Socioanalytic Methods

Socioanalysis is the study of groups, organisations, and society using a systems psychoanalytic framework: looking beneath the surface (and the obvious) to see the underlying dynamics and how these dynamics are interconnected. This book examines several of the methodologies used in socioanalytic work. Even though the beginnings of socioanalytic investigation lay in the mid-twentieth century, a broad look across several methodologies has not been done before, despite separate publications dealing with particular methods. In addition, several new methods have been developed in recent years, which the present work incorporates. Connecting all these methods is their aim of 'tapping into' the dynamic operation of what the author calls 'the associative unconscious' within and between social systems. The associative unconscious is the unconscious at a systemic level. Each of the methods discussed in this book accesses the associative unconscious in different ways.

Susan Long

Introduction: Socioanalytic methodology , Background , The associative unconscious , Work culture analysis and reflective space , Methods , Observing anxiety: a psychoanalytic training method for understanding organisations , The use of drawing as a tool in socioanalytic exploration , Socioanalytic interviewing , Social dreaming , Thinking organisations through photographs: the social photo-matrix as a method for understanding organisations in depth , Social dream-drawing: "Drawing brings the inside out" , OPUS Listening Posts: researching society , Organisational role analysis , Role biography, role history, and the reflection group , Diagnosing organisational work cultures: a socioanalytic approach , Group relations conferences , Socioanalytic dialogue , Wonder and socioanalysis , Using and creating socioanalytic methods