Eros and Thanatos: a Psychoanalytic Examination of Death in the Context

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2016, vol. 4, no. 3

Contents

Preface...... 1

Ilona Świątek-Barylska, Magdalena Opara: Perception of whistleblowing by professionals-to-be. Results of the ...... 2

Katarzynaresearch Bratnicka-Myśliwiec / Postrzeganie informowania: Creativity and w dobrej performance. wierze przez Testing przyszłych ambidextrous profesjonalistów. hypotheses Wyniki in the badańcontext of Polish SME’s ...... 9 / Twórczość i efektywność. Testując hipotezy obustronności w kontekście polskich małych Jules ivan średnich Cleeff, przedsiębiorstwPieter van Nispen: ...... 16

Lionel F. Stapley: Organizations, projects and culture / Organizacje, projekty i kulturaZnaczenie pracy ...... 23 Exploring the meaning of work in the context of organizational culture / Susanw Kahnkontekście: kultury organizacyjnej Eros ...... 29 Eros and Thanatos: A psychoanalytic examination of death in the context of working life / Xavieri Tanatos: Eloquin: psychoanalityczna perspektywa śmierci w kontekście miejsca pracy Tyran ...... 41 The tyrant-in-the-mind: influences on worker behaviour in a post-totalitarian organization / w umyśle: wpływ na zachowanie pracownicze w organizacji posttotalitarnej

Management Forum, 2016, vol. 4, no. 3

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2016, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. (1)

Preface

The presented papers form an important starting point for from the systemic-psychodynamic perspective (L.F. Stapley: academic discussions and show us the diverse spectrum of in- Exploring the Meaning of Work in the Context of Organizational teresting issues perceived from the perspective of organizatio- Culture). Although it might seem that everything has already nal behaviours and organizational culture, enriched with been said about organizational culture, it is worthwhile to con- examples of the interpretational possibilities offered by the sider the thought expressed by L.F. Stapley that we focus on the psychoanalytic understanding of social phenomena. What me- - rits special attention is the fact that half of the articles contri- ding what it really is. buted to the collection present a systemic-psychodynamic ap- identification of symptoms of culture rather than understan Then, the last two papers reveal the world of organizations proach, still relatively little known in Polish management. This through reference to strictly psychoanalytic constructs, such as approach is based on psychoanalytic theories and the concepts death drive, mourning and melancholia (S. Kahn: Eros &Thana- developed therein. tos: A Psychoanalytic Examination of Death in the Context of The exceptional nature of this collection consists in showing Working Life) and the concepts of organization-in-the-mind, the diversity of perspectives regarding both the understanding - and the empirical examination of the phenomena and proces- in: The Tyrant-in-the-mind: Influences on Worker behaviour in a ses which we observe in organizations. It contains six articles Post-totalitariannarcissism, unconscious, Organisation introjective). These identification papers, based (X. on Eloqu psy- that describe from the cognitive-behavioural perspective phe- new contours and shapes, perhaps previously not fully seen or M. Opara: Perception of whistleblowing by professionals-to-be. appreciatedchoanalytic theories,from others reflect perspectives. upon and illuminate some of the Resultsnomena of asthe complex research ) as and whistleblowing organizational (I. creativity Świątek-Barylska, and ambi- It is my hope that this collection of six papers will form a fra- Creativity and performance. Testing ambidextrous hypotheses in Polish SME’s and processes that exist beneath the surface of our interac- contextdexterity). These in Polish two enterprisesarticles are based (K. Bratnicka: on extensive empirical tionsmework with for other noticing, people exploring, and our andchanging reflecting world. upon I believe the forces that studies and can form a very good groundwork for further rese- the submitted publications constitute interesting reading on arch, and they have a great practical importance for managers, modern management from the perspective of psychoanalytic too. and “classic” approaches to management. I hope they will be- The two subsequent papers present the issue of organizational come the source of many inspiring discussions and academic culture described from the behavioural standpoint (J. van Cle- polemics. eff, and P. van Nispen: Organisations, Projects and Culture) and Adela Barabasz

Management Forum, 2016, vol. 4, no. 3

managementforum.ue.wroc.pl e-ISSN 2392-0025

2016, vol. 4, no. 3, pp. (29-40) DOI: 10.15611/mf.2016.3.05 JEL Classification: Z0, I3

Eros and Thanatos: a psychoanalytic examination of death in the context of working life

SusanEros Kahn i Tanatos: psychoanalityczna perspektywa śmierci

Universityw kontekście of London, e-mail: [email protected] miejsca pracy

Abstract The unpredictability of work and the absence of lifetime institutions forces us to confront our occupational mortality. This paper grapples with the instinct towards life, Eros, and towards destruction, Thanatos,1 in the context of working life. It deals with death and explores the consequences of an anticipated workplace mortality. This paper brings a fresh approach to understanding organizational endings through the application of psychoanalytic notions of death. First I present the theoretical basis of death in psychoanalysis: the death drive and mourning and melancholia. I then examine the treatment of death in organizations before briefly applying the theory Keywords: Thanatos, death drive, mourning and melancholia, organizational endings. to a research case based in the City of London post the 2008 financial crisis.

Streszczenie

Nieprzewidywalność warunków pracy oraz brak wiecznie żyjących instytucji konfrontują nas z zagadnieniem śmiertelności w kontekście wykonywanej pracy. Niniejszy artykuł odwołuje się do instynktu życia − Erosa − oraz instynktu destrukcji – Tanatosa − w odniesieniu do życia zawodowego. Artykuł przynosi świeże spojrzenie na koniec życia organizacji przez zastosowanie psychoanalitycznego konceptu śmierci. W artykule przedstawione zostały teoretyczne podstawy rozumienia śmierci w ujęciu psychoanalitycznym: popęd śmierci, żałoba i melancholia. Następnie opisano proces radzenia sobie ze śmiercią w organizacji na Słowa kluczowe przykładzie londyńskiego City po kryzysie finansowym w 2008 roku. : Tanatos, popęd śmierci, żałoba i melancholia, koniec życia organizacji.

1 Referring to Freud’s death drive by the name of ‘Thanatos’, the Greek God of Death, is common, although Freud did not do so in his writings.

Management Forum, 2016, vol. 4, no. 3 Susan Kahn 30

Introduction organizational ending as workers face the challenge of confronting death and acknowledging the limitations of life. The unconscious has much to offer our understanding of key Freud’s engagement with death in his writings on transience, events in working life. an organizational ending is one of the war and death are relevant here. most important of these events. This paper examines the lessons that can be learnt by applying Freudian ideas of death, Beyond mourning and melancholia to organizational collapse. The the Pleasure Principle Civilization and The development of the death drive, first introduced in unconscious at work has been given attention [Fotaki, Long, its Discontents (1920), and revisited in Schwartz2012; Schwartz 2010; 1989; Stein 2000; 2003; 2007; drive as both a return to nothingness and a force for destruction will be explored.(1930), I will is present presented. the Theways enigma in which of the death death is ISPSO2 and the Tavistock tradition [Trist, Bamforth 1951; managed through an examination of Mourning and Melancholia, Miller2011; 1993]. Stapley But 1996; to date Tuckett, there has Taffler been little 2003; under Halton the surface 1994); analysis of organizational death, particularly research using work that examines normal and pathological responses to loss. the 1917 paper at the root of object relations thinking, the empirical evidence. I am walking in the footsteps of De Board Death is evident in much of psychoanalysis; but death also runs [1978] and Stapley [2006; 2006a]; and also Liefooghe, through other psychoanalytic thought. For example patricide Schwartz [2013], in arguing that psychoanalytic ideas can be features strongly in Totem and Taboo (1913), a collection of extremely helpful in deepening our understanding of organizational phenomena. to anthropology. Freud demonstrates here an interest in the four essays that give us Freud’s first attempt to apply his theory Psychoanalytic theory has contributed to an understanding of impact of death on those left behind and cites the example of leadership [Kets de Vries 1993; 1996], group dynamics and a deceased beloved relative being transformed into a demon at defences against anxiety [Bion 1961; Menzies Lyth 1960; Jacques 1995], the neurotic organization [Kets de Vries, Miller has made on humanity, was put forward as one of Freud’s bold notions.the moment of death. Here primal slaughter, and the mark it envy [Stein 2000], power and narcissism [Schwartz 1992; Stein1984] 2003] perversion and academia and greed [Braddock, [Long 2008; Lacewing Stein 2000; 2007]. 2007] The 2. The impossibility of death application of Freudian notions of death [Freud 1915; 1920; In Thoughts for the Time on War and Death, 1930] to an organizational context through an extended in the unconscious every one of us is convinced of his own observational study is less explored. immortality [Freud 1915, p. 291]. Freud purportsFreud thatreflects death that is Confronting death evokes an emotional response and the secondary. Death, asserts Freud, has no place in the unconscious mirrored in the challenge we face in examining our own andnot when a significant we speak psychic of the fear factor of death and thatwe are fear really of referring death is mortality.difficulty experiencedThe Victorian in obsession the death with of death an organization [Jalland 2005; is to something else. In the most simple of terms Freud asserts death’s absence from the mind [1915; 1923; 1926]. Freud century obsessions with sex and the sexualisation of the describes death as an abstract, temporal issue that has no everyday.Curl 2004] Yet has sex was transferred also central to twentiethto Victorian and culture. twenty- Death first is place in the unconscious, he states that there is no death in the the acceptable face of Victorian culture and the explicit unconscious todesangst3. The key challenge of psychoanalytic preoccupation of the age, with sex as the more repressed engagement with death is the impossibility of accepting our element. This has shifted to the current sexualisation of the everyday and an explicit cultural obsession with all matters death, death is something that cannot be held in the mind and sexual. Death has become the more repressed element of thereforemortality. cannot As we be cannot contemplated. experience Freud death, was ortherefore observe quite our contemporary culture. This represents something of a reversal dismissive of the importance and centrality of death in psychic of the development of the Freudian drive theory that begins thinking. with the pleasure principle [Freud 1900] and moves on to propose the death drive [Freud 1920]. Contemporary The high-sounding phrase, ‘every fear is ultimately the fear obsessions with sexualisation has pushed back death into of death’, has hardly any meaning, and at any rate cannot be justified. forcing us to engage with the broader topic of loss which [Freud 1923, p. 57] featuresa corner so and strongly here thein working subject life. of death is brought forward, Yet Freud’s relationship with death was more complex than 1. Death and psychoanalysis Psychoanalytic thought locates loss centrally: loss of the primal a denunciation of the significance of the fear of death, or of relationship, loss of memory and denial of loss. This sense of death anxiety. He oscillates between an outright rejection of loss has something to offer the world of work at a time of isdeath seen as byhaving some any as psychic a lacuna, significance literally toan a actdeep of engagement repression with the subject. The side-stepping of death in psychoanalysis

2 International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations www.ispso.org. 3 The German todesangst is translated as fear of death. Eros and Thanatos: a psychoanalytic examination of death in the context of working life 31

[Razinsky 2013]. Freud’s assertion that there is an absence of 3. Mourning and melancholia involvementthe psychic presencein the war, of the death loss appears of his beloved flawed. daughter Freud’s ownand triggered by the same circumstances, Freud discusses what conditionsAlthough statesneed to of be mourning present for and the melancholiatwo states to are progress often experiences of loss – his diagnosisfundamentally of cancer, everything his son’s has lost its meaning for me grandson – led Freud to write observations, much of his writing on melancholia is Such sentiments suggest that death is at the heart of psychic along their varying paths. While some statements are based on life, not on the sidelines.(Letter quoted in [Eissler 1978, p. 229]).

extendsconjectured, mourning Freud beyond continues the lossto remind of a loved the personreader toof thethis loss by 2.1. Engaging with death asking questionssome of abstraction his own theories which had throughout taken the the place essay. of one, He such as one’s country, liberty, an ideal, and so on [Freud 1917, Not only is death something that is hard to engage with in of an object: relation to our own mortality, it is also a general topic for the loss experienced at work and through work that is at the hushed tones and murmured consideration. Confronting heartp. 243]. of Itthis is paper.the extension of loss beyond the loved person to Mourning is described as a normal reaction to events and one Freudmortality encouraged persists asus ato delicate bring death subject. to the In Western fore. society this that is carried through with the passage of time. It is not has been so for centuries. In the midst of the First World War, therefore associated with pathological issues. During the mourning period the person realises that the loved person or Would it not be better to give death the place in reality and in our thoughts that it is due and bring out our unconscious attitude to death, which we have hitherto suppressed, a little interest,object that inability is lost to is love truly and gone inhibition and turns of all away activities. from reality. These more? sameThis turning symptoms away arefrom present reality isin marked melancholia, by dejection, however loss inof [Freud 1916, p. 193] mourning, the reality of loss and absence is eventually recognised and over time the mourner returns to their normal Freud, however, fails to respond to his own call to engage with and turns inwards, complaints become ‘plaints’. The despite the preoccupation with death evident in his personal melancholicstate. But a melancholicturn on themselves cannot separate and blame from themselves, the lost object they the subject and maintains an arms-length treatment of death,. In are at fault, and they should have seen the end coming. On Transience [1916], Freud explores the interference4 of anticipatedlife and correspondence death on one’s [Fliess ability 1899] to live (in and [Masson embrace 1985]) life.

Melancholic self-accusations can be turned against the lost appreciation of life itself. Our mortality allows us to value object, in the case of this paper a failed organization, with beautyHere the and capacity to value to the mourn moment. is explained Life is beautiful, as crucial but tolife the is withanger melancholia and outrage the at thefocus injustice. is on the In theabandonment shattering of the short, appears to be the motif of this 1915 piece. This is relationship.object-relationship, The melancholic mourning focusesis constantly on the seeking lost object the andlost crisis in the City in 2008 might well have concurred with. a sentiment with which the workers caught in the financial death,object whereasand trying melancholia to find where is more it is to located. do with Mourning the unconscious, is thus 2.2. Working through death resultingdescribed from as a a conscious loss that cannot response be physically to something, perceived, a specific like love. It is worth noting that Freud makes this distinction. It is This part of the paper deals with responses to loss and ways of working through death presented in the psychoanalytic ‘normal mourning’ has no unconscious content. Melancholia is literature. Before his pronouncement of the death drive Freud thusa bizarre more claim puzzling that because such a ofprofound this absence event of as a losseven that so-called can be explores Mourning and Melancholia in his 1917 essay that observed, there also exists the additional symptom of loss and mourning and uses an investigation of pathological responsestackles the to human loss to response help us understand to loss. He writes what is of indeed the process normal. of a lowering of self-regard. This piece of writing is hugely important to the development of In mourning it is the world which has become poor and empty; in melancholia it is the ego itself. Freud sets out to clarify the difference between mourning and psychoanalytic thought and introduces object relations theory. akin to contemporary depression [Leader 2009]. The person believes that they are inferior[Freud and despicable 1917, p. 246] and melancholia. What Freud referred to as melancholia is most cannot imagine a time when they have not been repugnant; the melancholic is comfortable in sharing the truth about their awful self. This marks melancholy as a different symptom from

conspiracy of silence [Ya 4 It is interesting to note that clinically, death appears to be a subject of great significance yet there is something akin to a - lom 1980, p. 55] reflected in the absence of death in clinical literature.

Management Forum, 2016, vol. 4, no. 3 Susan Kahn 32 inferiority complexes that are buried and have associations of remember that such mental states are not conscious and the even unending. Yet the melancholic could be described as repugnant, unworthy and to blame is being driven by their comfortableshame. Melancholia in their is position, like an openhis or wound, her attack a prolonged is focussed injury, on unconsciousinternal voice and of not the their individual thinking, who logical defines self. The themselves melancholic as

Freud saw mourning as a process, with a beginning and an end. the lost object rather than on him or herself. wouldnever explicitlytherefore not reproaches be characteristic the object, of the but melancholic only indirectly, who Volkan [2007], brings us the notion of the ‘perennial mourner’ wouldthrough direct their their self-reproaches. reproaches inwards An attack rather on than the organization blaming the organization.

– the absent person is kept perpetually alive through mental One unconscious part of the ego stalking another – it is representation and linking objects – such mourners do not ne- important to stress that both mourning and melancholia are wecessarily might developrecognise a thedepression notion of – abut ‘civil almost service freeze man’ the or ‘Marksmour- applicable to situations that extend far beyond the death of &ning Spencer process employee’. and ‘introject’ These the individuals lost person. identify In corporate themselves terms a loved one or close friend. Symptoms of loss can be extended with that organization long after their departure. Such peren beyond the death of a human being to the loss of relationship, nial mourners might be described as suffering from melancho lia, although Volkan does not acknowledge his debt to Freud. - work on mourning and melancholia has a contribution to the - lossobject experienced or fantasy. asThis a result is the of premise organizational of this research closure. that the The disturbance of self-regard − Freud describes the healthy response to loss, mourning, as differing in one fundamental regard to the pathological response to loss, melancholia. That relations are also a feature of pathological relationships such The forces of love and hate that are a feature of internal object of loving hate and hateful love. This is perhaps the most difference is the lowering of self-regard and self-repulsion. uncomfortableas an abusive partnership element to or trace an abused to organizational child – the experiencelife where sadistic behaviour is regularly evidenced. themselvesWithin the organizational for the downfall context of their of place a failing of work. business If only one I hadcan workedmap such harder, feelings or won of that self-reproach contract, or onto raised those my concerns who blame or The psychotic edge of mania and melancholia – Freud provides another layer of meaning to melancholia by describing the way in which melancholia can switch to mania, whereby mania reproach,brought in a more means business of expanding – perhaps the importancethen the business of one’s would own triumphs in overcoming the painful feelings which crush the contributionhave survived. to Therethe success are elements or failure of of narcissism the entire organization. in such self- melancholic. Freud uses the extended metaphor of the analyst Narcissism was only introduced as a concept a few months as detective to explain the way in which melancholia can trans before Freud wrote his paper, “On narcissism: An introduction” stling with the same unconscious complex, in melancholia the- egoform has into succumbed mania. He and describes been consumed mania andby the melancholia painful and wrecru- [1914b], but such concepts provided an important part of the shing loss and in mania the pain has been pushed aside. Freud Object-loss transformed into ego-loss − the attack on self stage for object relations theory of melancholia [Ogden 2012]. attempts to explain the exuberance and triumph experienced- in mania using a vignette of a ‘poor wretch’ who wins a great deal of money. In winning the money the individual is relieved arebecomes not necessarily interesting on as thethe personpaper develops. themselves Here but Freud that dissectsthey do the violent self-accusations and concludes that these attacks of every day worries and concerns. Freud also talks of the situ person who has been lost. So the accusations that the with success. Ogden suggests this must surely relate to his own- melancholicfit very closely directs the imageinwards of are someone unconsciously else, the attacks image on of the wishation to when have after his ancontribution arduous struggleand status one recognized is finally crowned [Ogden 2012]. loss is outrage, disappointment and anger. So if we relate the loved object that has been lost. The emotional response to the The wish to continue living and the wish to be at one with the individual working in the condemned organization, and direct dead themprevious instead self-accusations towards the away organization from the person itself, concerned, the attack the is of unresolved feeling of love and hate, as might be seen in different. a healthy − ambivalence Oedipal experience is presented or theas an torment unconscious of an obsessional expression neurotic [Ogden 2012]. But in the case of Mourning and Instead of, if only I had worked harder, or won that contract, Melancholia ambivalence is presented as a different struggle, the attack is towards the organization; if only the organization that of a wish to be at one with the living and a wish to be at was better structured to win contracts and reward hard work one with the dead. we might have survived. Rather than reproaches of if only I had raised my concerns we might hear, if only the business had behaved ethically. Instead of if only I had brought in more business, the attack might be turned on the decision makers strongHow can evidence this concept that identity of ambivalence attachment be directed and evaluation towards of one’s self who could be accused of not producing the right product, or isexperience strongly tiedof working to working in a dyingidentity. organization? Gratitude for Here the there career is price plan, then the business would have survived. Blame, opportunity and exposure may be mixed with resentment of attack and accusation shifted from oneself to the organization loss of future and taint associated with working in an as a whole, relieving the burden of one’s responsibility for the organization closing down [Bell, Taylor 2011; Kahn, Liefooghe success or failure of the entire organization. Yet it is vital to

2014]. Some question the validity of extending clinical accounts Eros and Thanatos: a psychoanalytic examination of death in the context of working life 33 of melancholia to social theory [Frosh 2012]. Yet there are signs that this use of psychoanalysis, for example in applying 2006].If Freud’s The first death point drive of referenceis part of Freud’sis the Oedipus second complex,topographical then the second is the death drive [Weatherill 1999; Carr, Lapp the metaphor of post-colonial melancholy, is helpful and scious world with associated drives and anxieties based on in powerful [Khanna 2004], or in using a psychoanalytic lens to fantilemodel. sexual The first experience. topography Sexual postulated drives remained the dynamic important uncon to- Melancholia is described as deriving some of its characteristics understand the desire for whiteness [Seshadri-Crooks 2000]. Freud but his second topography included the development of- from mourning and the rest from narcissism. The loss of the for a lifeless, inorganic state. Thanatos, or the death instinct, as the death drive – a drive that compels living creatures to strive loved object turns into pathological mourning, forcing self- the death drive is also commonly referred to [Rycroft 1995], is reproach and self-blame for the loss of the loved object. not an aggressive or destructive instinct against others, rather the satisfaction of tendencies towards sadism and hatred. The it turns that instinct in on itself so rather than wishing to anni hatredThe pleasure is applied of self-torment to the lost evidencedperson and in then melancholia turned backsuggest on hilate the other, the drive is to annihilate oneself and to return against the melancholic. to a state of nothing, to literally dissolve. -

4. Nothingness versus destruction terms, he was wary of it and did not see it as having its own However, Freud does not speak of Thanatos in substantive If we are to take it as a truth that knows no exception that it invisible. The death drive is a return to life’s purest form. everything living dies for internal reasons – becomes Freudenergy. introduced Eros (love) the takes concept the death of the drive death into drive itself as and a negative renders inorganic once again – then we shall be compelled to say concept in opposition to the drive for life. So whilst Eros is that ‘the aim of all life is death’ and, looking backwards, that paired with the energy of ‘libido’, Thanatos has no such ‘inanimate things existed before living ones’. equivalent energy beyond a suggested name ‘mortido destrudo’ [Freud 1920, p. 38] [Rycroft 1995].

In Beyond the Pleasure Principle [1920], we are introduced to Freud, in Beyond the Pleasure Principle [1920], shares the idea an alternative force. Freud refers us to the compulsion in the mind to repeat as a greater drive than that of the pleasure that death is no longer an easy option. External influences principle. This is most evident in the observation of a child’s detours and circuitous routes before reaching death. Dollimore make death more difficult and an organism has to make many play where we are brought the example of the little boy describes life itself is only a detour to death [2001, p, 186]. This disappearance and return, of ‘fort’ and ‘da’.5 This child drive. Freud describes a falling back into complete satisfaction, captures what is difficult to grasp in understanding the death manages(reportedly the Freud’s departure grandson, of his Ernst) mother who with plays a game a game that of a return to the fundamental of living organisms to death. It is repeats disappearance and return, with the pain of loss the nature of social and psychic life that rather than falling back we are compelled to move forward to as the ‘backward endeavour of all living creatures, a return to the quiescence of path’ is blocked by repressions on which society is built. The therewarded inorganic by the world joy of[1920, return. p. Freud62] . Theoffers greatest us as the pleasure universal of most fundamental repression in Freudian terms is the blocking man, the sexual act, Freud, and later Lacan, associated with the extinction of a highly intensified excitation [Freud 1920, civilization. of desire − the containment of libidinal freedom is the basis of p. 62]. Freud therefore did not dismiss the importance of Freud is tentative initially in his presentation of the death drive sexual drives but introduced another drive, one that takes examines the origins of psychic pain. In Civilization and its Discontentsbut he pursues [1930], the Freudnotion writes of binding of dissolution, and unbinding of dissolving and re- withinaway all humankind tension, pain has andgiven unwanted the death stimulation drive something – a drive of life back to a pre organic state, literally to dissolve life back into atowards controversial a state nature. of death. It has The been potential warmly for embraced self-destruction by some primeval, inorganic state [Freud 1930, p. 310]. Freud continues to offer dissolution as a key part of this topography but his with a different meaning. psychoanalysts, notably Klein [1940], although she imbues it presentation of the death drive in Civilization and its Discontents also presents the more aggressive and sadistic elements of the 5. The death drive death drive. Our views have from the very first been dualistic, and to-day Freud describes human beings as constantly inclined towards they are even more definitely dualistic than before – now aggression to one another, that there is a great struggle against that we describe the opposition as being, not between ego- instincts and sexual instincts but between life instincts and death instincts. destruction,self-destruction, a phenomenon that society much is in literally evidence and in perpetuallypsychology threatened with disintegration. The struggle against self- [Freud 1920, p. 53] [Frosh 2012], marries well with Freud’s notion of a death drive.

5 The child’s drawn out ‘oooo’ is interpreted by as the German word ‘fort’ meaning gone, ‘da’ means there, therefore a game of disappearance and return.

Management Forum, 2016, vol. 4, no. 3 Susan Kahn 34

unconscious, yet he moves to make the death instinct central to represent how Freud’s work can be applied to organizational hisAs notedthinking. earlier, Freud’s Freud preoccupation states that therewith an is internal no death force in the of on the data analysis I have developed the following figure to dissolution captured in Beyond the Pleasure Principle develops death. Adopting a position of denial, defences against death, in Civilization and its Discontents [1930], to a destructive force work on death to organizational endings is demonstrated. directed towards the world in general. In Freud’s return to the projection and working through the relevance of Freudian death drive this writing occurred at a time when the ravages of 7. Death and organizations and aggression of war was very much on the surface. The clash increasingly organizational collapse is a feature of our everyday ofthe desire First Worldand civilization War could leads be understood Freud to the and notion that thethat violence there is experienceWe are experiencing [Samuel 2010; a vulnerability Cederstrom, ofFleming working 2012; life Comfort where 2013]. Endings can be experienced as a profound source of loss [Dollimore 2001]. something impossible about the fulfilment of human desire The death drive was characterised by a drive towards an inor ganic state, a state of nothingness or nirvana and offers a con corporateand suffering giants, [Driver high 2007,street 2009;stores Cunninghamas well as numerous 1997; Harris, small - trast to his more willingly received life drive linked to sexual andSutton medium 1986]. sized The collapseenterprises of largemeans financial that organizational institutions, - urges and desires for satisfaction. Cited as the most controver death is a feature of working life in this early part of the twenty rable controversy. Libido and aggression here are on an equal- Organizational death has received some attention in terms of footing.sial of Freud’s Jones [1961],contributions in his biography[Akhtar 2011], of Freud it caused acknowledges conside- first century. pathology and investigation as to why the organization has fa iled through a diagnostic model of failure encompassing the cott too has no place for death drive yet there is a place for ag - the limited objective support the drive theory received. Winni- various disorders and illnesses that might affect the life chan - ces of an organization. The focus on the downfall and disappe - gression acknowledged; in Winnicott’s thought this is seen in arance of organizations usefully highlights the tendency for organizational success to draw more attention and interest- servationline with ‘synonymousurges and death with drives activity’ against [1975, those p. 204](in committed [Frosh to than organizational failure [Samuel 2010]. Organizational dec life2012]). [Frosh Freud’s 2012]. drive Psychoanalytic theory pits sexual ideas urgesof death against are nowego pre ap- line and death is receiving attention, for example focusing on plied to organizations. - -

6. Application of Freud to organizational death models for understanding organizational failure [Mellahi, Wil- Loss and grief are part of everyday experience, an experience I have examined the way in which psychoanalysis examines kinson 2004]. that is felt no less keenly in the workplace. These responses to death and now I will look at the way in which Freud’s work on loss are experienced in organizations when an organization death can be utilised in examining organizational death. Based ceases to exist, or a department shuts down, or when a leader dies. In attempting to understand loss and grief, different a. Denial of death frameworks and models have been developed, now these • Survival, infallibility, strengthsuperiority topics will be given attention. • compulsion to repeat

of a model of grief. On Death and Dying [1969], was inspired by Kubler-Ross is perhaps the most commonly referred to creator

d. Working Through b. Defences • personal recognition • meetings, food, ability to move on procedures, her work with terminally ill patients. Her contribution was vs. inabiility to move identification significant and led to changes in the care of the terminally ill in on • humour psychoanalytic theory on the development of this model is clear.the United States of America and beyond. The influence of

c. Projection and/or their survivors will experience when confronted with • scapegoating, blame, Kubler-Ross presents a five stage model of grief that a person anger, greed impending death. This hypothesis offers stages of denial, an ger, bargaining, depression and acceptance; these might be experienced in no particular order and not necessarily all the- stages will be experienced as each loss will be unique. Kubler

- e. the death drive − return to nothingness; aggression and violence and describes the struggle of hospital staff to engage with the -Ross also tackles the issue of resistance to the subject of death Figure 1. ce of loss employed fewer defence mechanisms and were more subject of death and dying. She notes that those with experien- Source: FreudApplication S., 1915, of TimelyFreud’s Reflections work on death on War to organizationsand Death, Standard readily able to face death as a reality. She also distinguishes

Mourning and Melancholia more comfortable engaging with the topic. She cites Cicely LondonEdition also 14:275-300, Penguin Modern Hogarth Classics, Press, London; London; Freud Freud S.,S., 1930, 1917, Saunders,between doctors founder and of the nurses modern and hospice identifies movement, nurses to a be nurse the Civilization and its Discontents, Standard Edition 14, Hogarth Press, Press, London. , Standard Edition 21, Hogarth first, then medical social worker and then physician, as expert Eros and Thanatos: a psychoanalytic examination of death in the context of working life 35 at dealing with matters of death with comfort; ..since she does in a variety of different stages. These scholars do not necessarily not need denial she is unlikely to meet much denial in her pa- agree on what those stages might be, yet do concur that tients organizations move through a cycle of birth, growth, maturity, ageing and death. This is seen as akin to the biological life cycle [Kubler-Ross 1969, p. 248]. fright, helplessness and feelings of impotence towards a more by Samuel [2010], who applies the biological metaphor of familiarKubler-Ross and describesaccepting attitudehow she towardsguides medical death. Some staff applicathrough a[Daft sick 2004]. organization. Organizational pathology is given further attention tion of her work has been made to organizational life in the - Deficiencies and malfunctions, which endanger the strength ingfield in of a organizational study of a large change public [Zell university 2003; Elrod,to explain Tippett individual 2002]. and survival of organizations, are treated here as andZell drawsgroup parallelslevel responses with Kubler-Ross’s to change. Using stages data of death gathered and dy as- pathologies. Organizational crime, corruption, and other related phenomena are similarly dealt with in this context, as representing abnormalities that threaten the existence of changepart of ain change ways that management resembled programme the stages ofZell death [2003], and identi dying- organizations. fied that professors in the physics department responded to [Samuel 2010, p. 2] ill, the faculty went through periods of denial, anger, barga ining,identified depression by Kubler-Ross. and ultimately Zell reports acceptance. that, like the terminally Closedown or organizational death [Sutton 1987], has also in - voked the biological metaphor. Sutton explores the transition to Elrod and Tippett [2002], use bereavement theory as part of death through research designed to develop a model that could- their review of the human response to change and transition, of which loss and death is central. They title their paper The trated on unambiguous organizational death, that is organiza “death valley” of change tionsbe translated that were to defunctother organizational and their function deaths. or Histask work no longer concen in- - and credit Kubler-Ross as one of the operation [Sutton 1987]. In writing about the process of organi first writers to succinctly develop a stage process to zational death, Sutton treats biological death and organizatio nal death as one and the same. Yet when a biological system- phasesunderstanding of unfreezing, change. Howevermoving theyand prioritisefreezing [1952].Lewin’s stageThey - model of change as most influential, incorporating the three dies so do all of its components, with the exception of organ identify as most challenging the intermediary stage, in both transplantation, and this is not true for organizations with hu man members. Sutton argues that terms such as closing or ter in capabilities. - the Lewin and the Kubler-Ross model, resulting in a decrease - mination do not sufficiently or satisfactorily convey the loss of beyond responses to individual experiences of death. Some, The Kubler-Ross model of grief has been applied widely and an organization to displaced members − it is perhaps more similar to the loss of a friend or relative [Harris, Sutton 1986]. universally applicable and resist the categorisation of the however, question Kubler-Ross as offering a model of dying components of the system die whereas in organizational death theHasanen human [2010], component points lives out on. thatThe contrast in biological between death failure all also resistance to the holistic description of the mourning mourning experience [Terry 2012; Douglas 2004]. There is process, one that has a beginning and an end, the question is whilst failure is reversible, for example in a turnaround or raised as to what propels individuals through the stages and managementand death is buyout brought situations, out by Samuel death is [2010]. not reversible. He notes that These models provide different frameworks in which to melancholiaprevents them is fromakin beingto what stuck she in describes an endless as loop the ofstuckness grief [Zell in examine loss and mourning. The paper now turns to grieving grief.2003; Archer 1999]. Zell does not refer to melancholia, but workers, the destructiveness of organizations and the loss of a leader and departing employees. Ritual processes associated with organizational closure have as parting ceremonies, are explained as important in allowing 8. Grief and loss in the workplace been highlighted by Harris and Sutton [1986]. Ritual acts, such employees to separate from the organization and the demands perennial mourner [Volkan 2007], the associated with organizational death. Sutton [1987], develops absent person is kept perpetually alive through mental this thinking, drawing attention to the social aspect of members With the concept of the and previous members coming together to bid the organization necessarily develop a depression, but almost freeze the representation and linking objects. Such mourners do not also being developed at the University of Gothenburg in farewell. A model of understanding organization endings is Sweden, where the type of organizational ending is being throughmourning institutional process and responses ‘introject’ tothe grieving lost person. employees The impact largely of linked to the type of end of life decisions and options made, for fromgrieving the workersperspective on of organizational the employee’s well-being loss of a is loved explored one example palliative care with an accepted care plan, assisted

work[Hazen as 2008]. part ofShe the presents healing an process, analysis for of theexample economic the Cantorcost of death with a joint decision to end life or even ritual killing 2012]. Fitzgeraldgrieving employees. survivors Inof cases9/11 of[Barbash shared 2006].trauma Hazen identifies where the end might be perceived as a gift to others [Arman The life cycle model of organizations is supported by a number The concept of mourning applied to those experiencing the of proponents [Galbraith 1982], who see organizations evolve loss of work and organization is also tackled by Gabriel [2012].

Management Forum, 2016, vol. 4, no. 3 Susan Kahn 36

Organizational mortality presents an opportunity for the consumption of food and alcohol; the sharing of stories and examination of systemic and individual loss. Gabriel offers psychoanalytic insights into dramatic organizational change and Sutton, are in response to the demands placed on its applying a theory of organizational miasma. The infected and memberstaking of photographs.of organizational These death common and a way themes, of bringing argue Harris some contagious pollution of miasma powerfully evokes the drama control to the situation. of organizational life going through change, closure and The emotional response to organizational death is examined reinvention. The below the surface descriptions capture the by Cunningham [1997]. The participant observation study essence of working within the brutal environment of assumes that those affected by an organization’s death, its a corporate rebrand and reinvention. Gabriel recognizes the members, but also its clients and associated organizations, place for melancholia during corporate chaos and loss, yet his experience similar feelings as when a person dies. The paper opens with two examples of displaced individuals who are this dark environment, the miasma, absent in the work of this affected by organizational death and, in their inability to cope, research.examinations Collective of unfinished grief in andwork unexplored organizations mourning is also creates given seek refuge in their organization’s generous disability some attention in the case of major organizational change [Zell experience and some are better equipped to cope with programme. His premise is that closure is a traumatic 2003], or plant closure [Harris, Sutton 1986]. dying and rebirth. Using the study of a Department of Physics through his long term study of a dying community club, that Zell describes organizational change as a process of death, thedisconnection trauma of the and disconnection reconnection encourages to another a role. dependence He argues, on on psychoanalytic theory to support her argument citing leaders and that those who take longest to accept the Mourning(as described and earlier Melancholia in relation [Freud to Kubler-Ross) 1917] in an sheargument also draws that inevitability of the end were those unwilling to express their supports the value of psychoanalysis as a vehicle to understand feelings and concerns. organisational death. She acknowledges, as this text does, that Catastrophic anxiety at the thought of loss and ending can lead the professionals in her study are not dying, but that part of them is dying and that this loss has to be mourned. to part and that parting is made more manageable by providing ato spaceanger andto addressattack [Salzberger-Wittenberg and face that ending. 2013]. This Itissue is painful was For the physicists, their object of love was multifaceted and addressed for trainees at the Tavistock Clinic by the included the past prestige and stature of their field, the introduction of an annual instituted ending event, where freedom to pursue their research specialities, and to teach the courses they desired. feelings about endings could be shared [Salzberger-Wittenberg or2013]. charismatic Members leader. of staff The can loss also experienceof a controlling difficulties leader, in [Zell 2003, p. 79] committedadjusting to ato new the leader, team particularlyand generating in the casegreat of loyalty a dominant and organizations and develop a theory that the parties and celebrationsHarris and Sutton associated look with at parting the closure ceremonies are a way in in six which closing the become used to depending on their previous leader to make decisionsinvolvement and in they her struggleddying days to led cope to staffwith strugglestheir independence – staff had and a way of members coping with the closure. The following invitationmanagers canto influencea wake thefor coursea dying of theorganization organization’s illustrates demise management efforts. [Hyde, Thomas 2003]. In an anxious time fears of persecution may be projected on to others in order to retain the safety of The wake is to be an occasion to remember the vigor and theReplacement group [Hinshelwood, of a leader isSkogstad therefore 2000]. a loss keenly felt and an charm of the departing spirit. We are interested in recalling attachment not easily replaced despite the logic or merits of and sharing memories of the place with those who were its friends and who may have benefitted from their association service study the leader had died and therefore replacement with it over the years. If you cannot attend, please consider such a replacement. In the case of Hyde and Thomas’s health sending a message perhaps containing an anecdote you explain this reluctance to give up on a loss, the reality of the remember with pleasure. by another individual was inevitable. We turn to Freud to exists. [ demand to forego any attachment to the object that no longer Parting ceremonies, be they picnics,Harris, parties Sutton 1986,or social p. 5] This demand arouses understandable opposition − it is gatherings, were dominant in six of the eight closures studied a matter of general observation that people never willingly and appear to be prevalent in organizational death abandon a libidinal position, not even, indeed, when Sutton 1986, p. 6]. Closure is emotionally charged, it involves a substitute is already beckoning to them. the loss of a social arena and of relationships. These ceremonies [Harris, serve a function for the displaced member, the members are at once providers and receivers of support and coping strategies Such loss can fuel fantasies for those who[Freud remain 1917, and p. evoke 244]

work practices will need to be established with the newly elements[Harris, Sutton such as 1986, the expression p. 11]. Despite of both the sadness range of and celebrations anger; the conflicting emotions of release or rejection; renegotiation of evidenced (wake, lunch, big party, picnic) all shared common appointed leader and finally fantasies held about the leader as Eros and Thanatos: a psychoanalytic examination of death in the context of working life 37

involves a dominant partner then the subordinate closedown situation that loss is repeated again and again. The organization dies. organizationomnipotent will faces be ultimate affected demise[Hyde, Thomasbut in the 2003]. run upIn toa slowthat [Carroll, Delacroix 1982, p. 180] date of closure multiple losses occur with colleagues taking Closedown or closure has been adopted in some management Employees might also experience a sense of manic triumph literature to alleviate the confusion of other restructuring or redundancy, finding new jobs or moving on in other ways.

[Speck 1994] in that they have survived whilst others have not. change efforts [Hansson, Wigblad 2006, Wigblad 2006; conducted by a nurse who had organised bereavement training analysisBergman, invoking Wigblad Frankenstein 1999]. Kelly asand a metaphorRiach’s 2012 for reanimatingstudy in the forStokes nurses, [1994], only describes to reveal the her role own of intention a consultancy to leave process the theUK financialdying organization. services sector Persistent challenges failure this manifests with a mythicalitself in department, offering a ‘bereavement’ which could be discussed organizational damage to itself and to stakeholders, these and learnt from. Bereavement can therefore be experienced at organizations may ‘bleed’ and ultimately face their demise. work through the loss of a leader but also through the departure of a member of staff. 10. Applying psychoanalytic theory 9. Mergers and downsizing to a dying organization I now apply the ideas discussed in the paper to an organization. The experience of downsizing can be a series of endings for those experiencing a rationalization process. Describing the operated in the City but was headquartered outside of the UK. closure of a department as the ending of an organizational The organization I refer to here was a financial institution that function as downsizing, a euphemism used as a means to 2008. It was taken over by a government body (unlike Lehman sanitize the impact of organizational death on its members, in The institution was part of the financial boom and collapsed in a sense to avoid the potential pain of the loss of those affected intervention acted as an interim support, with the prospect of theBrothers) organization but this facing rescue its was own merely certain palliative, demise. the government (SteinThe paring 1998). down of function or role can lead to a division in The research was empirically led and carried out at a critical responsibility that brings with it survivors and victims. Loss of trust and additional stress in a downsizing operation can be

opportunitytime of change were and over recalibration and the organization in the financial at the capital heart of the Vries and Balazs [1997], explore the impact of downsizing on researchCity of London. could Thecertainly heady be days described of excess, as profita casualty and extreme of the theexperienced inner world as of grief the [Ketsstakeholders de Vries, affected. Balazs 1997]). Kets de Their study looks at the roles of different players in the down sizing process such as victims and survivors and places spe thefinancial organization crisis of 2008.was an However innocent as casualty late as 2006, or the it wasperpetrator notable - cial attention on the role of ‘executioner’, the senior employ ofas itsan owninternational demise is darlingnot deliberated of the financial here. markets. Whether ees with the responsibility to execute the downsizing process.- - Distance is a useful tool in contemplating death. Close attachment and involvement in death can make thinking very nal death [2012]. These individuals often have to abandon theirThis linkspersonal to Arman’s values identificationand belief system, of murder the very in organizatio values that- led them to senior roles, in order to execute the downsizing itsdifficult. end, theThis loss applies is deeply equally entangled to organizational in everyday death, existence. endings plans. They do this by becoming detached and focussing on and closure. When an organization in which one works faces an outsider observing such endings one’s stance is on the edge, wever such efforts lead to further stress with reactions beingTherefore outside the theending organization is inevitably provides emotional a privileged and complex. platform As amongstthe organizational staff including targets depression, [Kets de substanceVries, Balazs abuse, 1997]. hostili Ho- from which to observe without getting caught up in the ty and absenteeism [Leana, Feldman 1988; Noer 1993]. Tho organizational defences, or if one is caught up, then to be able se responsible for the removal of employees adopted defensi- - with an organization facing closure and such insight can help aggrandizement, scapegoating of the victims, dissociation- thoseto reflect who on this.are partThis distanceof the organizational equally applies closure to those toworking move andve depression. patterns such By looking as isolation, at the psychological aggression effects and of self-tho forward and work through their loss. se conducting the downsizing they offer a way of reframing - downsizing to make it a less destructive process. This study During an intense period of eighteen months I used provides a good example of the way in which the experience of organizational loss can be understood psychoanalytically interviews to examine a bank situated in the heart of the City of from a number of differing stakeholders. a combination of psychoanalytic observation and in-depth

London,Psychoanalytic a casualty observation of the financial has its crisis. foundations in infant obse rvation and these principles are applied to an organizational Loss of control in a buy-out or a merger is considered to be - a death by some [De Gooijer 2009]. When two organizations combine, at least one ceases to tention of the observer; the neutral positioning of the obse exist and this must be considered a death. If a merger rver;setting. the These transference features include:and countertransference the capacity of free-floating between the at- -

Management Forum, 2016, vol. 4, no. 3 Susan Kahn 38

ganization that was loyal to a charismatic leader yet also accep ting of the end, an organization working through. andkey players;literal recordings regular weekly of the observation.observation slots of an-hour long - duration; the non-participation of the observer and detailed The death drive can be expressed in two very different ways, Psychoanalytic observation was not initially developed as a method of research. Its primary purpose was the training and development of the skills and sensibilities of psychotherapists Beyondfirstly as the a Pleasuredesire to Principle return to[1920], nothingness, and secondly to an as inorganic a more or other health professionals dedicated to working with violentstate, presented drive to destruction, first in Freud’s presented engagement in Freud’s with later death analysis in children [Rustin 2006]. The ethnographic qualities of infant of Civilization and its Discontents [1930]. The City displayed more of the former than the latter. The City buried its head, returned to the womb and rocked itself into a numbing state of observation were identified by Rustin (in Closely Observed denial. The suicides within Interbank and the City can be isInfants, employed [Miller differently et al. 1989]), in an and organizational the proposal setting. for a research Rather understood in the light of the wish to return to a state of thanagenda its forgoal infant being observation a training exercise, was born. its goalHowever is research observation based, aiming to gather data that is unencumbered by role or participation. unwantednothingness self [Cederstrom, [1912]. There Fleming were other 2012; signs Cullen that 2014]. the City As expressedidentified forthe Freud, characteristics suicide represented of the death the drivekilling associated off of the with a return to nothingness rather than the more aggressive, rienced differently by employees and teams; the split was akin sadistic elements of the death drive evidence in the toMy the findings response showed of mourning that within or the melancholia. bank the ending The employees was expe- headquarters of the bank. The City of London based bank who were recruited with the expectation of a lifetime career immersed itself in numbing procedures and bureaucracy. Planning, meetings and attention to process and quality control the organization in the knowledge that the bank was in a slow closureare contrasted process. with Unlike the longer shorter term term employees, employees these who recruits joined the ground. were fully aware that their time in the organisation was limited allowed this organization to bury its head and itself firmly in from the outset and that their employment was unlikely to re My analysis showed that organizational death elicits both sult in a long term future. These groups offered a helpful di a mournful and melancholic response compatible with Freud’s stinction in dealing with the loss of the organization. There- was also a polarised response to the crushing reality. Leaders- defence mechanisms that included mania, denial, greed and analysis of object loss. The pain of organizational death evoked not understood by those outside. The insider and outsiders, manifested in both its expressions: as a return to nothingness liarswere and blamed truth or tellers, idealized, innovators organizational and bureaucrats tactics justified were divi as andsplitting. in its sadistic I identified and aggressive the relevance form. The of City the of death London drive, was ded and blamed. contrasted with the international headquarters of the bank at - the heart of the research. The research demonstrated that an organization is made up of many individuals who experience their loss in different ways, so an operating system may contain individuals who are mournful Concluding thoughts and others who are melancholic. This is a mirror representa tion of family life where members of the same family experience through an examination of mourning and melancholia and the - their loss differently based on a number of factors including deathThis paper drive , firstthese introduced notions have psychoanalytic been applied notions to the ofloss death and psychical make up, valance, relationship to the deceased etc. In pain of a closing workplace. Other examinations of endings at this bank this was the case, although the greater volume of data work have been explored and the notion of loss at work has spoke to a melancholic response. Members of the organization been examined. I then used this theory to highlight how were split in their response to their ending. In melancholia the psychoanalysis can help to understand the experience of organizational closure through reference to a piece of research - re is an inability to replace the lost object with any new object mes the impossibility of the prospect or actuality of another crisis that began in 2008. placeof love; of if work. we apply It further this to shows organizational links between death, the melancholicobject beco- in a City of London bank facing closure during the financial

Yet we come to work with our whole selves, our mind, body ted at the self for the organization’s downfall. The thesis thus andWe lacksoul. convention Inevitably inloss dealing of a central with the part death of our of aidentity, workplace. our illustratesself-reproach the andway thein which sense whatof responsibility starts outside and comes blame in [Frosh direc- work, will impact on our emotional state. Psychoanalysis and 2012, p. 132] and how the shadow of the object fell upon the ego its examination of loss, of mourning and of melancholia, can help to frame that loss and to understand better the experience [FreudThe way 1917, in which p. 249]. people mourn the loss of organizational life of death of work. was contrasted with a melancholic response where the defen ces against death are evidenced and presented in emergent - from the research was an organization of greed and gorging themes of mania, denial, greed and splitting. What emerged contrasted with an organization of delusion and denial. An or- Eros and Thanatos: a psychoanalytic examination of death in the context of working life 39

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