways to achievement and attendant gratification. In this sense, the pleasure and reality principles are mutually reinforcing.

Mature working requires, and at the same time facilitates, the ongoing development of such ego functions as focal attention and concentration, judgment, reality testing, and planning and anticipation. Hendrik, White, and other ego psychologists have taught us that the exercise and growth of these functions in interaction with the environment are inherently pleasurable. I would like to discuss some of the specific ways in which these component ego functions are linked to working.

The ability to focus attention on a task forms a critical substrate for mature working. Developing the capacity to maintain focus and see a complex task through to completion in the face of competing demands for attention is an essential part of working. This means that one must prioritize her efforts and learn to manage her time effectively. The more complex and demanding the job, the more demands are made on the individual’s ego to carry out these functions. At the same time, deficits in the capacity for focal attention can make even a seemingly ordinary job inordinately stressful.

Work life provides continuous opportunities for the exercise and development of judgment. Jaques (1965) has suggested that the level of one’s work is a function of the discretion and judgment exercised on the job. Jobs vary in the relative importance of the prescribed and discretionary components, and people vary in the relative weighting of those components that they are comfortable with and seek out. A job that is right for a person “carries a challenge to judgment and discretion” (p. 129) without stimulating excessive doubt and uncertainty.

The refinement of reality testing is at the core of mature working. Freud (1930) noted that, in addition to offering opportunities for displacement of the drives, work plays a critical role in binding the individual more closely to reality. Subsequently, Holmes (1965) hypothesized that, for a given individual, work serves primarily either the function of drive expression or that of enhancing the tie to reality. In the latter case, he suggested that work experience should be seen in terms of the opportunities it provides for the development of the self-evaluative, planning, and reality orienting functions.

Work, then, is one of the most important ways by which we know the world around us; it is based on the progressive differentiation of external reality from wishful fantasies. At work, we try to see the world the way it is and to accommodate to changing circumstances. We constantly ask ourselves if our old habits and ways of working fit the current circumstances.³ As the pace of change and complexity of information to be processed increase in the contemporary workplace, a premium is placed on this reality-testing function. Doing a job well under variable and complex conditions depends on a person’s expanding his scope of understanding of the external world.

An important manifestation of reality testing in work life is the ability to identify and take advantage of opportunity. Openness to new experience in concert with good reality testing helps determine one’s relationship to opportunity. Degrees of ego strength are evident in the abilities to perceive, make sense of, and develop opportunity in vital interaction with the environment. At the same time, ego development depends on a “good enough” (Winnicott, 1950) or “average expectable” (Hartmann, 1939) work environment, relatively free of deprivation and trauma.

The management of risk in work life, like the relationship to opportunity, could be considered a higher order ego function that helps define the contours of one’s relationship to the surrounding world. The importance of risk in work life has been emphasized by Hirschhorn (1988): “Work entails risks, which are experienced psychologically as threats that must be aggressively met, contained, and ultimately transformed into challenges and opportunities” (p. 33). Meeting risks is exciting and a major source of pleasure. Hirschhorn reminds us, however, that conflicts over aggression in particular can lead to withdrawal from risk, with a resulting impairment in task performance and enfeeblement of the sense of opportunity.

Effectiveness at work requires planning and anticipation. Goal achievement depends on the capability for delay and multistep planning. It is not enough to reality test current environmental circumstances; anticipating changing circumstances is an increasingly important part of work life. The ability to employ reality testing and anticipation, as well as a sophisticated time sense to discern patterns and trends, is increasingly important in the complex, rapidly changing, information-based workplace.

The current emphasis on “vision” in organizational life suggests that the development of higher order ego functions is linked to the requirements of the contemporary workplace. Work life has become the primary arena in which the individual develops the ability for strategic thinking. Strategic thinking is abstract, future oriented, and action linked. It is an essential part of both an individual’s career and a group’s and organizations functioning. The concept of “vision” adds elements of imagination and a deeper knowledge of oneself and one’s development to the conventional notion of strategic thinking. While vision is often thought of as a function of leadership, it can also develop in a collaborative context.

Work bears an important relationship to the synthetic and integrative functions of the ego. Especially as workplaces ...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Dedication
• Table of Contents
• Preface
• Introduction
• Chapter 1 WORK AND ITS SATISFACTIONS
• Chapter 2 WORK AND ADULT DEVELOPMENT
• Chapter 3 THE CONCEPT OF WORK DISTURBANCE
• Chapter 4 WORK INHIBITION AND WORK COMPULSION
• Chapter 5 WORK DIFFUSION
• Chapter 6 DISILLUSIONMENT AND DISABILITY
• Chapter 7 WORK AND THE TREATMENT PROCESS
• Chapter 8 CAREER DEVELOPMENT IN INDIVIDUAL THERAPY
• Chapter 9 THE PSYCHOLOGY OF A CHANGING WORKPLACE
• References
• Index