Inner and Outer Life at Work. The Roots and Horizon of Psychoanalytically Informed Work Life Research

»‚Innen‘ – und ‚Außenleben‘ in der Arbeitswelt. Ursprünge und Potenziale
einer psychoanalytisch informierten Arbeitsweltforschung«. The modern
labour market has increasingly put the inner working life on the agenda. This
stems from a number of societal changes: the knowledge society and its need
of personalised competences and work investments in welfare services, the
transformation from subject-object relationships to subject-subject relationships
and the emergence of the "learning organisations" and reflexive leadership.
All of this has been the subject of critical analyses tracing modern work
life identities, conflicts, organisational and societal structuration. Against this
background the accounts and conceptualisations of work life involving people
to people interactions offered by psychodynamic theories and methods take up
a pivotal position. Psychoanalytic organisational and work life research explores
how work, organisations and individuals are affected by psychic dynamics, the
influence of the unconscious in the forms of human development and interaction
situated in a societal context. Based on this substantial work I draw upon
two influential psychoanalytical positions – the British Tavistock position and
German psychoanalytic social psychology in order to situate and identify how
to understand the inner and outer life at work – in a generic display of concepts,
methods and epistemology.