A Coach or a Couch? A Lacanian Perspective on Executive Coaching and Consulting

Arnaud, Gilles

doi:10.1177/0018726703569005

Cited by 75 publications

(88 citation statements)

References 13 publications

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“…A number of publications by French, Belgian and English authors led the way (Arnaud, 1998(Arnaud, , 2002(Arnaud, , 2003aFleming and Spicer, 2003;Roberts, 2005;Vanheule et al, 2003;Vanheule and Verhaeghe, 2004;Vidaillet, 2007Vidaillet, , 2008a. A more visible and structured expression of this interest in In this respect, the purpose of this paper is threefold.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

“…This process should, therefore, in no way be limited to merely conveying information or decoding meaning, without the subject engaging itself in it -which Lacan refers to as 'empty speech' -but must also transform the relation between signifiers -which Lacan calls 'full speech', so as to make the subject of the unconscious and the Symbolic connect differently (Lacan, 1956(Lacan, /2006). This particular ethic does not, however, only apply to psychoanalysis in private practice: it can be exported to all discursive places, including in organizational settings; This has led some researchers to further develop Lacan's analytical technique for adapting executive coaching, consulting and management training to subjective as well as collective needs, and to conduct experiments in order to test these intervention mechanisms (Arnaud, 1998(Arnaud, , 2002(Arnaud, , 2003aDriver, 2010;Guinchard and Arnaud, 2011;Vanheule and Arnaud, 2016;Vanheule and Verhaeghe, 2004;Vidaillet and Vignon, 2010). The latter are intended to enable the working subjects to produce 'full speech', which alone has the capacity to bring about change (Driver, 2005;Vidaillet, 2007).…”

Section: Organizational Consultation Coaching and Management Traininmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Clinical and critical: The Lacanian contribution to management and organization studies

Arnaud

Vidaillet

2017

Organization

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Over the past 15 years, an increasing number of researchers have become aware of what the French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan's work can contribute to management and organization studies. The number of publications on the subject has significantly risen, at the risk of leading to some apparent heterogeneity of the topics covered and a potential distortion of the Lacanian concepts when used in management and organization studies. In this article, we aim to map this emerging field of research, bring to light the theoretical basis common to those works so as to make the Lacanian theory used to study management and organization more legible, and discuss the limitations and opportunities implied by such a Lacanian approach. We organize the published works around two main orientations, each helping to address specific issues: a clinical orientation, within organizational psycho-dynamics, and a critical orientation, related to critical management studies. KeywordsCritical management studies, Lacan, organizational psycho-dynamics, psychoanalysis Jacques Lacan's work began to be used for studying organizations and management at the turn of the 2000s. A number of publications by French, Belgian and English authors led the way (Arnaud, 1998(Arnaud, , 2002(Arnaud, , 2003aFleming and Spicer, 2003;Roberts, 2005;Vanheule et al., 2003;Vanheule and Verhaeghe, 2004;Vidaillet, 2007Vidaillet, , 2008a. A more visible and structured expression of this interest in In this respect, the purpose of this paper is threefold. Firstly, we aim to review most of the publications which, in the last twenty years, have revolved around Lacan and organizations. This will enable us to identify the various areas of inquiry linking these works, so as to map this emerging field of research, without forcing it into a rigid and ostensibly orderly representation (Contu et al., 2010;Jones, 2010).The task here is to develop around Lacan, what has already been developed in the field of organizational psychoanalysis around Freud and the post Freudians (Carr, 2002;Carr and Gabriel, 2001). Secondly, when reviewing this fairly recent literature, we intend to show why and how Lacanian concepts may be useful in exploring various theoretical perspectives and new ways of approaching practical issues in MOS. Thirdly, we propose to organize Lacan-inspired research around two major orientations that developed in distinct academic fields and with different objectives (Butler, 2008) despite some citation overlaps between both entities: the first orientation, of a clinical nature, pertains to organizational psycho-dynamics; the second, qualified as critical, relates to critical management studies (CMS). The very existence of this second orientation has much to do with the fact that Lacan's work has been disseminated far beyond the borders of analytical circles and particularly, outside France, in the academic philosophical arena, which it has entered with no particular link to the clinical practice of psychoanalysis (Badiou and Roudinesco, 2012).On the one hand, a ...

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 94%

Section: Organizational Consultation Coaching and Management Traininmentioning

confidence: 99%

Clinical and critical: The Lacanian contribution to management and organization studies

Arnaud

Vidaillet

2017

Organization

Self Cite

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“…It is at those moments also that a kind of energy and enjoyment are experienced, what Lacan termed jouissance (1988: 223), a libidinal feeling not the same as enjoyment (Fink, 2004: 157) but similar to the wholeness individuals felt in the womb where all their needs were met without even having to articulate any desire (Arnaud, 2003). Jouissance is associated with experiencing the power of unconscious desire (Lacan, 1977b: 218) and being liberated at least momentarily from the alienation of the imaginary (Lacan, 1977b: 216).…”

Section: Trust and Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

How trust functions in the context of identity work

Driver

2015

Human Relations

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The study develops a new perspective on trust in organizations by exploring trust in the context of identity work. An analysis of stories in which employees describe how they experienced when the employer violated their trust suggests that individuals draw on trust discourse to validate who they are. Using a psychoanalytically informed framework, the study examines the complexities of trust in the context of struggles with the conscious self and unconscious desire. Trust emerges as a placeholder for what is really wanted but impossible to attain. Based on this perspective, the study offers new insights on why individuals trust, why trust may be resilient, why trust may be engineered and how trust mirrors identity as an elusive and fleeting accomplishment.

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“…This theorizing was selected because it offers a focus on discourse suitable to the discursive nature of organizational identity (Brown, 2006;Brown and Starkey, 2000a;Hatch and Schultz, 2002;Whetten, 2006). Additionally, it has been shown as highly relevant to a deeper understanding of a number of organizational issues from a broad understanding of organizational dynamics to particular insights about leadership, power, stress and motivation (Arnaud, 2002;2003a;Arnaud and Vanheule, 2007;Jones and Spicer, 2005;Driver, 2005;Roberts, 2005;Vanheule, Lievrouw and Verhaeghe, 2003).…”

Section: Lacan and Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Further introductions are also provided elsewhere (e.g. Arnaud, 2002;2003a;Arnaud and Vanheule, 2007;Driver 2008;2009). …”

Section: Lacan and Identitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Struggling with Lack: A Lacanian Perspective on Organizational Identity

Driver

2009

Organization Studies

103

117

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The purpose of this paper is to contribute to research on organizational identity by developing a psychoanalytic perspective. In particular, the author draws on Lacanian theorizing to explore how organizational identity discourse is informed by imaginary constructions of subjectivity. It is proposed that the collective construction of coherent, unitary, and definably organizational identity discourse is validated by and validates conscious but illusory constructions of the self. The resulting discourse is inevitably disrupted by unconscious subjectivity and invariably fails. Therefore, the collective construction of fragmented, dynamic, and emergent organizational identity discourse is equally inevitable. While such discourse can be illusory, it also contains the opportunity for engaging in liberating struggles with identity as lack. The implications of this perspective for the theory and practice of organizational identity are discussed.

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A Coach or a Couch? A Lacanian Perspective on Executive Coaching and Consulting

Cited by 75 publications

References 13 publications

Clinical and critical: The Lacanian contribution to management and organization studies

Clinical and critical: The Lacanian contribution to management and organization studies

How trust functions in the context of identity work

Struggling with Lack: A Lacanian Perspective on Organizational Identity

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