Modern Madness: The Hidden Link Between Work and Emotional Conflict [Paperback]

Douglas LaBier (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 1, 2000

More and more career professionals say they are dissatisfied with their lives. Depression, anxiety, and anger are common complaints. Working harder doesn't help. Many try to buy their way to happiness. Others turn to drugs and alcohol for escape. Either way, they are left feeling even emptier and more out of control.

Based on his landmark seven-year study of emotional lives of career professionals, psychoanalyst Douglas LaBier explores the range of conflicts and sheds provocative new light on the path to achieving success and personal fulfillment in the emotional battleground of the workplace.

Editorial Reviews

Review

"...offers sobering insight into the human costs of modern success." -- Daniel Goleman, The New York Times

About the Author

Douglas LaBier, Ph.D., directs the Center for Adult Development in Washington, D.C. A psychologist and writer, he conducts psychotherapy, consults to organizations, and conducts workshops and seminars on human development in the workplace and in personal lives.

Product Details

• Paperback: 268 pages
• Publisher: Backinprint.Com (April 1, 2000)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595089003
• ISBN-13: 978-0595089000
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.7 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,369,201 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Implications of Adapting to Maladaptive Work Environments, January 20, 2003

By A Customer

This review is from: Modern Madness: The Hidden Link Between Work and Emotional Conflict (Paperback)

This book was a recommended text in my Organizational Behavior class. I'll need a new copy because I have underlined and highlighted so much of the text! Dr. LaBier has deftly identified theoretical and practical "gaps" in the fields of clinical psychology, organizational psychology, organizational development and management consulting. The Big Question ... What type of organizational context/environment are individuals being encouraged to adapt to? The personal costs of so-called healthy adjustment to one's work environment often include suffering from symptoms of value conflicts, negative coping and overadapting? These symptoms are exacerbated if you are a healthy well-adjusted individual. They are significantly diminished if you are an individual whose daily interactions are already rife with maladaptive behaviors! Have you discovered that many managers and leaders seem to make others sick? Then you've been exposed to the individual that Dr. LaBier describes in great detail. The workplace winner could be a very disturbed individual whose mental aberrations are valued as strengths in our workplaces. Unchecked, these individuals spread malaise, low morale, mistrust and other damaging workplace dynamics.

One of the key paradoxes illuminated in this book... what are the implications for individuals and society when the maladaptive individual can adjust and flourish in a corporate (disturbed) environment and the healthy, adjusted person is depleted mentally, emotionally, physically and spiritually by the same (disturbed) environment? What are the responsibilities of organizational experts whose primary task is to develop or "fix" individuals or teams so they may successfully "adjust" to their disturbed work environments? There are positive and negative repercussions to the pursuit of career success, Dr. LaBier encourages his readers to question the assumption that adaptiveness equates to healthy functioning.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A classic, June 1, 2006

By 

calmly - See all my reviews

This review is from: Modern Madness: The Hidden Link Between Work and Emotional Conflict (Paperback)

Corporations often don't like to expose how workers are treated. That can make it extremely difficult, if you are seeking a job at a particular company, or looking for a job in a new career.

Labier, unexpectedly, uncovered damning evidence of what the modern work world can be like.

As a psychiatrist treating people in white-collar professionals who were bothered by their jobs, he used standard psychological tests as a quantitative tool. He hit upon the idea of going to the companies where these people to find out, using the same psychological tests, what the people who liked their jobs were like.

The results floored him. There was a significant difference but not in the direction he had expected: on a dominance-submissive scale, people who liked their white-collar corporate jobs tended to either be significantly more dominant or significantly more submissive.

Labier apparently made an effort to call this state of affairs to the governments attention. If you are an individual bothered by your white-collar job, it's possible you are facing the kinds of dominant or submissive co-workers Labier uncovered. When you throw in the downsizing, belittlement and growing gap between worker and executive compensation seen in the 1990's and 2000's, it isn't that hard to believe what Labier found, is it? So which comes first, do the corporate practices attracts the dominants and submissives or is it the other way around? Best to be as much out of the way as possible, perhaps.

At the least, it can be helpful to understand how psychologically unhealthly a corporate atmosphere can be - as confirmed using standard psychological tests by a psychiatrist testing inside corporations.