
Psychoanalytic Perspectives on a Turbulent World
- 256 pages
- English
- PDF
- Available on iOS & Android
Psychoanalytic Perspectives on a Turbulent World
About this book
This article is intended to contribute to our understanding of the December 2001 collapse of Enron. The existing literature on Enron's demise falls largely into two broad areas, involving either "micro" psychological explanations or "macro" accounts that emphasize the workplace and its environment; this paper is an exploratory study that focuses on a new interpretation which links the two areas more closely together. It is proposed that Enron's culture was influenced by both "micro" and "macro" factors: an experience of unsuccessful paternal authority figures within the family history of Enron's leaders, coupled with an experience of problematic government and regulatory regimes associated with the gas industry. Drawing on concepts from psychoanalysis and its application to organizational dynamics, it is argued that these "micro" and "macro" factors helped to generate an Oedipal mindset in Enron's leaders according to which external authority was seen to be weak and not worthy of respect, and that this contributed to Enron's demise. Implications for theory are examined.
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Table of contents
- Cover
- Half Title
- Title
- Copyright
- Contents
- Dedication
- ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
- THE CAST OF CHARACTERS
- NOTES FROM THE EDITORS
- INVITATION TO THE DRAMA
- PROLOGUE The Myth that Binds: The past and present as prologue to the future
- ACT I: ON WAR AND CONFLICT
- ACT II: THE FINANCIAL CRISIS AND THE DISAPPEARING CONTAINERS
- ACT III: ON LEADERSHIP AND THE ILLUSION OF CONTAINMENT
- The Epilogue
- INDEX