A History of Group Study and Psychodynamic Organizations [Paperback]

Amy L. Fraher (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: October 2004 | ISBN-10: 1853437042 | ISBN-13: 978-1853437045 | Edition: 1st

Many people hold a piece of the puzzle of group relations, yet few people are able meaningfully to put them together. In this breakthrough study, Amy L. Fraher provides the most comprehensive account yet written of the history of institutes of group study. The book draws on original documents as well as extensive interviews with key practitioners. The result is a fascinating story of the complex dynamics of organizational life. Developing the construct of idea organizations - organizations designed to generate intellectual concepts, rather than to produce goods or services - Fraher examines the psychodynamic workings of the National Training Laboratories, Tavistock and A. K. Rice Institutes, as well as early psychoanalytic societies. She shows how the innovatory forces that energize these idea organizations can become the focus of inter-group rivalries, creating a cycle that puts the organization themselves at risk. Fraher details the cycle of idea organizations through the contributions of experts in the field such as David Armstrong, Gordon Lawrence, Isabel Menzies Lyth, Laurence Gould, Eric Miller, and Kathleen Pogue White, and others. She also uses A. K. Rice's previously unavailable field notes and director's reports to provide a documented overview of group relations theory and conference methodology not offered since Rice's own Learning for Leadership in 1965. This is an accessible and absorbing study, suitable both for experts and those new to the study of groups.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Amy L. Fraher, EdD is a Visiting Social Scientist at the Tavistock Institute in London, a retired US Navy Commander and a former airline pilot. She is Principal Consultant at Paradox and Company, San Diego, where her research interests include leadership, organizational behaviour, change management and systems psychodynamics.

Product Details

• Paperback: 209 pages
• Publisher: Free Association Books; 1st edition (October 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1853437042
• ISBN-13: 978-1853437045
• Product Dimensions: 8.9 x 5.9 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #2,848,542 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars What a colleague thought about the book, September 22, 2005

By 

L. Agatha Hupkens (Netherlands) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A History of Group Study and Psychodynamic Organizations (Paperback)

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to direct your attention to the Book that our colleague Dr. Amy Fraher wrote and which was published last year by Free Association Books, ISBN 1 85343 704 2. I enjoyed reading this book very much; I read it almost in one go and the history surprised me more than once! I can recommend it.

Amy Fraher has extensively researched and written a book about the roots of Group Relations conferences, how they were developed, and how they were disseminated all over the world, "the history of group relations, warts and all" as she writes in her prologue.

Besides this history of group relations conferences Dr. Fraher frames a theory about "idea" organisations as opposed to organisations whose primary goal is producing goods or services. As examples she describes the organisations which were dedicated to the development of psychoanalysis in different parts of the world, to organisations dedicated to the development of theories about behaviour in groups and then to organisations dedicated to developing and organising group relations conferences. Dr. Fraher shows how these organisations which were primarily started to enable original and new thinking later give rise to powerful emotional processes and power struggles between individuals, often resulting in splitting the organisations and ostracising new thinkers. Dr. Fraher postulates that "idea" organisations must be prepared to evaluate their primary goal and organisational structure after every 10 years in order to be able to keep up with new developments and not become stuck in strife, rivalry and conflict.

It is against this background of theory about "idea" organisations that she then describes the history of Group Relations conferences, the people and the organisations involved in them.

Meticulously tracing the history of Group Relations, she pays particular attention to the people who were so seriously involved in that development, how they came to the field and how their thinking developed over time. She has had access to files and paper that have been inaccessible to others uptil now, she has interviewed many wellknown names on both sides of the Atlantic to get the history from them as they remember it and she has done extensive research in papers and literature. I believe that her own professional background in the US Navy has helped her interpret and understand the background of Bion and so many others whose first steps in thinking and theory about groups and leadership developed during their war time work in the United Kingdom in a way that others without a military background may not have been able to.

The book shows that during all those decades there never was "one" view of how Group Relations Conferences should be, that there was debate, discussion, differences of opinion and diverging models. This book is a must for all those interested in the field of Group Relations Conferences and who are actively engaged in it.

Colleagual regards,

Lilian.

5.0 out of 5 stars A good foundation for progress, August 13, 2005

By 

Tom Michael (Erdenheim, PA USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: A History of Group Study and Psychodynamic Organizations (Paperback)

Amy Fraher has combined careful documentary evidence with revealing personal interviews to show the development of the study of organizations. It is a fascinating trip through the work of Freud and his followers, Kurt Lewin and the National Training Lab, Melanie Klein, the Tavistock researchers and W.R. Bion, Margaret Rioch and the A.K. Rice Institute. Her main thesis is that what she calls "idea organizations" go through a natural life cycle that includes vitality and growth on one hand and stagnation and decline on the other, and that it is necessary for such organizations to undergo transformations about every ten years if they are to flourish. This book was easy to read and hard to put down. It gave details of controversies and their resolution. While it is about a specific history, I found myself applying its insights to other idea organizations (such as universities and churches).

5.0 out of 5 stars A History of Group Study and Psychodynamic Organizations, August 9, 2005

By 

Brigid Nossal (Melbourne, Australia) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A History of Group Study and Psychodynamic Organizations (Paperback)

This book by Amy Fraher offers a fascinating history of the emergence of the Group Relations tradition after WWII and the establishment of the Tavistock Institute in London and the National Training Laboratories and the AK Rice Institute in the United States. By comparing this development with some of the history of psychoanalytic institutes, Amy Fraher profiles the various personalities involved, the changing ideologies and the splits and restructures that have shaped these organisations over the past 4-5 decades. She offers a compelling hypothesis about the nature of idea organisations and the forces that drive the need for restructure every ten years or so.

The book is engaging and easy to read. I couldn't put it down once I began. The Group Relations tradition was founded by a group of giants upon whose shoulders we stand. This book about its history is a must for the library of anyone interestd in this field.