FIRST DRAFT FOR PRESENTATION AT THE ISPSO 2010 ANNUAL MEETINGS
Elsinore, Denmark
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------POLICY MAKING AND ITS PSYCHOANALYTIC UNDERPINNINGS
BRUNO BOCCARA
World Bank Institute
NYU Psychoanalytic Institute
1. Introduction: Motivation
The paper attempts to incorporate psychoanalytically-informed thinking and technical
interventions when formulating and implementing country wide policies. This work is motivated
by an increasing recognition of the failure of policies, - e.g., foreign aid, financial crisis, etc. that at best, have not led to significant improvements, and at worst, have led to increased
political and sectarian tensions in many parts of the world. I propose that, in part, the source of
such difficulties can be better understood by incorporating psychoanalytically-informed
interventions at country level on the formulation and implementation of specific policies.
Furthermore, an evaluation of countries’ successful economic and social transformation often
seem to point to an ‘inflexion point’, as if suddenly something clicked at a level of a society that
allowed it to move forward. Economists and development practitioners have naturally focused on
identifying what it takes to engineer a virtuous economic cycle. The answers provided by
economics and political science are thorough and carefully point to all the necessary policy
prescriptions that are prerequisite to the transformation of a society. I believe that there is a
continuous back and forth feedback between economic and political conditions and a society’s
state of mind as far as its readiness for change. However, policy formulation cannot be the full
story. Often what is missing, and far more difficult to understand, let alone change, is the part
played by the nation’s psychology.
By relying on the rich theoretical foundations of psychoanalysis, as well as on the essence of the
profession, in terms of its non-judgmental and empathic ways of being, and applying these to
country policy dialogue, this paper can be thought as a reflection on country internalization and
ownership, or using Winnicott (1965)’s terminology, on a nation finding its ‘True Self’. In my
view, the ‘inflexion points’ that I have referred to above only occur when something clicks in the
1
sense that a nation is able, for a variety of circumstances, to move closer to the societal
equivalent of a ‘True Self’. The psychodynamics work components of country policy work
focuses precisely on underlying issues, precisely those that can derail policies, which may
prevent a nation from doing so. By using the terminology ‘True Self’, I am also signaling that
there is absolutely no implication that countries may be suffering from ‘pathologies’ which
would need to be addressed1. This point is important as policy makers may erroneously
associated psychoanalysis with a narrow focus on mental health interventions.
What follows motivates the thinking behind the proposed “Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic
Underpinnings” framework with what could be viewed as a textbook example of the framework,
the Argentina crisis of 2000.
Argentina was regarded as a highly successful country until 1914 as its economic performance
was on par with that of the most advanced economies in the world. The memory of this ‘golden
age’ has left an imprint into the Argentinean psyche and, in my view, the Argentinean society as
a whole has constructed a national romance of being a European-like nation2. This is, for
example, evidenced in the comparison between Buenos Aires and Paris since Argentineans like
to refer to their capital city as ‘the Paris of the Americas’. Furthermore, on several instances
during visits to the country, for example when hearing the very distinct accent or musicality with
which Spanish was spoken, I felt that societal fantasies, whether conscious or unconscious, of
‘detaching from the Latin American continent’ were communicated to me 3. Thus, we can
conceptually frame this specific aspect of Argentinean societal behavior as that of a country
needing to maintain an idealized representation of itself, even a grandiose fantasy. As discussed
in Section 3.1, the implication is that the Argentinean society will put in place social systems as
defenses to shield itself from the anxieties that emerge with the need and attempt to maintain this
fantasy.
As stated earlier, in my view, Argentina is a good illustrative example to make the case for
linkages that may exist between societal unconscious dynamics and policy making. From a
psychodynamic perspective, the adoption of a Currency Board in 1989 (with its guaranteed
convertibility of the Argentine Peso at equal parity to the US dollar) can be seen as a way to
1
This is in contrast to a long quote from Freud, taken from Civilization and its Discontent, in the conclusion where
reference is made to pathology of cultural communities.
2
As will be shown in Section 3.1., we are, in fact, referring to the internal representation that the citizens have of
their country or, if the illusion of being a European like nation has become less strong than in the past, the ideal
(internal) representation.
3
This is a less robust piece of data than actual statements as it relies on subjectivity. This ‘communication’ is the
equivalent of psychoanalytical subjective data since, as will be shown, the framework incorporates analytical
listening techniques in country level socio-analytical policy work.
2
revalidate, following hyperinflation and the collapse of the military dictatorship4, the idealization
of being a European-like nation. It is important to note here that we are not saying the policy
makers’ choice of exchange rate regime was primarily motivated by psychodynamics. Their goal
was stopping hyperinflation and reestablishing trust. However, a society functions
simultaneously ‘above and beneath the surface’ (meaning both at the conscious and unconscious
level, the ‘surface’ being the mental construct that ‘separates’ the conscious from the
unconscious) in the sense of being systematically impacted by both conscious and unconscious
aspects. Thus, what we are arguing instead is that the Currency Board likely played a role in
enabling the country regaining its pride by reversing a series of narcissistic injuries5. In fact, the
fixed convertibility was a huge gamble at the time as the central bank did not even have enough
reserves to effectively guarantee the convertibility. This implies that when the scheme was
initially established, the authorities took a bet on the faith of the Argentine population in the
sustainability of the scheme6. As soon as the Currency Board was established, the population not
only enjoyed macroeconomic stability (at least for a while until debt issues threatened
macroeconomic stability) but also an artificially high standard of living. Upper and middle
classes could easily, for example, afford shopping trips abroad. Seemingly adopting a living
standard commensurate with their internal representation, the threat of a collective narcissistic
injury receded and Argentina could once more bask in the glory of the ideal representation of
itself.
Sadly, fiscal issues resurfaced, ultimately leading to the largest sovereign default in history. It is
quite possible that identification with wealthier countries impeded the adjustment process since
forced fiscal tightening is inconsistent with an internal representation of wealth which is likely to
be associated with an absence, as the expression of a wish, of fiscal constraints. Regardless,
what is, in my view, near certain is that the abandonment of the Currency Board and resulting
devaluation of the peso was delayed precisely because it was not only a difficult adjustment in
relative prices but was also experienced as the abandonment of one of the essential social
4
These times were traumatic for Argentina, not only because of the economic collapse but also because of the
violence (e.g., disappearances during the ‘Dirty War’). Furthermore, the dictatorship ended with a narcissistic
injury to the nation, that of losing the Falkland war.
5
Dollarization, as opposed to using one’s own currency, may not have worked nearly as well as it could have been
experienced as a sign of failure as might, for example, have been the case in Ecuador in 1999 (abandonment of
one’s national currency) whereas the adoption of a strong new Peso became a psychological marker of a renewed
strong identity.
6
The faith of the Argentine population was driven by a strong desire not to see the scheme fail (hyperinflation can
quickly destroyed the fabric of a society) rather than a trust in government’s institutions. Thus, from a
psychodynamics perspective, it might also be the case that the narcissistic pride that accompanied the Currency
Board contributed to an equilibrium situation where agents, choosing to believe in the scheme, did not rush to
convert their Pesos to US dollars.
3
defenses operating in Argentina at the time, a social defense used to maintain a grandiose fantasy
and avoid a collective narcissistic injury7.
In fact, the Minister of Finance during this time period, D. Cavallo, who, as the original architect
of the Currency Board, had been brought back by President de la Rua to ‘rescue’ the economy,
instinctively must have felt this when he stated, at a loss of having failed to anticipate the
vigorous resistance to reform that he was facing, that ‘Argentina was drowning in a cup of
water’.
From a more theoretical perspective, the idea illustrated by the example on Argentina is that the
exchange rate regime policy had been ‘hijacked’ by unconscious social dynamics in the sense
that, by having become a social defense mechanism, it then served a purpose other than its purely
economic function. In my view, the intensity of the resistance to change was also due to this
psychodynamics role of the policy.
Thus, I believe that citizens will resist substantially more abandoning a defense, even if the
reasons behind the resistance remain unconscious and they appear to be resisting for seemingly
rational reasons, than they will resist accepting the more rational aspects of a policy. Regarding
the latter, there are often internal policy debates. Furthermore, it is sometimes possible to use
economics to set up compensating mechanisms for the losers of a reform. However,
psychodynamics aspects of policies cannot be part of the debate until they are acknowledged and
understood. Until venues are created to elaborate on these, it remains likely that policy
formulation and implementation will continue to be done in a vacuum, eliciting resistance to
change which will often be misdiagnosed.
This, in turn, suggests that a more formal link must be established between policy making and its
psychoanalytic underpinnings. Country-wide policy making takes places in an environment that
is necessarily influenced by societal dynamics (both conscious and unconscious), whether
country wide anxieties, social defense mechanisms, or inter-groups projections and introjections.
These dynamics are complicated and this paper argues that they need to be understood with
appropriate psychodynamics data collection techniques, and ideally addressed, with ‘therapeutic’
interventions at the level of an entire society.
So far, none of the work applying psychoanalysis to societal issues has touched upon countrywide policies. Instead until now, applications have been motivated more by building synergies
with political science, in particular when dealing with violent conflicts and their aftermath. On
the purely psychoanalytical side, the focus has also been on large group regression. However, it
is disagreements on policies, including economics with globalization’s impact on income
7
At this stage, the Argentina story can only be an hypothesis on my part as it was never fully validated, except
informally, with the kind of socio-analytical approach that this paper advocates. The point of the example is that
had the proposed framework been available and used in Argentina, it might have been possible to understand
better the social defenses, act on them through public dialogue, and, in the best case scenario, avoid a costly delay
in fiscal adjustment.
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distribution and uncertainty, that are the source of most societal tensions and, therefore, a fertile
ground for ‘beneath the surface’ dynamics. In other words, our connectedness is often
experienced through policies whose impact we share on a country wide, or even world-wide,
basis. Thus, there is a gap in the field which, naturally, provides an additional motivation for this
paper.
The paper is organized as follows:
1) Economics, as the theoretical construct aimed at predicting choices, is almost always
the social science framework on which policies are formulated. Therefore, the second
part of the paper reviews recent theoretical advances in economics to show how the
field is addressing behavioral issues in its discourse and theoretical models. It also
discusses whether there may be inherent resistances due to the way each field,
economics and psychoanalysis, is structured (their way of thinking and resulting
defenses), which prevent greater synergies between the two fields.
2) The third part of the paper argues that a principle for integrating psychodynamics and
policy work is needed. It suggests that, once basic needs are met, policies are likely to
be used to satisfy social defense needs rather than their stated objectives. The paper
also suggests what an analytical attitude at a country level might entail by arguing for
an empathic ability to be communicated to all subgroups in an attempt to have a
society move closer to being able of becoming aware of all of the key inter-groups
projections and introjections.
3) The fourth part of the paper reviews work that has already been done in analyzing
country level issues from a psychoanalytical perspective, including transmission
mechanisms of findings, and argues for resistance diffusion, the lowering of
resistance to acknowledging findings in a country-wide setting. It also reviews the
literature on large group dynamics and concludes that theoretical advances in
psychoanalysis since Freud’s pioneering work on group psychology can assist in
implementing the proposed “Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic Underpinnings”
framework. Finally, it suggests the adoption by policy makers of Socio Analytic
Policy Dialogue groups in order to construct the Psychodynamic Map of the country
defined by the mental representations, including ideal ones, for each subgroup of a
country as well as the inter-group projections and introjections. This can be followed
by policy specific work on associated anxieties and likely social defenses.
4) The fifth part of the paper concludes it by referring to Freud’s ‘Civilization and its
Discontents’ where the importance and some of the challenges of utilizing
psychoanalytic concepts and techniques with cultural communities were already
addressed. It highlights some of the key steps involved for fully implementing the
“Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic Underpinnings” framework.
We now proceed to Part 2 which is mostly focused on economics.
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2. Economics and Socio-analytical Approaches
2.1 Introduction
In assessing the field of economics after the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression,
The Economist8 argued that “Of all the economic bubbles that have been pricked, few have burst
more spectacularly than the reputation of economics itself”’. Although some prominent
economists, such as Robert Lucas of the University of Chicago 9, provided sensible arguments to
counter the harshest critics, for example Paul Krugman who had stated that much of the
macroeconomics of the last 30 years has been “spectacularly useless at best, and positively
harmful at worst”, there is nevertheless no doubt that that the field’s inability to predict the
current crisis, assess its far reaching consequences, and agree on policies lead to a loss of
credibility of its preponderant role in policy making.
Of course much of the knowledge from the field remains valid for policy formulation and
implementation with the profession remaining at the center of the policy debate. However, as
reflected by Akerlof and Shiller’s first sentence of ‘Animal Spirits’ (2009): ‘To understand how
economies work and how we can manage them and prosper, we must pay attention to the thought
patterns that animate people’s ideas and feelings, their animal spirits’, there now exists a much
greater awareness of the urgency to understand the dynamics that are affecting economies
worldwide. To this effect, Section 2.2 reviews recent advances in behavioral financial and
macroeconomics as a background to assessing possible synergies between economics and
psychoanalysis.
2.2 Behavioral Financial and Macroeconomics: Animal Spirits
Financial economics is an area where behavioral economics has been particularly active. As can
be expected, the majority of behavioral issues of interest to financial economics are related to
assets, for example the speed at which liquid markets can dry or whether the correlation between
asset prices remain constant. As such, these behavioral issues not only touch upon individual
psychology indirectly but also from a relatively simplistic perspective. This is, for example,
illustrated by behavioral arguments such as: individuals contribute to the creation of financial
bubbles by quickly extrapolating positive trends into the future and to the rapid price decline
once the bubble bursts by becoming suddenly risk averse when facing losses. In light of the
paper’s focus on psychodynamics and countrywide policy making, it is not necessary to review
the ongoing debate on the efficient market hypothesis of financial economics10 and we can
proceed to macroeconomics.
Thus, we now turn to the main arguments of this section by discussing Akerlof and Shiller’s
‘Animal Spirits (2009). The publication of this book could be a huge window of opportunity to
8
The Economist, “What went wrong with Economics”, July 18, 2009.
9
See The Economist, August 8, 2009.
10
The briefing on the state of economics in the July 18, 2009 issue of The Economist provides additional details.
6
practitioners aiming at integrating behavioral issues, including large group dynamics as seen
from the perspective of psychoanalysis, to country wide policy work. The book, since it is
written by two prominent economists including a Nobel Prize winner, has the credibility required
to convince otherwise reluctant policy makers that it is essential to incorporate sound, and at a
sufficiently deep level, behavioral analysis into their work. The title of the book, which is taken
from Keynes ‘description of psychological forces influencing markets, reveals a lot about
economics’ readiness to think about macro psychological issues. It is noteworthy that the authors
refer to Keynes (1936), an author whose creativity was fuelled by the seismic event of the time,
the Great Depression, as if they wanted to signal the need for an equally far reaching intellectual
revolution. At the same time, by identifying with the founder of macroeconomics and the
greatest economist of all times, they could also be signaling that the field, which views itself as
the most complete and rigorous theory of social choice, may not yet be fully ready to incorporate
paradigms and ways of thinking from other disciplines.
The book elegantly describes five animal spirits (confidence, fairness, corruption and antisocial
behavior, money illusion, and stories) and convincingly explains how these can influence
economic outcomes on issues as varied as inflation and unemployment trade-off, savings,
depression, and persistence of poverty. However, conceptually, the authors consider these animal
spirits as given and, therefore, do not elaborate on their exact definition (s), explanations as to
why and how they appear and matter, and on ways (e.g., policies) to address them directly.
Regardless, it is hard to see how these five animal spirits can conceptually all be in the same
category since they are each quite different theoretically from one another. Confidence, a rather
vague macro construct, is related to a society’s perception of the direction in which it is going;
fairness is a function of individual’s (object) relationship to others; corruption and anti social
behavior are a function of the strength of social norms (society’s super ego); money illusion is a
cognitive psychology issue of judgment and information processing; while stories are a broad
concept related to internal representation of one’s own environment or situation. In fact, as the
authors choose not to rigorously define these animal spirits, they focus instead on identifying
their manifestations. For example, they cite difficulties in getting credit as a manifestation (since
banks are reluctant to lend) that confidence is low.
The discussion on corruption illustrates the points made above particularly well. For example, in
their discussion of the Savings and Loan (S&L) crisis, the authors describe in details the specific
corruption mechanism (once again, a focus on a manifestation of the animal spirit) that led to the
recession but do not address behavioral issues such as how individuals’ internal representation of
government made it, in turn, acceptable to them to consider government to be a legitimate target
of their greed. In a similar fashion to what the economist Paul Collier does in his seminal work
on civil war, a major behavioral issue which he explains from an economic perspective by
balancing the payoffs to engaging in a conflict with the costs and ease of doing so, they explain
corruption, with a rational agent model, by limiting themselves to a cost benefit analysis of it
(e.g., perceived penalties lower if enforcement is lax). As a consequence, socio-analytical issues,
such as what corruption represents or what defensive role it might play, cannot be part of their
analysis. Their analysis of Enron is also from the perspective of a rational agent. This is in
7
contrast to the socio-analytical approach developed by Long (2008), for whom the driving
factors behind Enron include perverse greed through denial and the maintenance of an illusion
through perversion as well as collusive denial (with the auditors)11. Finally, the authors rightly
consider that cultural changes are part of animal spirits. As such, they also get thrown into some
sort of black box as if anything outside economics which might not explained through technical
and elegant mathematical models had no formal place in the field. However, as shown by Stein
(2009), even in cases of extremely profound social ramifications, animal spirits can be
nevertheless analyzed with meaningful results. For example, Stein (2009) argues that the
collapse of a culture brought about by the demise of communism led to triumphalism in capitalist
societies with a strong push towards deregulation in a manic response to prove the superiority of
their economic system. Thus, to conclude, powerful unconscious large group dynamics at a level
of an entire society, for example Bain (2009)’s consideration of the business cycle as a cultural
form of manic depression, are not part of the behavioral macro economics framework that is
proposed by the authors.
The authors conclude the first part of their book by asking whether economics might be
influenced by stories. The way this point is argued highlights how new this line of thinking is to
the field whereas it is the norm in socio-analytical work which, by nature, gives a lot of
importance to mental representations and fantasies, whether conscious or unconscious. The
discussion on the history of economic depressions illustrates how a psychoanalytically informed
understanding of the events could contribute to the kind of economic analysis that is provided by
the authors. The authors argue that animal spirits, in particular issues of fairness and corruption,
were behind the crises of 1890’s and 1930’s. This implies that changes in narratives, which can
have a strong impact on policies, should, if at all possible, be anticipated. This is, as will be
argued later on in this paper, precisely what a Socio Analytic Policy Dialogue group would aim
at doing. The identification of the likely social defenses is a tool that can possibly prevent
adverse changes in social dynamics. Furthermore, the discussion on how past memories (the
bank panics of 1873 and 1884) contributed to renewed ones is a phenomenon that is known in
the socio-analytic field, that of reawakened chosen trauma12. Again, these traumas and the risk
that they carry for economic policies can be identified by socio-analytical country work. For
example, in the case of Bolivia, major historical (e.g., Bolivia’s loss to Chile of its access to the
sea) or economic (e.g., Bolivia’s hyperinflation in the mid 1980’s) events that are etched in the
collective internal representation of a nation are precisely the potential reservoir for these types
of traumas13. The discussion on overheating economy could, if approached from a socio-analytic
perspective, eventually go further by also looking for unconscious collusions that can contribute
11
See Long (2008), p. 36-37.
12
This concept is developed in Volkan (2004). Note that the chosen trauma here is self-administered as opposed to
being manipulated by a perverse leader.
13
Section 4.1 analyzes in more detail the Bolivian chosen trauma associated with its loss of access to the sea.
8
to certain phases of the economic cycle continuing (e.g., corruption and relaxation of controls as
confidence and optimism explode)14. The authors note that the deep economic malaise that set in
during the 1930’s was rarely discussed by economists who tend to ignore assessments of
psychology that cannot be easily measured. They continue by noting that confidence, and the
economy itself, were not restored until World War II completely changed the dominant story of
people’s lives. This is an important point as it suggests that, when a country experiences adverse
circumstances, one may need to evaluate whether past memories can lead to self-fulfilling
prophecies whereas destructive events are unconsciously ‘created’ in response to unconscious
beliefs that they are required in order for the society and the economy to repair itself15.
Thus, as illustrated above, a socio-analytic approach may allow for a better grasp of the nature of
these animal spirits and the way they operate. Nevertheless, at the macro level, economics and
policy making still seem reluctant or unable to incorporate concepts from psychoanalysis when
dealing with these issues. However, although the same conclusion may still hold for
microeconomics, the recognition that rational models are not psychologically unrealistic has lead
to far reaching theoretical advances in the field. These developments are reviewed in Section 2.3.
2.3 Behavioral microeconomics
Behavioral microeconomics focuses on the consequences of irrational actions as opposed to
explaining what leads to them. This is an important point as it implies a natural boundary
between economics and psychology, something which is often overlooked when assessing each
field’s role and their complementarities. Thus, with its primary emphasis on predicting choices
once the psychological state of mind is given, behavioral microeconomics draws mostly from
cognitive psychology and behavioral experiments. This approach may initially appear too
simplistic if one overlooks that economics does not aim at explaining what caused the
psychological traits (the boundary issue mentioned above). As a consequence, it can also be
disconcerting, at first, to psychoanalysts since their emphasis and mode of inquiry are drastically
different16.
For example, Ariely (2008) reports on a set of often startling behavioral experiments17 (often
designed and conducted by the author and his team of researchers) to demonstrate that
14
This is the approach taken by Bain (2009).
15
Ideas of ‘rebirth fantasies’ are discussed in Stapley and Rickman (2009).
16
Psychoanalysis has, however, shown increased interest in neurosciences. See, for example, Solms (1995).
Furthermore, it has also been incorporated work from infant observations and attachment theory. See, for
example, Ainsworth et al (1978) and; Bowlby (1969).
17
For example, one of the experiments shows that people who order publicly and sequentially (e.g., as customary
in a restaurant) take into account how their order is ‘perceived’ by others and use that information to signal
individuality (or conformity).
9
individuals are ‘predictably irrational’. The work is used to infer conditions (based upon the
ways the experiments are designed) under which behaviors, judged to be suboptimal to an
individual’s welfare, can be modified. As such, it is particularly relevant for designing regulatory
policies but less applicable to macro policies that may be impacted by anxieties and social
defenses. Note, however, that the approach is based on creating conditions to replicate the
behavior that individuals ought to have based on rational welfare considerations. The approach
ignores what may be secondary benefits derived from certain choices (e.g., signaling a character
trait) as preferences are only defined according to certain attributes (e.g., taste for a food
product). More generally, the approach cannot capture that satisfying defensive needs does
matter and can, even consciously, influence decisions. Unlike economics, psychoanalysis is
aimed at identifying and understanding what Ariely call the forces (e.g., emotions, relativity,
social norms). As an economist, Ariely considers ‘irrationality’ driven outcomes as erroneous.
This underscores how the unconscious, which is unobserved and whose derivatives are difficult
to decipher, is often inadvertently confused with irrational.
As illustrated above, cognitive psychology proved useful in enabling economics to give attention
to the role of emotions in judgment and decision making. As summarized by Kahneman (2002)
in his Nobel lecture, the seminal work of Kahneman and Tversky emphasized that, since framing
affects choice, utility of decision outcomes should not be determined solely by the final state
(e.g., wealth) since it is reference dependent. Their research was guided by the fact that most
judgments and choices are made intuitively and that the rules that govern intuition are similar to
that of perception, leading them to conclude that the traditional separation between beliefs and
preference in analysis of decision making was not appropriate.
It is, however, the ground breaking work of Benabou and Tirole, with some of the most
innovative ideas summarized in Benabou and Tirole (2003b) that has gone the furthest in
exploring behavioral areas traditionally considered to be outside the realm of economics. The
main behavioral aspects and deviations from rationality that the authors incorporate in their
models are that self-knowledge, will power, and recollection are all imperfect. This, in turn,
requires models to incorporate learning about oneself in an adaptative fashion. These models
assume conflicts between temporal selves as opposed to conflicts between internal agencies (Id,
Ego, and Superego) or with internalized objects. This is an important limitation as it precludes
modeling some of the fundamental aspects of psychoanalysis18. For example, there is only one
known set of preferences and the agent always acts in what his assumed to be his best interest.
Furthermore, the models, which are based on cognitive psychology, cannot incorporate object
relations driven behaviors such as individuals acting on behalf of others (as a result of projective
identification). However, when replacing strategic games (e.g., manipulation of information)
18
Surprisingly, as they are undoubtedly among the most outstanding and creative economists, the authors seem to
adopt quickly some negative stereotypes about psychoanalysis. For example, they describe Freudian repression
into the unconscious as the now unfashionable archetype (or caricature) of description of behaviors aimed at
denying or forgetting ego-threatening information. See, Benabou and Tirole (2003b).
10
between temporal selves by strategic games between two different individuals (in economic
terms, a principal and an agent), the models are able to discuss intrinsic versus extrinsic
motivation as well as acts of undermining others.
In spite of the ground breaking nature of the work reviewed above, there remains a risk that some
of the model’s conclusions be too simplistic from a purely psychological approach, especially if
one hopes to extract from the models policy recommendations (in essence therapeutic
conclusions) on topics that clearly touches on areas that have been traditionally excluded from
economics. For example, impulses (or drives) are held in check by the fear of losing faith in
oneself which would lead to a further collapse in self-discipline. With this kind of assumption on
personal rules, Benabou and Tirole (2004) frame anorexia or workaholism as rigid behaviors
resulting from individuals being afraid of appearing weak to themselves so that every decision
becomes a test of willpower, even if self-restraint is actually harmful. This is, at best, an
explanation that may hint at ways, through cognitive psychology, to correct behavior, but is not
one that would be provided by psychoanalysts, whether they adopt conflict determined, object
relations, or self-psychology conceptual frameworks. Similarly the work described in Benabou
and Tirole (2003a) attempts to explain what they call ego bashing, the denigration the other,
through the narrow prism of strategic dominance.
Finally, there has also been microeconomics research exploring social issues such as identity,
beliefs, and social conducts. The research builds on Akerlof and Kranton (2000, 2005) who, for
the first time in economics, worked with the concept of identity to capture the fact that decisions
can be influenced by social categories (whose group does one belong to) and social norms (or
beliefs). This is extremely interesting to the field of organizational behavior as the models are
able to capture workers motivation and response to incentives. However, the work cannot model
unconsciously driven behaviors such as those analyzed for organizations in Long (2008) and for
large groups in Volkan (2006). This is important point since it implies that policy
recommendations, derived from these models, aimed at addressing unconsciously driven
perverse behaviors cannot be adequate since the models themselves do not capture and explain
these behaviors. Other examples of microeconomics research on social issues include Benabou
and Tirole (2006) where heterogeneity in individual’s degrees of altruism and greed combined
with a concern for social reputation allows the authors to model social interactions, such as how
the prominence of contributions encourages pro-social behavior whereas the provision of
rewards discourages it. Finally, there is work on beliefs, also by Benabou and Tirole (2007). The
approach chosen is to consider identity as beliefs about oneself. All identity investments (e.g.,
reaffirming one’s beliefs) and responses to threats of loss of identity are based on an inference
model about signaling to oneself and others who one is. Again, this has limitations since it is
difficult to model identity formation and reactions under threat without specifying underlying
anxieties and incorporating object relations. For example, the model has essentially only two
alternatives, whether or not to invest in identity formation. Under this framework, rioting youths
burning down their neighborhood becomes a disinvestment whereas he could be instead in
11
response to object relations, for example the need to have enemies as recipient of a disavowed
part of the self or as a form of communication that one’s environment is being viewed as
sullied19.
Thus, this section has shown that theories in behavioral economics have generally retained the
basic architecture of the rational model, adding assumptions about cognitive limitations designed
to account for specific anomalies. The introduction of behavioral imperfections into the classical
paradigm of economics20 goes a long way towards reconciling it with a large body of work from
psychology, in particular cognitive psychology. There are still lots of challenges, in particular
navigating between hypothesis intensive (tailoring a specific behavior that one wants to model)
and rationality intensive models. Furthermore, as has been argued above, it seems that certain
behaviors, in particular the group ones that can be understood by referring to object relations
concepts of psychoanalysis, cannot be studied in a meaningful way through economics as the
policy implications would, most likely, either be too simplistic or inappropriate. Having
reviewed both behavioral macroeconomics and microeconomics, we are now ready to discuss
cross fertilization between economics and psychoanalysis, the topic of Section 2.4.
2.4 Cross Fertilization between Economics and Psychoanalysis
The difficulties in cross fertilization between the two fields is likely to be due, on one side, to the
mode of thinking of economics, in particular the elegance and consistency of the models favored
by the profession, and, on the other, to the seemingly opaque and abstract language (more
specifically, how it is might be perceived by outsiders) of psychoanalysis.
To better understand this issue, we first discuss the reasons why economics has not yet
succeeded in incorporating the animal spirits discussed in Section 2.2 in its discourse. To do so,
we apply the kind of behavioral inquiry suggested by Akerlof and Shiller (2009) not to the
economy but rather to the field of economics itself. In other words, we ask what kind of animal
spirits are driving economics in order to identify the kind of defenses that may, as a result, exist
in the field. In my view, the mental representation that the field has of itself and, more
importantly, what it identifies with is that of becoming the only valid social science in terms of
its ability to develop and model a theory of human choice. The field has internalized prioritizing
research and policy recommendations derived from elegant mathematical models (naturally with
as few assumptions as needed but with the greatest predictive power). These models can become
seductive to the point that the esthetics of the technique can acquire greater importance than the
theory itself. Furthermore, in spite of theoretical advances in the field emphasizing deviations
19
Volkan (2006) describes the clutter and dirtiness of the refugee camps in Georgia, ex-USSR, and comment how
the environment is used to express their regression to an oral/anal world with the dirt becoming an expression of
helpless rage for the world to see.
20
For example, the introduction of only one simple deviation from rationality, hyperbolic discounting (heavily
discounting the future) allows for models to become far closer to psychological reality. See, Ainslie (2003).
12
from rationality, the models remain, almost instinctively, inspired by rationality as they are
almost always driven by optimizing individuals, often involved in strategic games, and with
perfect knowledge of their preferences21. This is, however, not the way the unconscious works.
In any case, most economists and policy makers have limited awareness or understanding that
psychoanalysis offers tools to understand these animal spirits. Furthermore, the psychoanalytic
method of inquiry is often considered by economists and policy makers as lacking scientific rigor
which leads to increased resistance on their part. Thus, it is as if economists were defending
against the kind of intellectual inquiry adopted by psychoanalysis since it is alien to the way they
want to view themselves as behavioral scientists. This might explain why Akerlof and Schiller
(2009) adopted an ambiguously defined view of animal spirits, as if these were beyond the reach
of rational thinking and modeling.
Furthermore, as argued in Section 2.3, even if microeconomics has been unusually innovative in
its behavioral research and already developed powerful models that are far more psychologically
realistic than has ever been the case in economics, there remains areas where the models are
unable to capture some of the complexities of human behaviors, in large part due to the
necessary restrictions imposed by the modeling framework of economics. As a result, there are
important group dynamics, in particular the ones that are best captured by object relations,
which, in my view, can be best evaluated with a socio-analytic approach. This implies that,
although there exist greater complementarities than what had been originally thought between
economics and psychology, in particular cognitive psychology, the two fields of economics and
psychoanalysis should be seen as complements rather than substitutes.
There remains a risk that, with all its successes and prestige (e.g., the only social science with a
Nobel Prize), the field of economics may still be (unconsciously) attempting to justify that it
should be the only valid theory of choice. As such, it could fall prey to triumphalism as an
expression of an omnipotence fantasy, that of being the ‘chosen’ field. There are cases where it
might be trying to explain too much, without relying on advances made by other disciplines and,
in particular, psychoanalysis. This might, for example, be the case in macroeconomics with
attempts at explaining the persistence of poverty with economics arguments alone or, as stated in
Section 2.3, the case in microeconomics when modeling anorexia or youth violence.
Naturally, it is not only the field of economics which may have resistance to cross fertilization on
policy work but also the field of psychoanalysis. Thus, we now turn to the second part of our
evaluation of the obstacles to cross fertilization between the two fields. The arguments developed
in what follows draw on Eisold (2010).
Psychoanalysis which achieved acceptance over the century of its existence and undeniably
infiltrated the entire culture is now, possibly more so in the United States than in Europe,
experiencing a decline. This is mostly due to shifting behaviors, in part as a consequence of
21
There are naturally some deviations from this as shown in the latter part of this section where recent and far
reaching advances in behavioral economics, however essentially all driven by cognitive psychology, are reviewed.
13
globalization and the resulting increase in social anxieties22. Furthermore, as argued by Eisold
(2010), the field of psychoanalysis bears some of the blame for this decline as it is also due to an
early massive idealization of the founder of the field, which led to authoritarian structures in
psychoanalytic institutes as well as to a history of splits and rivalries triggered by envy23.
Psychoanalysis brings to patients and practitioners a uniquely profound understanding of the
human psyche that is unparalleled and very hard to convey to anyone that is not familiar with the
field. Furthermore, its mode of thinking is extremely abstract (complex reassessment of meaning
of unconscious derivatives). Thus, like economics but for almost completely opposite reasons,
psychoanalysis may also be suffering from perceptions of being too exclusive, intellectually
complex, and even out of touch with the realities of today’s world.
However, as argued by Eisold (2010), this is not the complete story. The confidence crisis
concerns more choices of therapeutic intervention rather than the questioning of the ubiquity of
the unconscious. In fact, the field is now occasionally, and often with great success, applied to
organizational behaviors and leadership, as shown, for example, by Gould (2009) and Kets de
Vries (1984). Although these forays outside traditional psychoanalysis are still rare mainstream
analysts, these attitudes are changing fast and interest could continue to grow in undertaking
psychoanalysis informed research and applied work in management, economics, and political
science. In order to do so successfully, the different disciplines will have to not only recognize
that the unconscious is everywhere but also be comfortable with what may be an alien way of
working as it requires the capacity to tolerate uncertainties and accept that some things will
remain unknown since the unconscious emerges from a reflective and abstract process as
opposed to the traditional logic of exact sciences. As further develop by Eisold (2010), under
these conditions, a rich tradition of interdisciplinary collaborative work could develop to address
complex and urgent social issues24.
Thus, I believe that there can be strong complementarities between policy making and
psychoanalysis. This however, requires at the minimum that policy makers become aware of the
existence and fundamental importance of social systems as defense against anxieties, the
motivating topic of Part 3.
3.Basic Principles for Psychoanalytic Based Country Level Policy Making
Section 3.1 reviews the fundamental concepts of social defenses and projective identification,
applying them to the country level. The section is a prerequisite to (i) stating a principle, the
22
These societal anxieties are described in Stapley (2006a) and in Stapley and Rickman (2009).
23
These envy driven splits are analyzed by Long (2008).
24
Eisold (2010) provides a few examples where this work has already been done, and often with great success. The
most known application in political science is the work of Volkan (1997, 2004, and 2006).
14
Sequencing Principle, which should contribute to bridging the gap between psychodynamics and
policy making; and (ii) showing what an ‘Analytical Attitude’ at a Country Level might entail.
3.1 Social Systems as Defense Against Anxieties and Projective Identification
The concept of social systems as defense against anxieties is absolutely essential to
understanding group dynamics, including in the case of large groups, and can be usefully applied
to socio-analytic based country work to understand economic and political developments. I
consider it to be one of two fundamental concepts (the other one being projective identification,
more precisely, the behavioral implications of as acting on behalf of somebody else or of a
group) that country leaders and policy makers should be aware of in order to better understand
societal dynamics.
The concept itself was first described in Jacques’ seminal paper (1955) and applied to work
organizations by Menzies Lyth (1960) in her landmark case study of nurses in a hospital. The
main idea is that the needs of members of a group to deal with anxieties lead to the development
of socially structured defense mechanisms, which end up becoming elements in the structure,
culture, and mode of functioning of the group. The social system develops over time as a result
of collusive interaction, often unconscious, between members of the group. The theory of social
defenses is reviewed in Czander (1993) and Stapley (2006b). As elaborated in Czander (1993),
“The general position is that social defenses are nothing more than a collectively agreed upon
process, similar to shared beliefs and values; however defenses are assumed to be unconscious.
The precondition for the development of a social defense is the collective experience of
anxiety…This is accomplished through the interplay of conscious and unconscious affect, that is,
a collusion where members unconsciously internalize the potential of the defense in reducing
anxiety.”25 As Menzies Lyth (1988) explains, belonging to a group affects behaviors as
individuals introject its characteristic defenses and share some common beliefs and values.
Although the defenses are a necessary adaptative response to the underlying anxieties, they
often, as shown in Kernberg (1980), impoverish the group because of their regressive nature. The
defenses are also a source of resistance to change. Therefore, as stated by Menzies Lyth (1960):
“Recommendations or plans for change that seem highly appropriate from a rational point of
view are ignored, or do not work in practice. One difficulty seems to be that they do not
sufficiently take into account the common anxieties and the social defenses… Effective social
change is likely to require an analysis of the common anxieties and unconscious collusions
underlying the social defenses.”
25
See Chapter 4, “The Relationship between Intrapsychic Structure and Organizational Structure” in Czander
(1993).
15
Although the concept has almost exclusively been applied to work place organizations, it can be
extended to society and its culture, as suggested by Boccara (2009) 26 and Stapley (2006a,
2006b). In particular, Stapley (2006b) reviews the role of society as a holding environment
which, he argues, should also be looked at as an extension of the notion of maternal holding
environment developed by Winnicott (1971)27. As such, citizens of a country view society as a
holding environment which can provide, assuming that they have enough trust in their
institutions, a level of psychological comfort free of major anxieties. Naturally, the concepts of
Winnicott cannot be straightforwardly extended to an entire society since, unlike in the infant
mother dyad, citizens have access to a multitude of holding environments (e.g., family, work
place, community of interest) and can, therefore, survive in a society that is not ‘good enough’28.
One of the main reasons for using psychoanalytic thinking at the societal level is that it allows us
to conceptualize citizens’ ambivalence towards society and their use of defenses. As is well
known from psychoanalysis, when members of a group experience anxiety, they will often resort
to regressed defenses such as introjection, projection, and splitting. These defenses are described
in Laplanche and Pontalis (1967).
Thus, it is proposed that country wide socio-analytic based work relies on two fundamental tasks,
that of identifying:
(1) The internal representations that citizens have of their country (how they view their
country) and the kind of nation that they are aspiring to (their ideal); and
(2) The inter-groups projections and introjections (how subgroups in the country view
others and how they are viewed by others) and their behavioral implications.
This is referred to the Psychodynamic Map of a country.
We now proceed to illustrate the concepts above with examples taken from the United States,
Russia, the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea, Sub-Saharan Africa, and the State of Israel.
The United States example is an interesting case of inter-groups projections and introjections
shown in Eisold (2010) who reports on how references to Democrats and Republicans’
respective metaphors of families (their respective internal representation of the ideal family) and
26
In this paper, Boccara (2009) applies the concept of social systems of defenses against anxieties to aid
organizations to explain aid effectiveness issues and suggests that the concept be applied at the country level to
understand collusions between aid donors and recipient countries and, more generally, to reflect, based on the
idea of projective identification at a country level, how a country may feel induced to act in a certain way on behalf
of others.
27
A good introduction to Winnicott’s work is Winnicott (1971). Winnicott’s holding environment, described in
Winnicott (1945), is the psychic space between the mother and infant. It allows the child's transition to becoming
more autonomous. The failure of the mother to provide a sufficiently good holding environment (a mother which
is not ‘good enough’) leads to False Self disorders, as described in Winnicott (1965).
28
‘Good enough’ is naturally used in the Winnicott sense as referred to in the footnote above.
16
assumptions as to how these might be projected and, in turn, internalized may help towards
understanding the genesis of the competing political platforms29. In this specific case, it is argued
that the projections and introjections are, in a large part, determined by the framing of the issue.
Note that in this specific case, the information available does not allow us to conclude if there is
projective identification involved (I would assume that it is most likely the case) since the
emphasis is placed on the framing of the message rather than on the behaviors themselves.
Another example is that of Russia and its desire to modernize. In a briefing on Russia, The
Economist30 reports how the entire country, and particularly its leaders, seem to have internalize
the notion that only a top-down authoritarian approach can successfully spur innovation and
creativity and, as a result, transform’s Russia’s economy. Although this argument may, in part,
reflect a political calculation to maintain the status-quo in the distribution of power, it is also
likely that deeper psychological forces are influencing the debate. As stated in The Economist,
“In Russia’s history, it is Peter the Great and Stalin that are considered the great modernizers
rather than Alexander II, who abolished serfdom, or Mr. Gorbachev, who opened up the
country.”. Therefore, it is quite possible that the ‘Russia in the mind’, which is influencing both
the leaders and the citizens, is leading to policy orientations that could very well be selfdefeating. Thus, this case is an example of internal representations, both the existing one (past
memories and possible idealization of an authoritarian state) and the ideal one (a catching up
story through innovation).
The third example on the Democratic People’s Republic of Korea is based on Myers (2010)31
who analyzes public propaganda messages from the government of Kim Jong Il, the personality
cult, and the country’s romance (shared myths) to construct what the mental representations of
the North Koreans might be. This is important as these representations, if understood properly,
should help predict what a country’s future actions will be. In the case of North Korea, Myers
argues that the shared myth is that of a pure and child-like innocent race that is persecuted by
outsiders, whether Chinese, Japanese, or American. Describing the regime as ‘state-sponsored
infantilism’, he concludes that there is a natural need for a protective leader and shows how Kim
Jong Il can be seen as an hermaphrodite parental figure, often represented tucking children in
bed. Unsurprisingly, he is often referred to ‘Mother General’.
The fourth example on Sub-Saharan Africa is used to introduce country level projective
identification, a concept that is elaborated in greater details towards the end of this section. As
already argued in Boccara (2009), the economic failure of some countries in Sub-Saharan Africa
can be interpreted as if these particular countries themselves refused to develop. This, at first, can
29
In Chapters 2 and 7, Eisold (2010) discusses the work of Lakoff, a linguist, who focuses on the link between the
ways issues are framed and the ways we think about them.
30
The Economist, March 13, 2010
31
See also, The Economist, February 27, 2010
17
seem far-fetched but highly respected African scholars, such as Etounga-Mangelle (1991) or
Kabou (1991) have written, in what I consider to be ground breaking work on aid and Africa,
about this refusal to develop. From a socio-analytic perspective, there could be several
explanations for this. For example, poverty might become an internalized component of a
nation’s identity, maybe more so if the nation feels humiliated. There may also be unconscious
collusion between western and some African countries whereas these may unconsciously fulfill a
role on behalf of the West, in the sense that the perceptions of their performance (poverty,
violent civil wars, pandemics, etc.) can become a way to validate other countries sense of
superiority or shield them from narcissistic injuries. It also provides a vehicle for generosity and
acts of reparation from the West32. Without further validation, these ideas should only be
considered hypothetical at this stage. However, they serve to illustrate the potential explanatory
power, as a complement to approaches from other fields, of socio-analytical policy based work.
It also shows how unconscious large group dynamics can have adverse consequences, in other
words that social defenses can be extremely costly.
Finally, we conclude with a fifth example on Israel which, in my view, illustrates particularly
well how social systems as defense against anxieties can operate at a national level. It is
impossible to assess Israel’s unconscious dynamics without referring to the Holocaust as a
starting point. Bar-On (1989) writes: “As an Israeli, I live in a victim’s culture. The Holocaust is
still an open wound for the many people around me. More than one quarter of the population has
been affected, directly or indirectly… Like other children of my generation, I inherited this
‘black and white’ view of the world: the inhumane versus the humane, the victimizer versus the
victim… We must be strong so that no one can do it to us again.” For the purpose of the
arguments of this paper, I will abstract from the widely researched field of Jewish identity and
victimization and, therefore, use the Holocaust as a single proxy for all traumas, abstracting from
the important ideas surrounding the notion of cycle of Holocausts which are analyzed in Stein
(1987)33. The conclusions would not be altered.
Schematically, the traumatic experiences resulted in a deeply felt annihilation anxiety (partly
unconscious and defended against) which Stein (1987) summarizes by: “each generation of Jews
everywhere feels that it is the last”34 as well as guilt in the sense that if things go wrong in the
world, it is as if there was an expectation to be blamed. The collision of this nationwide mind
structure with the country’s geography and today’s geopolitics, in particular the feeling of being
32
These hypotheses are elaborated further in Boccara (2009).
33
The fundamental role played by traumas in the Jewish psyche is well captured by a Wiesel, referred to in Chapter
4 of Stein (1987), who ”chooses Isaac, son of the first Jew, the patriarch Abraham, to call the first survivor” and by
the following argument by Stein (1987): “Golden ages or periods of calm are mere interlude between Holocausts.
No solution is ever final.”
34
This statement is quoted in Chapter 4 of Stein (1987) but is originally, as stated by Stein, from Skalre.
18
surrounded and threatened with being thrown back into the sea, lays the foundation for an
important component of the social systems as defenses observed in Israel: the inherited behavior
becomes that of a besieged individual, terrified of abandonment and annihilation, but determined
to overcome all the challenges and prosper. My own experience as a participant to a Group
Relations conference which was attended by a group of Israelis confirmed the presence of these
themes. The ‘organizational event’ included groups whose task was to reflect on the essence and
implications of national identity. The interactions that developed among the Israelis, and with
other groups of the conference, showed that the ‘Israel in the mind’ that this particular group was
experiencing, recreating, and sharing with others could be described as ‘a Start-Up company
operating in a Shtetl’35, which is how they chose to characterize it. The survival defense
translated itself into a desperate urge to be creative (possess an innovative product to sell) while
at the same time, there seemed to be a reluctance to leave the safe but inhibiting confines of the
ghetto that had, oddly enough in the context of the globalized start-up company that the group
was aiming at, been internalized or transported across generations. Further reflection on what
was happening made the group realize that there was a key difference in the general
‘organization in the mind’36 between the non-Israelis and the Israelis. For the non-Israelis, the
mental representation of organizations in general was that of mistrusted perverse organization,
typical of the ones described in Long (2008). Escaping from the tutelage of the organization was
needed and individualism was valued. For the Israelis, however, the organization was imbued
with good and protective qualities. It is only once we connected to the traumas above and the
associated defenses that we were able to make sense of what the group was experiencing. In the
mind of the Israelis, the organization by excellence, the one that constantly needs to adapt and
innovate, and the one the individual’s survival depends upon, is the Israeli Defense Force. As
such, the ‘Israel in the mind’ that was experienced and projected outward was not only that of a
dangerous place where safety could only be found in the Shtetl but also that of a nurturing place
that held the key to one’s survival: creativity. Thus, the organizational event group was
reenacting the social systems as defenses against anxieties that characterized the entire nation.
Finally, it turns out that what was experienced by the group was consistent with the thesis
developed in Senor and Singer (2009)37. One of their main conclusions is that, as an incubator of
the social system of defenses, the Israeli Defense Force became the seed of a culture of
innovation. A lot of their examples can, in fact, be interpreted as defense responses, for example
35
Shtetl is the diminutive form of the Yiddish shtot, typically a small town with a large Jewish population in preHolocaust Eastern Europe.
36
Here, I am not making reference to a particular organization or the temporary organization created by the Group
Relations conference but rather to the internal representation of organizations in general.
37
I am assuming that few, if any, of the participants were familiar with Senor and Singer (2009) as the subject
never came up. Furthermore, the focus of the group was not on explaining Israel’s economic success but rather on
anxieties and defenses. This discussion also highlights the robustness of large group dynamics in the sense that
they can often be derived from observations in a small group (less than 10 people in this case).
19
the development of “high tech communications… to fend against the claustrophobia that is life
in a small country surrounded by enemies”38.
To conclude, one should note that, as argued by Senor and Singer (2009), some of what was
originally purely defensive, from a psychodynamics perspective, led to the development of an
unusually creative economy as evidenced by the large number of successful start-ups. However,
this should not obstruct the fact that more often than not, defenses are, in general, maladaptive
and costly to society. This is probably also the case in Israel, notwithstanding the important
positive spillovers, since it seems that there is an increase in societal splits and a retrenchment
into rigid behaviors.
The examples above show that the implications of inter-groups projections and identifications
may, in some cases, induce groups or, even, entire countries, to respond to these projections by
acting on, or assuming the role of, what is projected into them. We are naturally referring to the
concept of projective identification which, it has been suggested, could be the socio-analytic
mechanism behind some of the failures seen on the African continent 39. Projective identification
is, in my view, one of the most important mechanism, as well as one of the most subtle, in
allowing an improved understanding of otherwise seemingly irrational dynamics that are often
observed in countries.
Projective identification is an interpersonal mechanism whereas, as discovered by Klein (1946,
1959), a disavowed (unwanted) part of the self is split-off and projected onto an external object.
As explained by Stapley (2006b): “Projective identification refers to efforts by persons to rid
themselves of … unwanted feelings. If the recipient simply enacts the role he or she is ‘assigned’,
then a tacit collusive agreement is established … Thus the scapegoat takes on or accentuates the
characteristics attributed to him or her and confirms the repugnance the other feels for that
(disowned) aspect”. As stated by Czander (1993), projective identification is crucial to
understanding group behavior, as well as organizational difficulties with change, as it can
explain a variety of behaviors, in particular the envy and aggression observed when people
interact together. As such, projective identification has already been extensively used in
psychoanalysis based organizational behavior and leadership work.
As explained in Joseph (1985), projective identification between two individuals is a form of
communication, since “in the transference, we are on necessity on the receiving end and,
therefore, providing we can tune into them (the projected parts), we have an opportunity par
excellence to understand them and what is going on. In this sense, it acts as a communication,
38
A statement from an Israeli venture capitalist quoted in Chapter 3 of Senor and Singer (2009).
39
It is important to note that we are not implying that projective identification is the sole explanation for the
observed failures. Naturally, there exists many other factors, whether historical (in particular, the slave trade) or
economic (country being landlocked or highly dependent on extractive resources). However, projective
identification may be the socio-analytic consequence of some of the circumstances of a particular country, in
particular past traumas, and the most stubborn aspect (since it is unconscious) behind the continued failures.
20
whatever its motivation, and is the basis for the positive use of counter-transference.” This point
is important since it gives, similarly to the technique used in analytic listening, a powerful
mechanism, whenever possible, to infer what is being expressed by various groups in a society.
Nevertheless, the main application of projective identification in country work remains, by far,
its behavioral implications.
Thus, our working hypothesis is that countries, like organizations, can be thought to have their
own character and culture. This is already, for example, the approach of Stein (1987) who bases
his concept of psychogeography on psychoanalytic principles. Although Moisi (2009) does not
provide any theoretical psychoanalytic underpinnings to his ideas, he nevertheless approaches
international relations through the prism of cultures of fear, hope, and humiliation. Issues of
relatedness between nations, notion of envy between countries, narcissistic pride, and
assumptions of collusive behaviors within and between countries are behind the motivation for
developing the “Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic Underpinnings” framework. Some of
these ideas are already thoroughly developed in Stapley (2006a) and are central to understanding
the author’s thinking and conclusions. An example of these is his argument that Islam influenced
fundamentalism should not be understood in isolation but rather as an action of a sub-group on
behalf of an entire society. This is an important point which allows emphasizing the inherent
general equilibrium thinking which is embedded in the “Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic
Underpinnings” framework. Thinking in terms of general equilibrium is, of course, fundamental
to country wide policy making and is familiar to macroeconomists and most policy makers.
Having reviewed and extended at the country level, the concepts of social systems as defenses
against anxieties and projective identification, we can now proceed to introducing a principle for
integrating psychodynamics and policy work. This is the topic of Section 3.2.
3.2. Sequencing Principle: Primacy of Social Defense Needs over Policy Stated Objectives
This section argues that a principle for integrating psychodynamics and policy work is needed.
The example of Argentina given in Part 1 has illustrated how a policy can be ‘hijacked’ in the
sense of being used to satisfy social defense needs first rather than for its stated objectives. It was
argued that resistance to abandoning the currency board had likely been stronger than it
otherwise might have been, implying a costly delay for Argentina’s economy, since its
implementation was felt to be a huge narcissistic injury.
Thus, it is proposed that the “Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic Underpinnings” framework
adopt a Sequencing Principle stating that, satisfying social defenses needs is expected to come
first. In other words:
Once basic needs are met, policies that can potentially satisfy social defense needs will be used
for that purpose first and it is only once the components of a policy that can be used as social
defenses have been mobilized for that purpose that agents will be able to allow the policy to
work towards achieving its stated objectives.
21
Thus, once basic needs are met, reducing anxieties will be given priority over policy goals. There
are several things that need to be noted here. First, the Sequencing Principle applies only ‘once
basic needs have been met’. Through this condition, we are excluding all situations of acute
economic deprivation. In most cases, Collier’s poor, as described in Collier (2007), can only be
mobilized by the fight to meet their basic (survival) needs. Nevertheless, even then, there are
examples of policies being derailed for psychodynamics reasons. For example, policies designed
to improve agricultural yield or health could be resisted if implementing them violates some
cultural values40. Second, the use of the word ‘hijacked’ in the Argentina example suggests that
individuals may not necessarily be always in full control of what is happening as they may even
lack the awareness of what leads them to derail a proposed policy since a large share of the
behaviors involved are thought to be unconscious. This is the reason why the sentence in the
previous paragraph: “it is only once the aspects of a policy that can be used as social defenses
needs against an anxiety have been mobilized for that purpose that agents will be able to allow
the policy to work” includes the formulation “agents will be able” rather than agents will be
willing. Again, it is not necessarily a matter of will as the behaviors are unconscious.
Finally, the adoption of the Sequencing Principle is useful as it may help policy makers
internalize the importance of social defenses as well as the potentially huge cost that they can
imply. Furthermore, the Sequencing Principle may allow further cross fertilization between
economics or political sciences and psychoanalytic based behavioral analysis. Any optimizing
model in political economy would need to include conditions under which a certain preference
function is maximized. The Sequencing Principle could be used to formulate some of these
conditions in these models. As such, these models could possibly explain why policies seem to
fail (or are met with unusually strong and persistent opposition) for seemingly irrational reasons.
Naturally, an issue for this kind of models would be to give a functional form to anxieties as well
as conceptualize the eligibility of a policy meeting social defense needs. This would not be easy.
Once a trigger rule is formulated, it would model agents to ‘hijack’ the policy under the
circumstances defining the trigger.
Since the proposed framework is influenced by modern psychoanalytic theory and techniques,
careful attention must be paid to listening and communicating techniques since these are the
fundamental aspects of the analytical process. We, therefore, now move to extending the notion
of analytical attitude, the topic of Section 3.3.
3.3.’Analytical Attitude’ at the Country Level
40
In this case, the behaviors behind the resistance to reform would, most likely, be entirely conscious and,
therefore, easier to foresee.
22
This section discusses what an ‘Analytical Attitude’ at the country level might entail by arguing
for an empathic ability to be communicated to all subgroups as an attempt to have members of a
society move closer to being able to essentially experience all of the key inter-groups projections
and introjections.
Up until now, our focus has been exclusively limited to discussing the applicability of certain
aspects of psychoanalytic theory to policy making. As psychoanalysis is essentially defined by
its exclusive focus on ‘unconscious intrapsychic process’41, we have, therefore, mainly
suggested that sufficient attention be given to large group unconscious dynamics, and from our
perspective, in particular to social defenses. As stated by Rangell (2002) in his survey of the
theory of psychoanalysis: “The apex of psychoanalysis is its theory. Everything else stems from
the understanding that it provides, from the technical procedure that derives from it to the huge
literature of applied analysis.” Thus, having argued for the relevance of psychoanalytic theory,
we must now reflect on the relevance of psychoanalytic techniques to policy making. To do this,
we draw on the existing literature on the psychoanalytic process. This literature is motivated by
the fact that understanding the process is a prerequisite to understanding what leads to structural
changes in individuals, in other words what the therapeutic action is 42. Naturally, there are many
aspects to the therapeutic action, in particular the analytic dyad, which cannot be extended to
groups43. Nevertheless, the idea of structural change at a level of a society is widely used in
policy making. Structural change refers to ‘above the surface’ observed changes such as
modifying the economic structure through reforms or introducing social legislation aimed at
changing the distribution of power or allowing lifestyle changes. Thus, we propose to extend to
country wide policy making the important psychoanalytic notion of therapeutic action by
defining it as the increased ability of a society to reflect on psychodynamics issues (e.g.,
difficulty in group mourning, dealing with anxieties, nature of inter-groups projections and
introjections, nature of social defenses used) that may be hampering its ability to implement the
structural changes that a society has chosen. Note that our focus is relatively narrow as we do not
include specifically the notion of well being of the society. It is, in some ways, implicit as an
improved economic and legislative climate is likely to increase well being or happiness, as
discussed, for example, in Di Tella et al (2001). However, the notion of well being is more
general than changing the structure of a society through policies as it also deals with issues such
as relatedness and the anxieties highlighted by Stapley (2006a) in his thesis of how globalization
41
See Rangell (2002) who argues for using the term ‘unconscious Intrapsychic process’ rather than ‘unconscious
Intrapsychic conflicts’ as it allows the inclusion of non conflictual elements and pre-and post-conflictual
phenomena.
42
We do not go in this paper into the ongoing debate as to whether it is structural change that should be
considered the therapeutic action. A discussion of this topic is found in Boesky (1990). In my view, Brenner (1982)’s
change in compromise formation can be described as structural change.
43
Loewald (1960) provides a thorough evaluation of the therapeutic action of psychoanalysis.
23
may be experienced as the ‘death of a way of life’. Well being is also implicit in Long (2008)
who argues that we have become a transaction based society44.
Now that we have established the nature of the therapeutic action that is aimed at, we can discuss
selected aspects of listening and communicating techniques that should be useful towards our
ability to understand and, in some cases, help modify societal dynamics. Once again, the
psychoanalytic literature, this time on processes, is our starting point. There exists a very rich
literature on psychoanalytic listening, for example Albrecht Schwaber (1998). The literature is
relevant as policies are often debated in settings (e.g., using debates as vehicles to influence
political positioning, asymmetric processes between countries and their donors at times of crisis)
that encourage, in Arlow (1995)’s terminology, ‘stilted listening’, which he defines as:
“artificially formal or dignified, pompous… it (this kind of listening) predisposes one to overlook
the connecting links between thoughts, the shifts in mode of presentation, and the intrusion of the
unusual, the bizarre, and the unexpected”45. Although the contexts differ, psychoanalysis’
natural appreciation of the subtleties of listening provides valuable insights that can, in turn, be
applied in the policy making realm. For example, from what Schlesinger (1994) argues, one can
also recommend listening to what citizens are expressing without preconceptions, as if forgetting
the context, in order to avoid missing alternate or hidden feelings. This is especially important
when issues close to that society’s anxieties are being brought up. Furthermore, as Albrecht
Schwaber (1998) reminds us: “It is very difficult to listen, especially to take in another’s
discordant version… Unless we are ready, receptive –and also, possibly, vulnerable- the
experience of listening appears to be impossible”. This leads us to the idea of empathic
availability as a prerequisite to being able to adopt what will later be characterized as an
‘Analytical Attitude’ at the country level.
Since Kohut (1959), psychoanalysts have increasingly recognized the role that empathy plays in
the therapeutic action. Emde (1990) explains why from a development perspective (meaning
early care giving relationships), empathy can play such a prominent role (alongside that of
interpretations) in the analytic mode of intervention. Earlier in the paper, we reviewed how
relationships between the individual and organizations, including society, can trace their roots in
infancy during which empathy of the mother or the primary care giver is paramount. Therefore,
it is to be expected that empathic availability should also play a prominent role in country level
policy making. As Emde (1990) argues: “Empathic communication… can be viewed as a
creative act… It is playful… Empathy, although based on emotional sensitivity and
44
In Chapter 8 of Long (2008), the author explains the ideas as follows: “The commodification of our social lives is
created through market dynamics, where objects become valued not for their use, but for a symbolic exchange
value… In this world, people also become commodities… whose social relations become modified by their place in
the market.”
45
The context in which Arlow uses ‘stilted listening’ is, of course, that of psychoanalytic treatment, therefore
listening’ s influence on the analyst’s ability to appreciate the patient’s associations (how they relate to one
another) and propensity to provide valid and relevant interpretations.
24
responsiveness is exercised from a prepared mind. It involves more than emotion…It involves an
affirmation of connections between past and current experience… seeking to establish a sense of
continuity (gaining a sense of ownership and connectedness with one’s past)”. Further along in
the same paper, Emde (1990) writes about the feelings of togetherness and of shared meaning
that empathic availability bring to communication. Although written in the context of the
analytic dyad, the exact same words could have been found in the burgeoning economic
development literature on internalization and ownership of policies at the country level.
This should not come as a surprise since internalization and ownership of reforms relates above
all to a nation finding itself empowered to take charge of its own policies. In my view, nearly all
successful episodes of far reaching economic structural transformation have taken place in
countries that, for a variety of reasons, had reached a mindset from which they found themselves
able to chart their own course. This is what, echoing Winnicott (1965), we referred to a nation
finding its ‘True Self’. Although it looks at first as if there was a discontinuity, or inflection
point, in the behavioral paradigm observed in these countries (as if there were sharply
contrasting ‘before’ and ‘after’ states of mind plus an all of a sudden jump from one state to the
other), these profound shifts in internalization and ownership are, in fact, the results of long
processes which include sometimes going through traumatic historical periods. The fundamental
premise of the “Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic Underpinnings” framework is that these
shifts can be facilitated by ‘therapeutic’ like interventions piloted by the country itself. Again,
the use of the formulation ‘therapeutic’ does not imply, in any form whatsoever, any suggestion
of pathology. The nature of these interventions is precisely what this paper is attempting to
define. Furthermore even if, as argued in Boccara (2009), unconscious large group dynamics
have stood in the way of development assistance effectively being able to facilitate genuine
country internalization and ownership, there nevertheless now exist widespread agreement in the
development economics community that reforms cannot succeed without in depth internalization
and ownership of the process. All too often policies are still formulated with a top down
approach without sufficient attention paid to the complexities of each country46.
The complexities of each country are determined by that country’s history, in particular its
traumas47, and its culture. Furthermore, these complexities can often be disentangled by focusing
on the inter-groups projections and introjections that exist. The various ways in which subgroups
view others (their mental representation of the others) is an ideal place to start to understand how
history and culture have left their mark on a society. These mental representations of others
differ from the internal representations that each subgroup has of the country. The inter-groups
projections and introjections will often presage conflicts and resistance to change. As such, they
46
This touches on the topic of aid effectiveness which is extensively reviewed in Easterly (2006, 2008). In addition,
there are also short-term political constraints (often due to fiscal issues) that prevent economic policy debates to
allow for sufficient internalization and ownership.
47
We will see in Section 4, when reference is made to the work of Volkan (2004) that we need to refer more
specifically to chosen traumas, the historical traumas that have a potential to be reactivated.
25
must not only be understood but also, as indicators of existing or future splits in the society, be
empathically communicated to others. This can be an extremely difficult and painful task as it
requires the ability to create a space where groups may be confronted by radically different
viewpoints and mental representations that may be in complete opposition to the one that they
have of themselves. This is where psychoanalysis complete non judgmental approach to
behaviors comes in. The unique empathy and sensitivity that is the trademark of the
psychoanalytic profession is exactly what is required from those advising policy makers to figure
out and share the ‘Psychodynamic Map’ of the country.
In my view, the neutrality of the analytical attitude extended to the country context means that
one should be able to experience, as if being ‘transported’ into someone else’s mind, the mental
affects, including the projections, of each of the subgroups. In other words, if one goes back to
the Psychodynamic Map metaphor, one needs to be able to ‘travel’ (this is why the term
‘transported’ was used in the previous sentence) along all the existing projection and introjection
paths that define the ‘Psychodynamic Map’ of the country. By ‘travel’ or being ‘transported’, I
do not simply mean acknowledging the existence of all projections and introjections in a way
that would be done in reporting or reading the news but rather feeling them almost as if they
were, temporarily, one’s own. Furthermore, this needs to hold regardless of what the nature of
these projections or introjections might be.
Thus, the ‘Analytic Attitude’ at the Country Level is defined as follows: The unrestricted
willingness and ability to temporarily experience, in order to be able to communicate them to
others, each of the inter-groups projections and introjections as if they were our own.
The adoption of this ‘Analytical Attitude’ at the Country Level along with analytically informed
listening and empathic availability are prerequisites to being able to: (i) understand all the
feelings and their manifestations; (ii) communicate with those that own these feelings; (iii) have
the credibility to question these feelings; and (iv) have the potential to help a society respond
these feelings and their manifestations. One way to understand what is being proposed in the
“Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic Underpinnings” framework is to view it a way of
bringing the essence of psychoanalysis, its way of thinking and experiencing, to policy makers
providing the space for them to be heard and to hear others. It is noteworthy that Cooper Ramo
(2009) who analyzes complexities of the world from a very different approach than the one
adopted by this paper nevertheless also argues that empathic understanding is absolutely crucial,
whether for venture capitalism or national security. In his analysis of the successes of a Silicon
Valley venture capitalist (Michael Moritz) and of the head of the Israeli military intelligence
(Aharon Farkash), Cooper Ramo (2009) writes: “Empathy: Recall that it was one thing Moritz
most feared losing, the key element Farkash tried to cultivate in his spies and war planners. It
was their way of saying that in a world of constant changes, you need to try to connect with the
environment around you any way you can: by sweeping your eyes, by opening your mind to
uncomfortable ideas, even by trying to sympathize with historically noxious figures. Only then
26
could you improve your chances of not missing the signs that something, something important
was about to change.”
Let’s try to illustrate further what is meant by purposely using a provocative example, the tragic
events of September 11, 2001, to emphasize what is meant by ‘unrestricted’ in the definition of
the ‘Analytical Attitude’ at a country level. Although limited to a few locations (e.g., Gaza,
Nablus in the West Bank, and in Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon such as Ein-el-Hilweh
and Rashidiyeh) and short-lived, there were spontaneous and uncontained enactment of rejoicing
as the first images of September 11, 2001 were viewed and their implication that the United
States had unequivocally become a victim of terrorism. Even if these expressions of joy did not
represent the feelings of the majority of the Palestinian people or those of the Muslim world
(e.g., huge crowds attended candlelight vigils in the Islamic Republic of Iran), they nevertheless
have meaning (and, of course, may also be expressing something on behalf of a larger group). In
one of its most extreme application, the ‘Analytic Attitude’ in this case would have required the
ability for some to be able to capture, in the moment, what was felt and experienced as this data
may hold useful information to understanding deep feelings of victimization, despair, and
vengefulness. This example is also reminiscent of the uncomfortable position adopted by Arendt
(1963) as she reports on her attendance at the trial of Eichmann in Jerusalem or the powerful and
compassionate journey undertaken by the Israeli psychoanalyst, Bar-On (1989) as he interviewed
children of perpetrators of the holocaust. An alternative way to express what is implied in the
‘Analytical Attitude’ is the idea of ‘inviting’ others to one’s trauma (relate to one’s suffering ‘as
if’ experiencing it) in exchange to being invited to experience their trauma.
In another example, Bolivia, the splits along ethnicity and preferred economic models are easily
identifiable and predictable. As such, the requirements of the ‘Analytical Attitude’ are relatively
straightforward. However, the analytical work does not stop there as the goal of adopting the
‘Analytical Attitude’ is to use the knowledge acquired to communicate, as much as possible in an
experiential fashion, to the respective subgroups (in this case indigenous and non-indigenous as a
first approximation) the projections and introjections that have been identified. This could be far
from straightforward as internal splits may be growing within Bolivia. Empowered by the
landslide victory that gave President Morales his second consecutive mandate, the government in
his bid to restore dignity and make the country fairer to Bolivians of Indian descent could
inadvertently and unwillingly contribute to strengthening further existing internal splits. Thus, in
this case, the “Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic Underpinnings” framework would
simultaneously work on: (i) facilitating for the party in power and its supporters their
acknowledgement of some of the far-reaching and pro-Indians reforms that were enacted prior to
them being in power48; and (ii) facilitating for the groups that lost power after the election of Evo
48
The key reforms are the land reform and abolition of indented work during the 1952 revolution and the Law of
Participation and the Law of Decentralization passed by President Sanchez de Lozada during his first term. The
1952 revolution was conducted by the MNR (Movimiento Nacionalista Revolucionario), the party of President
27
Morales, their ability to recognize the frustration and discrimination suffered by the indigenous
population. This work would require a deep understanding of the state of mind of the country,
namely understanding why the 1952 Revolution has been almost buried in the collective
unconscious, the scars left by the difficult economic stabilization efforts that were needed to deal
with macroeconomic crises, the ambivalence towards the United States, the symbolism of coca
cultivation, and the powerful draw of Evo Morales on the population.
To conclude this section, note that the approach delineated in this section is, to some extent,
similar in spirit to the thinking behind reconciliation projects such as the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission of South Africa or the gacaca reconciliation courts in Rwanda.
Although these courts are set up to let the truth be known and, as such, help with reconciliation
by facilitating the mourning work of the victims, the idea is still based on a willingness to forgive
major crimes which does require some of the qualities embedded in the empathic and nonjudgmental approach proposed.
3.4 Conclusions
This part of the paper has introduced the basic principles required to apply the “Policy Making
and its Psychoanalytic Underpinnings” framework.
First, a Sequencing Principle, the primacy of social defense needs over policy stated objectives
has been stated: Once basic needs are met, policies that can potentially satisfy social defense
needs will be used for that purpose first and it is only once the components of a policy that can
be used as social defenses have been mobilized for that purpose that agents will be able to allow
the policy to work towards achieving its stated objectives.
Second, an ‘Analytical Attitude’ at the Country Level has been defined as: The unrestricted
willingness and ability to temporarily experience, in order to be able to communicate them to
others, each of the inter-groups projections and introjections as if they were our own.
Several examples have also been used to illustrate these principles as well as the extension of
concepts of social defenses, projective identification, therapeutic action, and empathic
availability to the country level.
Naturally, these examples are for illustrative purposes only as the “Policy Making and its
Psychoanalytic Underpinnings” framework is only in the early stages of being defined and the
proposed approach to psychodynamics data collection and interpretation and application to
policy dialogue has not yet been used in full anywhere.
In the same spirit, we are, also concluding this part with an example from Uganda. The idea is
just to give a flavor (inviting the reader into the ‘room’) of the kind of policies that could be
Sanchez de Lozada, while the party in power today, the MAS (Movimiento al Socialismo), is the one founded by
President Evo Morales. An excellent work on Bolivian history is that of Klein (2003).
28
evaluated by the proposed approach. Thus, we now refer to the recent policy experience of
Uganda49, in particular a transparency law stipulating compulsory asset declaration of senior
government officials; a population policy promoting higher fertility; and the proposed
criminalization of homosexuals. In the Sub-Saharan African context, where the state has often
been captured by corrupt officials, a quick move to a compulsory asset declaration by senior
government officials was seen as a huge move towards signaling a new era in Uganda 50. What
was missed at the time is that, in a continent besieged by envy, officials were scared, and
potentially also shamed, at having their assets known publicly. This feeling ran very deep but
was not taken into account and the reform faltered51.
The seemingly irrational aspects of the two other reforms are even more related to deeply seated
issues found in the Sub-Saharan African context. Even in countries, such as Uganda, where the
impact of the slave trade has been lessened by the geography, there nevertheless seem to exist,
even if it sometimes seemingly undetectable, a profound humiliation in relationship to the huge
scars that are the consequences of the historical interactions between European traders and
colonizers and the local populations. To the detriment of the African continent’s ability to move
forward, this humiliation, in my view an almost unbearable shame, remains often repressed. A
societal affect, such as the one just mentioned, induces anxieties and, therefore, social defenses.
Furthermore, the recent history (e.g., civil wars, epidemics) and portrayal of Africa has
dramatically increased the level of humiliation and anxieties (as alluded to earlier, through
projective identification). Thus, one can probably say that the holding environment provided by
the majority of African societies today has worsened, facilitating the emergence of social
defenses consistent with high levels of anxieties, and in selected parts even complete despair 52.
The population policy supported by President Museveni illustrates this point. In spite of
Uganda’s fertility rate being one of the highest in the world, and therefore stark implications on
future government spending for provision of basic social services and on environmental
49
Notwithstanding a protruded internal conflict in the north, Uganda sharp social and economic transformation
since the years of Idi Amin Dada and Obote is considered an important success story in Africa. The economic
history is reviewed in Besley and Cord (2007) while the political developments are reviewed in Barkan (2004).
50
Uganda is not the only country that converted to the anti-corruption paradigm that hit the African continent,
often under insistence of donor countries, like a tsunami. For example, both Kenya and Nigeria experienced
promising efforts from their respective governance and anti-corruption agencies, only to see these efforts falter or
be reversed, sometimes with violence.
51
As always, resistance to change is simultaneously derived from both ‘beneath’ and ‘above’ the surface dynamics.
Thus, asset declaration was also resisted as it potentially (assuming that declaration could be effectively verified)
could constitute a step towards increased transparency that was certainly not desired by all. However, it is likely
that psychodynamics elements, in particular fear of envy, were also at play.
52
I would not consider despair to be a representative societal affect in Uganda, or in the rest of Eastern and
Southern Africa and the statement here is more general since it pertains to the entire African continent that does,
in my view, include pockets where the main societal affect would be complete despair and abandonment.
29
degradation53, talks of demography were taboos as they were viewed as a conspiracy by whites
to reduce the number of Ugandans. The way the subject was dealt with suggested that it might
have revived a deeply felt annihilation anxiety as race and historical issues were always in the
forefront while economics was conspicuously absent from the debates. Similarly the justification
of the criminalization of homosexuality was often coached in terms of reversing a contamination,
seen as the destruction of the culture by imports from the white man54.
The Ugandan examples highlight the potential costs (progress on governance derailed, dangerous
economic consequences of an idealization/obsession with high fertility, creation of dangerous
splits within the society by demonizing a minority group) of unaddressed large group
unconscious dynamics which, in this case, appear to include fear of envy of others; humiliation
and shame; annihilation anxiety; and demonizing a vulnerable minority, possibly in identification
with the aggressor.
4. Country Level Analytical Based Work
Part 3 introduced the concept of incorporating socio-analytic issues into country level policy
work and the implicit underlying assumption has been to treat the country as an entity affected
by large group unconscious dynamics as if it had a mind or personality. This is similar to Long
(2008)’s approach on organizations: “Regarding an organization as having character is quite a
step beyond the ideas of corporate culture… Character is more deeply engrained and infers a
more firmly established collectivity, as if the company has a mind of its own, together with
attendant emotions… For if the organization is a piece of social reality constructed in the mind,
it may have character as much as any other social construction… That is we may experience the
organization as an entity with volition and character and behave with this in the mind.55”
The logical implication of treating a country as an entity affected by large group unconscious
dynamics is the need to identify appropriate techniques of intervention in order to address these
dynamics, in the context of home grown and country driven level policy work. In other words,
53
An excellent briefing on fertility and living standards appeared in The Economist, October 31, 2009.
54
Once again, the argument of simultaneous ‘beneath’ and ‘above’ the surface elements applies. The large
presence of evangelical churches and the political need for scapegoats (as in Zimbabwe) also play a role, even a
prominent one. However, the systematic association made between homosexuality and white imports or
contamination highlights that the law criminalizing homosexuality, which includes the death penalty under certain
circumstances and obligation by neighbors to report homosexuals to the local police, was, most likely, also a
vehicle to deal with other anxieties. In other words, we have once more an example of policy that played a social
defense role. There may also be a rejection of assimilation, including wealth, as a Guardian article, dated
November 29, 2009, quotes Ugandans saying: “We would rather live in grass huts with our morality than in
skyscrapers among homosexuals”. The law has significant support in Uganda, including the President, who may
nevertheless relent in light of the international outcry.
55
See, Chapter 1 of Long (2008).
30
we are suggesting that the adaptation of theoretical concepts of psychoanalysis to country level
policy work be followed by the adaptation of ‘therapeutic’ techniques of psychoanalysis to
country level policy work. This is the topic of Part 4 and what is described as socio-analytical
policy dialogue at the country level. The idea is not entirely new and Section 4.1 reviews
psychoanalysis based work that has already been suggested or undertaken.
4.1 Review of Country Level Psychoanalytic Based Work
Country level psychoanalytic based work is still quite rare. This section reviews the work on
psychogeography of Stein (1987) and on psychoanalytic based political science of Volkan (1987,
2004, and 2006).
Although Stein (1987)’s work remains theoretical, in the sense that it does not propose any
‘therapeutic’ attempt to alter the unconscious group representations that are introduced, it is
ground breaking and extremely valuable because it provides rigorously developed examples of
unconscious representations of the social and physical world that can help explain societal
behaviors. Psychogeography, which he defines as the psychoanalytical study of spatial
representation, is a completely new perspective that is solidly grounded in psychoanalytic theory.
Stein (1987) shows how individuals as members of a society project on the outer environment
psychic contents from experiences of body, childhood, and family. Not surprisingly, introjection
and projection are at the foundations of psychogeography since individuals are seen as endowing
the world with their psychic structure while depending on their environment to complete their
sense of self. As a consequence, Stein (1987) argues: “Often it is through a collective hammered
out and shared group fantasy of a national body scheme that the world of international relations
is perceived and conducted.” Stein (1987)’s writings are in agreement with the premise of this
paper that projective identification is crucial to the “understanding of what, how, and why people
invest unconscious aspects of themselves in others or in space”. Furthermore, he also stresses
one of the most important behavioral consequences, namely that the originator (s) of the
projection can evoke behaviors or feelings in the recipient (s) that conform to the originator (s)’
projections. This leads him to describe an example of projective identification at the level of
several countries from the Second World War where he suggests that Germany did not act in a
complete vacuum in the sense that there was collusion with the allies who allocated to Hitler and
the Nazis their own aggressive traits who, in turn, acted out on the sadism and led to the War56.
Stein (1987) goes on to show how boundaries are crucial in psychogeography as a mean to notify
those within and those outside (as a defense against anxieties). In particular, islands can be a
threat to the boundaries and, for example, for the United States, he argues that “Cuba functions
as a repository of paranoid persecution fantasies”. His hypothesis on Cuba is substantiated by
newspaper images depicting Cuba as a dangerous object (e.g., a shark that is about to eat
56
Stein (1987) makes references to Taylor’s (non-psychological) work on the origins of the Second World War (see
p. 38) in which it is argued that there were international collusions. This paper has already given a hypothetical
example of the likelihood of an unconscious collusion between nations, that of Sub-Saharan Africa and the
Western world.
31
somebody)57. Psychoanalytically, Cuba becomes an object that evokes an annihilation anxiety
which, in turn from a psychoanalytic perspective, coincides with the primary unconscious fear of
being absorbed in fusion with the mother. However, one should note that a direct psychoanalytic
explanation such as this one, even if theoretically correct, is not only unlikely to resonate with
policy makers but potentially damaging as it could render communication impossible58. In other
words, this kind of statement has no ‘therapeutic’ value if it is intended to have a policy making
role59. On the other hand, discussions of internal representations (in other words, having
participants own and uncover the meanings of the existing projections and introjections) could be
useful. For example, the mainland of Tanzania and the island of Zanzibar, although part of the
same nation, are currently experiencing difficult issues surrounding the maintenance of the union
and it would be relevant to conduct a Socio Analytic Policy Dialogue exercise in Tanzania to
explore the psychodynamics issues involved with the maintenance or the dissolution of the
union. The same holds with respect to the discussions under way for the East African common
market where absorption of landlocked countries with a recent violent past could also bring up
complex and, as of yet unlikely to have been acknowledged or worked through integration
issues60.
Issues of psychogeography are also applicable to Bolivia, which provides another illustrative
example. In fact, these are likely to be one of the most important in the Bolivian context. The
War of the Pacific with Chile brought the greatest territorial loss in Bolivia’s history as the entire
province of Antofagasta (today’s northern Chile along the Pacific Coast) was lost and with it,
Bolivia’s access to the sea. As Klein (2003) states: “The Pacific War of 1879 appears from the
Bolivian perspective almost as a Greek tragedy”, and its impact on the Bolivian national pride is
still very present today. The return of the coastal land is still an issue that is a major issue and
two former presidents tried to secure from their Chilean counterparts secure and autonomous
access to the Pacific Coast. They both seemed to have failed due to the highly emotional and
symbolic nature, on both sides, of having some sort of Bolivian sovereignty restored to a corridor
allowing unimpeded access to the sea61. As Volkan (2004) would suggest, the territorial loss is a
chosen trauma which is defined as the mental representation of an event that likely included
57
See p. 72 of Stein (1987) where drawings from the December 6, 1981 issue of the Sunday Oklahoman are
reproduced.
58
This is an example of what was meant in Part 2, discussing obstacles to cross fertilization between
psychoanalysis and economics (or similarly political science) as the language of psychoanalysis is likely to be
disconcerting for others.
59
This is naturally not a criticism of Stein (1987) as this was not the purpose of his work.
60
As always and almost systematically mentioned in the context of this paper, there are not only potentially large
‘beneath’ the surface issues (in particular when they concern geographical space and boundaries) but also ‘above’
the surface issues, in this case Zanzibar’s discovery of oil fields and, for the East African Union, the disparities
between countries (e.g., Burundi and the rest) and other geopolitical issues (President Museveni as a dominant
figure, economic hegemony of Kenya, etc.)
61
For example, in one case, negotiations between Bolivia and Chile on the establishment of a transit export
corridor to the Chilean Pacific coast apparently abruptly broke down when the issue of having a Bolivian flag, as a
symbol of Bolivian identity, flown in the port was vehemently resisted by Chile.
32
shared feelings of humiliation or losses, often because of another group 62. As such, in
comparison to all other territorial losses (to Brazil, Paraguay, or Argentina), the loss to Chile of
the access to the sea is the most symbolic as it is likely to be felt, using Stein (1987)’s language
of psychogeography, as the mutilation/castration of the mother nation, with the entire country
feeling robbed of its comforting access to the sea. The importance of reactivating a chosen
trauma can be vividly seen in the events that followed President Sanchez de Lozada’s reelection.
As a follow-up to the campaign by Evo Morales to block the export of Bolivia’s gas through
Chile, there was massive breakdown in social order63 which is described in Greenberg (2009).
The symbolic importance of the export of natural gas through Chile can be seen in Evo
Morales’s statement “We must defend our natural gas and protect our sovereignty” and in a
focus group participant’s comment about President Sanchez de Lozada “If he’ll export our gas,
maybe one day he’ll export us”.64
Stein (1987)’s work also includes important considerations about mourning. The understanding
of developmental arrest can be useful in understanding countries that have difficulties changing
the model of their society as they may be unable to mourn the loss of culture (or ideas) that needs
to be done. In these cases, what needs to be done is facilitating rather than inhibiting the process
of grieving of what has been lost. For example, development aid may inhibit the process of
grieving (thus coming to terms with) one’s failure or poverty as it help sustain a situation where
countries are continuously taken care and, therefore, incapable of losing their dependency and
taking charge65. Stein (1987) argues: “There is considerable cultural legitimacy in shortcircuiting the painful work of mourning and the emotional separation to which it leads”.66 This
point may be particularly relevant for Sub-Saharan Africa. Finally, Stein (1987) refers to
something similar to the ’Analytical Attitude’ at a country level defined in Section 3.3. He talks
about the importance to feel what it must be like to be in the ‘enemy’’ shoes (what was referred
to earlier as the ‘sharing’ of each other’s traumas) as he quotes the physicist Dyson about Russia:
“To understand Russian strategy and diplomacy, it is necessary for us to distance ourselves from
62
As Volkan (2004) explains, a chosen trauma, which may remain dormant in a group’s collective memory over
many generations, can be thought of as a psychological gene that can be reactivated. The idea of a reactivation of
chosen trauma is helpful to understanding seemingly irrational decision making and violent acts.
63
Again, we are in the presence of ‘beneath’ the surface phenomena, in this case the activation of a chosen
trauma, and ‘above’ the surface phenomena, for example the organization and source of financing of the civil
disobedience movements, the economic context which also included austerity measures as part of an IMF
program.
64
Both of these comments are reported in Greenberg (2009).
65
Stein (1987) makes a very interesting contribution as he explains (Chapter 2, p. 89) that, as the work of mourning
is avoided (by maintaining links with the old environment), some cultural objects are used in the opposite way of
transitional ones since their use is precisely intended to avoid a transition. Thus, these objects (or cultural
elements) are used regressively rather than progressively or developmentally.
66
See Chapter 2 (p. 101) of Stein (1987).
33
our own myths and to enter into theirs”67. Stein (1987)’s work contains ideas that are found, and
subsequently developed further, Volkan (1997, 2004, 2006) to whom we now turn68.
In reviewing Volkan (1997, 2004, 2006)’s work, we limit ourselves to his contributions in
psychoanalysis applied to political science, in essence the analysis of large groups and their
leaders at times of crises. Volkan (1997, 2004, 2006)’s contributions are particularly noteworthy
as they are not only theoretical, as evidenced by some of the new concepts that he developed, but
also intended to be ‘therapeutic’ in the sense already given by this paper, meaning that of
adapting and using psychoanalytic concepts to resolve real world issues, in his case conflicts.
Volkan (1997, 2004, 2006)’s seminal work is very important to the development of the “Policy
Making and its Psychoanalytic Underpinnings” framework as it is absolutely unique in
highlighting why and how psychoanalytic observations and explanations should be given a
primary role in the evaluation of large group (e.g., country) political and/or historical dynamics.
Volkan (1997, 2004, 2006)’s work demonstrates how large group interactions cannot be
understood by only paying attention to ‘above’ the surface aspects (e.g., economic, military,
political) since it also requires an understanding of ‘beneath’ the surface phenomena such as
unconscious shared fantasies pertaining to past history (chosen traumas69, humiliations,
mourning difficulties).
Volkan’s main focus is on group core identity. Identity, linked to the concept of sameness, is
something that is almost never thought about but can be intensely revived once the group comes
under threat. The identity of a large group is related to the continuity between the past, the
present, and the future and often serves as a group defense against death or annihilation anxiety.
The loss of identity is intolerable as it amounts to a psychological death. The core identity
reflects a feeling of connectedness to people of the same group and, as such, also implies a
differentiation (often because of minor differences) with others 70. If the group identity is
threatened, a society will regress. At that point, the society relies on more primitive defense
mechanisms, basic trust that exists between members of the society is broken, and boundaries
between fantasy and reality become blurred. There is also excessive dependency on the leader,
eruption of aggression, magical thinking, and regressed morality with real or perceived threats to
the group identity frequently met with violence. Aggression and sexuality merge, while
67
See Chapter 5 (p. 205) of Stein (1987).
68
Stein (1987)’s work precedes the majority of Volkan’s work in introducing psychodynamics concepts to political
science. Stein (1987) refers extensively to the ideas already developed by Volkan and his book is dedicated to the
committee on international relations group for the advancement of psychiatry to which Volkan belonged.
69
Chosen trauma is one of the most important theoretical construct developed by Volkan. It has already been
referred to and defined earlier in the paper. A full explanation of mechanism leading to reactivation n of the
shared trauma and of the behavioral implications is found in Figure 2, p.51, Chapter 1 of Volkan (2004).
70
Volkan (1997) refers to Freud’s Taboo of Virginity, a 1917 paper, where the ‘narcissism of minor differences’ is
introduced. Freud mentions it again in ‘Civilization and its Discontents’, Freud (1930), when he refers to aggression
and explains how ‘communities with adjoining territories, and related to each other in other ways as well, who are
engaged in constant feuds and in ridiculing each other –like the Spaniards and the Portuguese, for instance, the
North Germans and the South Germans, the English and the Scots, and so on’, see Chapter 5.
34
becoming exaggerated. Finally, the physical environment may actually begin to resemble the
psychologically regressed society’s human conditions as members of the group pollute their
surroundings with debris and junk. All of this brings shared anxiety in the group and, in some
cases death can even be seen as a lesser evil than the threat to group identity71.
Furthermore, Volkan (1995, 2004, 2006)’s work is the only that I am aware of where issues of
transmission mechanism of ‘therapeutic’ interventions are addressed. First, reflecting his concern
about the quality and relevance of large group psychoanalytic data, he discusses the importance
of identifying spokespersons that can verbalize feelings and thoughts on behalf of an entire
group. These spokespersons may, in turn, be able to serve as conduit of interpretation since they
usually are in position to influence the group.
Let me illustrates what is meant by reporting on the only known example of transmission of
interpretation at the level of a large group. Volkan (2006) reports on what I believe is the most
moving clinical vignette in the socio-political psychoanalysis literature, that of his intervention
with the Kachavara family, displaced Georgians from Abkhazia, that he had the opportunity to
work with over a five year period while they were at an internally displaced persons (IDP) camp,
the Golden Fleece hotel near Tbilisi. The vignette is also far reaching in terms of its theoretical
implications as it highlights one way of successfully addressing the most fundamental issue in
conducting practical ‘therapeutic’ work in large groups: the transmission mechanism of
interventions.
Volkan met Mamuka Kachavara and his wife Dali for the first time on May 21, 1998, day on
which he was told of their trauma experienced in 1992 as they fled their home town with their
three children by helicopter. Two days later, he met Dali again in her apartment at the Golden
Fleece and understood at once, through their having the only telephone in the entire camp, that
the Kachavaras were the leaders of the refugee community. As one can see from Volkan (2006)’s
writing, that day his intuition led him to a powerful idea: “I had a vague idea at the time that if I
could play a role in changing this family’s life for the better, they, in turn, might provide a model
for positive change for other IDP families at the Tbilisi Sea. After all, I thought, the Kachavaras
were the leaders of their community. The biggest proof that I had was the pale-yellow telephone
on the old wooden table in their bare living room”. In the first four chapters of ‘Killing in the
Name of Identity’, Volkan (2006) describes in details the psychoanalytic interventions that he
had with the Kachavara family, in particular Dali. Volkan (2006) discusses how, as perennial
mourners, the family uses a replacement dog as a living linking object72. He also shows how the
ritual of having the family listen to the daily poems written by Dali’s father implies that these
poems are linking objects as well and also discusses behaviors, which he calls linking
phenomena, such as Dali’s daughter refusal to swim so as not to spoil her memory of swimming
71
Most of the main ideas on identity are summarized in Chapter 1 of Volkan (2004) while most of the main ideas
on large group regression are summarized in Chapter 2 of Volkan (2004).
72
Volkan (2006) explains the role of linking objects to perennial mourners as follows: “A perennial mourner, by
having a linking object, removes the mourning process, to one degree or another, from an internal process and puts
it “out there”. By controlling the linking object or a living linking object, which is “out there”, perennial mourners
externalize their complicated mourning. Without being aware of it fully, they postpone the mourning process by
giving the image of what is lost a new life in the linking object”. See, page 53, Chapter 3 of Volkan (2006).
35
in the Black Sea and keep alive the idea of her return to Abkhazia. He shows the progression of
the mourning process (e.g., reinvesting in their new life by enhancing their surroundings) which,
however, in the case of Dali, goes in reverse as she becomes acutely depressed (when she first
faces her mourning that can no longer be postponed73) and finds herself fulfilling a role on behalf
of the others as she, in fact, becomes a living linking object as the rest of ‘the family had
unconsciously “assigned” her to carry their refugee identity burden’. As Volkan (2006)
explains, Dali was the ‘reservoir’ for the others’ sadness and felt guilty at the thought of letting
the family lose its pre refugee’s identity and, as such, was unconsciously fulfilling her role of
living linking object.
This detailed vignette shows the explanatory power of psychoanalysis as it is only through a
profound understanding of unconscious collusive acts between various individuals that one can
truly understand what is going on in a group. The reason that this example is so fundamental is
that Volkan (2006) goes on explaining how he ‘was told that in this community of IDP’s, some
men and women, “for no apparent reasons”, suddenly dropped dead”. He had also instantly
realized that the same thing was happening to Dali (who had been diagnosed as having had a
cerebral stroke) and that, therefore, ‘the weight of being a living linking object was killing her.”
As a result of Volkan’s interpreting to Dali, the unconscious mechanisms involved, Dali survived
‘her stroke’ and became a model for the other refugees for defeating depression and ‘the number
of people who dropped dead for “no apparent reason” there had decreased considerably’. This
is a remarkable result, the first to demonstrate a possible transmission mechanism for
psychoanalytic interventions for an entire group. Thus, Volkan concludes: “When I first met
Mamuka and Dali I noticed that they were influential people in their IDP community. By getting
to know them and other members of the Kachavara family and therapeutically dealing with their
mourning and adaptation process, I hoped to develop a methodology for reaching many IDP
families without actually working with them… I was pleased to see that the “methodology” I
had envisioned for reaching other refugees by working intensely with the leaders of their
settlement seemed to be working”74.
At this point, the reader may wonder why the paper presented the Dali Kachavara clinical
vignette in such great detail. As argued, I consider it one of the great examples of applying
psychoanalysis to large group dynamics in a real world context. In my view, it has the power to
demonstrate unambiguously the power and relevance of using psychoanalysis in allowing policy
makers, not only to understand but also ‘therapeutically’ address large group dynamics in a
country context. This does not imply that the methodology used by Volkan would be applicable,
as such, to other contexts. Volkan had the luck to be able to work with a key leader in the IDP
community who was sufficiently psychologically minded to understand the subtle unconscious
mechanisms behind her behavior and was able to act as a psychological consultant to her
community all the way to actually have a genuine therapeutic impact: they stopped dying.
Regardless of its transferability to other contexts, the example demonstrates that, with proper
attention to transmission mechanisms, large group or country level ‘therapeutic’ interventions
can be successfully designed. Furthermore, as a field, political economy is far more used than
73
The ‘replacement’ dog which served as a linking object had died.
74
See p. 71, Chapter 4 of Volkan (2006).
36
psychoanalysis in dealing with large group transmission mechanisms since the large group is its
natural domain of intervention. I believe that once psychoanalytic techniques are incorporated
into designing and implementing country wide policies, there will be a natural evolution from
using psychoanalysis as a tool to understand large group dynamics and resistance to change to
using it as a tool of ‘therapeutic’ intervention, the ultimate purpose, and that, therefore, efforts
will be spent on designing successful ‘therapeutic’ interventions aimed at modifying adverse
large group dynamics. Internalizing the explanatory power of psychoanalysis to understanding
resistance to change should naturally lead policy makers and others (e.g., civil society) to focus
on how to reduce societal anxieties and reliance on adverse or primitive defenses, which is
precisely where the concept of transmission mechanism of psychoanalytic interventions to the
large group comes in. Eisold (2010) mentions the same issue in what may still be a futuristic
pattern: “imagine television programs or newspaper columns that routinely assess the
unconscious dimensions of our daily news… imagine our presidents, governors, and mayors
getting continual advice on the unintended dimensions of their policies” and concludes by
indicating: “Education continues to be the answer, both formal education and continuing public
information campaign…It will take a very long time for us to become knowledgeable and
proficient as a society, but there is really no alternative once the power and reach of the
unconscious have been recognized”75. The actual design of country level ‘therapeutic’
interventions is context specific and can only be done once there exists sufficient understanding
of large group dynamics, a topic to which we now turn and that is the subject of Section 4.2.
4.2 Large Group Dynamics issues
As the review of Volkan (1997, 2004, 2006)’s work in Section 4.1 has shown, large group
dynamics have to be studied on their own right.
The first attempt by psychoanalysis to study large group behavior comes from Freud’s (1921)
pioneering work on ‘Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego’ where he describes large
groups in terms of the members’ idealization of the leader who becomes the substitute for
individual super egos, and of the resulting identification of the members with one another.
Although these dynamic processes create a powerful sense of belonging, they also severely
restrict critical thinking and the large group falls prey to unconscious forces which the leader can
exploit. Both Bion (1961)76 and Turquet (1974) concurred with Freud that groups, regardless of
75
See p. 277 of “Political Postscript: Chimeras and Robot” in Eisold (2010).
76
Bion’s findings constitute the most known contributions to the psychology of groups since Freud. As summarized
by Kernberg (1980), “Bion described the regressive processes he observed in small groups in terms of basic
emotional assumptions (“basic assumptions group”): the “fight-flight” assumption, the “dependency” assumption,
and the “pairing” assumption. These assumptions constitute the basis for group reactions that potentially exist at
all times, but are particularly activated when the task structure (“work group”) breaks down. The “dependency”
group perceives the leader as omnipotent... Their idealization of the leader is matched by desperate efforts to
extract knowledge, power, and goodness from him…Its members feel united by a common sense of needfulness,
helplessness, and a era of an outside world…The ”fight-flight” group is united against what it vaguely perceives as
external enemies. The group expects the leader to direct the fight against such enemies and to protect the group
from in-fighting… Splitting, projection of aggression and projective identification prevail, and the search for nurture
and dependency characteristic of the “dependency” group is replaced, in the “fight-flight” group by conflicts around
aggressive control, with suspiciousness, fighting, and dread of annihilation… The “pairing” assumption leads the
37
size, show a proclivity towards the activation of primitive defense mechanisms and associated
regressive patterns due to the threat to an individual’s loss of identity in groups. However, their
work went further and represents important theoretical advances in understanding group
processes since it incorporates findings from object relations and, as such, makes it possible to
introduce additional defenses, such as splitting and projective identification. Furthermore, their
work also highlights fundamental differences between small and large groups since the potential
for regression is amplified as anxieties in larger group can dramatically increase whereas a
smaller group can more effectively contain its members. As a consequence, individuals feel more
isolated and threatened in larger groups and anxiety and aggression increase. As Kernberg (1980)
argues: “even projective mechanisms can fail because it becomes impossible to evaluate
realistically the behavior of anyone else; therefore projections become multiple and instable”.
As a consequence, an urgent task for individuals is to find ways to differentiate themselves from
others. This is due to a loss of a sense of identity which is exactly the major regressive aspect
highlighted by Volkan’s work. Thus, once again, severe identity diffusion is a common
individual anxiety in large groups.
The fact that anxiety increases in large groups is important as it is one of the motivation to
identify societal anxieties by subgroups in countries, as the prerequisite to identifying the
potential defenses (as usual the social systems as defenses against anxieties) and, also the
potential for policies to be used as social defenses.
Kernberg (1980) agrees with Volkan (2006)’s view of how large groups behave under threat
since he argues that group processes are driven by individuals’ feeling of being threatened to lose
their identity which, in turn, leads to the activation of primitive object relations77, defenses, and
aggression. Kernberg (1980) also agrees with Volkan that Freud’s work corresponds to the
situation encountered for large groups under threat, when they are regressed, since the blind
following of the leader functions as an identity through a shared identification with the leader.
Furthermore, the joint identification tames aggression which is diverted to an external enemy
whose definition, in turn, contributes to strengthening one’s identity. However, at the time that
‘Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego’ was written, the concepts of large group identity
elaborated by Volkan (1997, 2006) were not known and, as stated by Volkan (1997): “Freud’s
theory must be expanded in order to explain the equally important role of group identity and to
examine its psychological components. Large group identity better explains the cohesiveness of
group members in non-threatening times, when there is no anxiety or regression”. Freud’s work
does not mention the potential collective anxiety over the loss of the group’s identity and, since it
pre dates the theoretical advances of the British Object Relations School, does not include
group to focus on two of its members… to symbolize the pairing group’s hopeful expectations that the selected
couple will “reproduce itself”, thus preserving the group’s threatened identity and survival”.
77
Kernberg (1980) talks about primitive object relations because the relationships among individuals in a regressed
group exhibit regressive features observed in partial object relations (no internalization) that evolve when normal
ego identity disintegrates. The similarities are the appearance of the same defenses: ‘splitting, denial, projective
identification, idealization, omnipotence and, in relation to these, of intense aggression with rather primitive
features’.
38
regressive defensive behaviors such as splitting or the undertaking of actions and assuming of
roles (as a consequence of projective identification) so prevalent in large groups78.
Other aspects of large group psychoanalytical work that are relevant to the “Policy Making and
its Psychoanalytical Underpinnings” framework include all the work done in organizational
behavior, for example Gould (1988) and Kets de Vries (1984). Of particular importance, as
emphasized by Kernberg (1980), is the understanding of how the significant level of aggression,
which is a feature of unorganized groups, becomes controlled (or remains hidden) as it is
directed towards the decision making process within organizations, for example through
ritualization of tasks and bureaucratization. Leadership issues are also important. Identification
processes have been identified since Freud and examples are many including Mahatma Gandhi
in India, Nelson Mandela in South Africa, and Kim Jung Il in the Democratic People’s Republic
of Korea. Furthermore, individuals with narcissistic tendencies are, under the assumption that
they have sufficiently good communication talents, able to provide a sense of security, through
the exposition of what becomes a shared ideology, without triggering group envy. This role is
not just exploitative but may provide stabilizing functions at times of organizational regression.
Main (1974) also indicates how ‘envy is itself often denied and projected, so that others come to
be feared as dangerously envious. The resultant ‘fear of being envied’, as well as malignant
attacks… may lead to the election of harmless non entities to important posts’, in some ways the
opposite situation of a strong narcissistic leader. The “Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic
Underpinnings” framework is more focused on inter-groups projections and introjections rather
than on specific leadership issues. However, the personality of the leader, and how he/she is
perceived, can have a powerful impact on policy transmission mechanisms, as well as on the
strength of existing projections and introjections, and on the extent of their regressive nature.
Furthermore, regardless of who is in power and what their political orientation might be, it is
almost certain that an increased appreciation of the psychodynamics aspects of a country (e.g.,
mental representations of various subgroups, inter-groups projections and introjections, social
systems as defense against anxieties) would significantly enhance the quality of the leadership.
The reason for this is that the increased appreciation would increase the ability of the leadership
in charge to work towards a policy environment better suited to the existing circumstances, in
particular, in terms of prioritizing and sequencing, once resistance to change is better understood
and, possibly, addressed. This is the main link between the “Policy Making and its
Psychoanalytic Underpinnings” framework and leadership.
Last but not least, most work in large group psychology starts with analyzing individual behavior
and derives the collective behavior by aggregating individual ones. However, as implicitly
shown by Long (2008) in her discussion of collusive denial, group behavior cannot always be
derived from the simple aggregation of individual behaviors. In this specific case, the group as a
whole does exactly the opposite of what each individual would do. In what follows, the paper
reviews in greater details the concept of collusive denial since it explain important organizational
and political economy issues, that are of particular relevance to our times, and has implications
78
This last point is absolutely fundamental as applying Object Relations theory to large groups, essentially the
concepts elaborated in Jacques (1955), Klein (1946), and Winnicott (1945), is the only way to understand the
behavioral mechanisms, regressive patterns, and aggression.
39
for the synergies between economics (or political science) and psychoanalysis, a topic that was
explored in Part 2 of the paper.
Long’s (2008) seminal work on organizational dynamics shows how perverse dynamics may
enter any organization, including the most altruistic of social systems. She identifies the main
characteristics of the perverse state of mind, including denial of reality, engagement of others as
accomplices, the propensity for it to flourish when instrumental relations are dominant and a
society turns a blind eye79, and, finally the presence of hard to break perverse cycles80. She also
explains how “perverse relationships between members of the organization bind them to one
another, and often to a leader, in ways that ensures loyalty”. All of this creates the conditions for
collusive denial to flourish.
In collusive denial, for example in situations of poor governance and corruption, participants and
witnesses become caught in an ‘equilibrium’ situation where exposure of the system would
threaten the existing power structure. Thus, in Long’s words, “The system both knows and does
not know”: At the individual level, agents recognize that corruption (or abuse) is wrong and do
not support it. However, at the group level, the situation becomes the opposite since through
collusion, in part of an unconscious nature, agents turn the blind eye and become (for some
unwillingly) accomplices to corrupt or abusive practices. At the individual level, people know
and condemn what is happening but collectively, the group entity does not. Collusive denial is a
very powerful psychoanalytic concept that explains one of the most important81, albeit subtle,
behavioral mechanism behind events as diverse as the collapses of Long Term Capital Asset
Management and of Enron, endemic government corruption, child abuse within the Church,
intelligence agencies coordination failure, and even human rights violation82.
This apathy of pretending not to know is the result of generalized anxieties as individuals –in
retreating into themselves- lose faith and simply give up as they witness abusive practices. This
is a psychological withdrawal due to the fear in being seen as the whistle-blower who will not be
on the side of the powerful. Collusive denial is a social defense to avoid a narcissistic injury to
the group. “The “not-knowing” of denial is not … a simple turning away, but an active act of
rejection… a result of a deliberate abandonment” of those that are abused83.
79
This is because a consumerist society treats others as objects and opens up the possibility of abuse which is then
ignored.
80
See Chapter 2 of Long (2008).
81
Other important mechanisms include pride, greed, envy, and neglect. These are all covered in Long (2008) and
are key to understanding corporate or government policy failures.
82
As often the case, psychoanalytic issues are complex and subtle. Even in collusive denial, it is not possible to
clearly state whether a group knows or does not know. Denial is a defense for something that, at least
unconsciously, is known. It is more accurate to argue that the group does not know (assuming that the denial
works as a defense) but that, most likely, unconsciously it does know. As such, Eisold (2010) relates a disturbing
example of this as he discusses that Germans during the Third Reich dreamt of concentration camps, implying that,
at the very least, unconsciously they knew.
83
See Chapter 6 of Long (2008).
40
The reasons for bringing up this important application of psychoanalysis to organizational
behavior are two folds: First, as mentioned earlier, it constitutes a unique example where the
group behavior cannot be derived simply just from aggregating individual behaviors (each
individual does not condone the practices) since it is, in fact, the opposite of each of the identical
individual behaviors. This phenomenon of (individual) knowing and (group) not knowing could
still be modeled in economics, for example by introducing the cost of being a whistle-blower.
However, it is nevertheless a rare phenomenon in economics since, if all individuals are identical
to one another and behave exactly the same way, the group, as an aggregation of these identical
individuals, would also be expected to behave in rigorously the same way. This highlights the
importance of understanding unconscious large group dynamics and suggests additional
synergies between economics (or political science) and psychoanalysis. Second, the mechanisms
identified by Long (2008) are also applicable to countries, for example in areas of financial
excesses or environmental degradation. Once again, psychoanalytic concepts can help shed a
light on large group mechanisms that are relevant to understanding resistance to change to
policies.
Before concluding, one should naturally refer to the important methodology used in experiential
short-term study groups, that of Group Relations84. In my view, the methodology has relatively
limited applications to policy related country work and, therefore, to the “Policy Making and its
Psychoanalytic Underpinnings” framework. As emphasized by Kernberg (1980), these groups
“do not provide a temporal dimension since they are not subject to certain group processes that
take time to develop. One such process is the activation of aggression”. Furthermore, the
approach cannot incorporate, except in the artificiality of the temporary organization, the impact
of leaders’ personalities. Similarly, these groups work in the here and now and fail to capture the
impact of stable organizational or societal features and the relations between these features and
existing conflicts. The findings of Group Relations are, however, relevant and useful when
evaluating societal roles and issues of relatedness85, as is, for example, the case with the
‘Listening Posts’, created by the OPUS organization. Furthermore, some
practitioners/researchers have written about their application of the Group Relations
methodology to broad based issues, for example de Jager and Sher (2009) for institutional
change in a large financial institution in South Africa or Viswanath (2009) on internalization and
empowerment of lower castes population groups in India.
As discussed in the next section, the “Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic Underpinnings”
works with Socio Analytic Policy Dialogue groups which appear more adapted to the issues and
ways of working of policy makers.
84
Group Relations started at the ‘Leicester Conferences’ for the study of group relations, sponsored since 1957 by
the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations in the UK. Since then, there are many Group Relations events
worldwide such as those organized by OFEK in Israel or the Rice institute in the United States. A large part of the
psychoanalytically inspired organizational literature comes from individuals that were significantly involved in
Group Relations. A. K. Rice (1965) is the first one that noted how large group events were dominated by an
upsurge in ‘incomprehensible’ forces, which led to the study of large groups and the corresponding anxieties and
observed responses to it. The method is explained in Turquet (1974).
85
The exploration of identity issues could also be undertaken within the context of a Group Relations event as
done, for example, by Lahav (2009) in his exploration of Jewish identity.
41
Thus, we have now completed both the review of the literature on psychoanalytic based
theoretical and applied work (done in Section 4.1) and the review of large group dynamics, in
this section. In each case, the paper discussed the relevance of the work and concepts reviewed to
country level policy work, in particular resistance to change. As such, we can now return to the
“Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic Underpinnings” framework and discuss data collection
methodologies, the topic of Section 4.3.
4.3. Accessing and Communicating Country Level Analytical Data
The implementation of the “Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic Underpinnings” framework
requires gathering and interpreting societal level psychodynamics data in order to inform a
country’s internal debate from the perspective of ownership and internalization of policy
reforms. As explained in Section 3.1, the goal of the psychoanalytical informed data collection at
the country level is, in a first stage, to identify the various internal representations (both existing
and ideal) of various subgroups as well as the inter-groups projections and introjections. This
was referred to in Section 3.1 as the Psychodynamic Map of a country. This first stage of the data
collection effort is followed by a second stage of data collection aimed at gathering
psychodynamics data focused on specific policies.
This kind of data has never been collected on a systematic basis. Our premise is that doing so
systematically could not only allow for a better understanding of what are likely to be complex
societal dynamics but could also be used as background for country level ‘therapeutic’
interventions aimed at enabling a country to adapt its policy choices (including sequencing) in
accordance to a genuine internalization of societal preferences and understanding of resistance to
change. As such, collecting the data should only be done along the lines of the principles
(empathic listening, analytical attitude) reviewed in Section 3.3. Furthermore, although Section
3.1 has argued that the concepts of social defenses and projective identification were particularly
relevant, they are not the only psychodynamics aspects. Thus, listening for societal unconscious
dynamics should not be undertaken in a rigid fashion by selectively focusing on specific aspects
as it would preclude a complete and accurate understanding of the group dynamics.
The only psychodynamics data collected at country levels are the Listening Posts of OPUS. The
methodology is described in OPUS’ website86. The approach is based on the idea that “the
external and internal worlds of members of societies are in continuous interaction: what goes on
in the minds of members of societies is partly reactive to what happens around them, but is also
very much proactive”. As such, the Listening Posts aim at providing a direct window into a
society’s anxieties and can be a useful input to policy makers in understanding world, regional,
and country specific dynamics. Since 2004, Listening Posts have been convened annually in an
increasingly larger number of countries. With several yearly reports, there exists now a data set
which is not available elsewhere.
As stated at the end of the 2009 report, “Listening Posts are based on the notion that a relatively
small group of people meeting together to study the behavior of a society as a society allows the
unconscious expression of some characteristics of the wider social system”. By ‘relatively
86
www.opus.org.uk
42
small’, what is meant in practice is a group size of say less that 15 people87 in order to avoid
having a group hostage to the large group dynamics (e.g., anxieties and expression of rivalries)
that were reviewed in Section 4.2 since this could contaminate, thus invalidate, the data
collected. The term ‘study the behavior of a society as a society’ is a reference to Group
Relations which reflects the orientation of OPUS. In my view, and from the perspective of policy
makers, the key theoretical question on Listening Posts relates to statistical sampling. As
Dartington (2000) states: “It is sufficient to acknowledge that the proposition that a small group
may act in ways that in microcosm offer insights into the working of a much larger group does
not fit easily with the rational politics of representation and differentiation”. This is an important
caveat which may be the reason why the OPUS website mentions the word ‘some’ in the
sentence that is quoted at the beginning of this paragraph. From a Group Relations perspective,
as mentioned in Dartington (2000), the idea behind the fact that characteristics of the wider
social systems are expressed is that “the individual takes up a certain role, like it or not, as part
of the unconscious dynamics of a group“.
My own preference is to think of a shared societal unconscious rather than in terms of roles as
conceptually it covers the full spectrum of affects and dynamics. As such, the issue of statistical
sampling can be rephrased in terms of robustness of the societal unconscious, meaning the extent
to which it is shared among individuals so that that its imprint can be observed (by accessing its
derivatives) even with a small sample. In the case of identity, it is what Volkan (2004) implicitly
argues since every single individual of a large group can own to it even if most of the time it is
not observed, which leads him to argue that: “The concept of large group identity describes how
thousands or millions of individuals, most of whom will never meet in their lifetimes, are bound
by an intense sense of sameness by belonging to the same ethnic, religious, national, or
ideological group”88. My own view is that sampling size is unlikely to be a constraint. However,
one cannot take this for granted in the case of policy work (important decisions must be made)
and any data collection under the “Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic Underpinnings”
framework would need to test the constancy (or robustness) of the ways derivatives of the
societal unconscious are obtained by comparing data across various samples until policy makers
are sufficiently convinced of its validity. Furthermore, there could be differences across sub
groups (likely in certain areas) which a data collection strategy limited to the group as a whole
may not be able to capture89. Last, but not least, one needs to be able to differentiate between
derivatives of the individual unconscious from the derivatives of the shared societal unconscious.
The idea is that societal ones will show up in a pattern (with more frequency), thus the idea of
ensuring through repeated group processes that the data is indeed representative.
In conclusion, Listening Posts can provide valuable insights into societal dynamics but are not
the preferred data collection method under the “Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic
Underpinnings” framework since the focus there is not only on deep societal anxieties but also
on other aspects, including mental representations (both existing and ideal), inter-groups
87
My own preference is to aim for 8 to 10 individuals per group.
88
See Introduction in Volkan (2004).
89
Some aspects may also be repressed in presence of others and capturing accurate dynamics is likely to require,
at first, a segmentation of the population on which data is collected.
43
projections and introjections, and understanding mechanisms under which a specific policy can
be derailed by social defenses needs. In addition to Listening Posts, Socio Analytic Policy
Dialogue groups are suggested. Unlike what is customary for Group Relations events, these
policy dialogue events are much less structured in terms of task or time boundaries. The
emphasis on encouraging associations remains although the discussions also need sometimes to
be organized along specific topics90. Finally, therapeutic aspects (in a latter phase when
discussions across groups take place) are also prioritized to decrease resistance to change.
However, arguing for additional data collection is not meant to imply (with the caveat about
statistical sampling) that Listening Posts are not useful for policy purposes91. An understanding
of societal dynamics at a deep level can inform on the type of leadership that is preferred at any
given time. Depending upon the existing dynamics in a society, a leader may need to be
reparative or transformative (or both). Leadership will also be affected by the mood of the
country, for example using Moisi’s (2009) formulation, whether a nation is gripped by fear,
humiliation, or hope.
As an illustration of the techniques proposed, let me briefly review a series of Socio Analytic
Policy Dialogue groups that took place in the United States with young professionals exploring
the work place within92. The meetings were a combination of experiential learning (identifying
90
As always with psychoanalytical based work, there are important elements of judgments akin to an art rather
than, at the other hand of the spectrum, a codified poll or attitude survey. However, when discussions are meant
to be topic specific, great care must be given not to narrow the discussions too soon so as not to exclude areas,
seemingly outside the domain of a specific policy, since issues pertaining to a specific policy might have been
displaced.
91
In fact, Listening Posts highlight issues that should be of interest to policy makers. In particular, there is a link
between the findings and policies, since Listening Posts identify a risk of citizens’ outright rejection of anything
proposed by the state. It implies their refusal to endorse policies or, in other words, a disruption in policy
transmission mechanisms which can lead to policy failure. To illustrate this, the main conclusions of the 2009
Global Dynamics report are shown in what follows. There is loss of sense of connectedness leading to feelings of
disintegration. As a consequence, citizens appear desperate and angry and have the potential to displace
unbearable feelings into groups that will be conveniently chosen (or act as) containers of the global anxieties.
Citizens have also given up on institutions (loss of trust) and view the state as persecutory. Furthermore, the need
to find hope is so desperate that any situation can be transformed as hopeful (crisis as re-birth) with a potential for
disillusion since massive idealization can quickly be undone with a sharp reversal. Finally, one reaction is to avoid
being in a constant state of mourning for the past (loss of a way of life) by retreating into one self (apathy). Thus,
as can be seen, the conclusions are of a very deep nature. They are also fairly constant across countries. However,
until further explored, the conclusions could be seen by policy makers as lacking immediate policy relevance.
92
The “Young Professionals and the Work Place within” Socio Analytic Policy Dialogue groups were held with
young workers (usually with 3/4 years prior work experience and often in a second job) from various places in the
Baltimore and Washington, DC area, in part as a data collection exercise to test the techniques proposed under the
“Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic Underpinnings” framework. The group consisted of 10 individuals and met 9
times for an average of three hours each time over the October 2009 – May 2010 period. The group population
was purposely targeted (young professionals) and the ‘policy’ topic selected was work and work place related
issues.
44
anxieties and social defenses), freely flowing discussions (to capture societal issues) and
interpretations (which, in turn, had to be validated) as well as exploration with other techniques
(e.g., drawings) of various psychodynamics issues. Thus, the Socio Analytic Policy Dialogue
groups did not prioritize a specific mode of intervention but rather aimed at utilizing, while
adopting the maximum flexibility, a variety of interventions, often several during the same
meeting, which all had in common their reliance on psychoanalytic concepts. The tasks were
only loosely defined as they were considered endogenous (in this sense, each group was
different) rather than exogenous by being strictly defined and adhered to. Similarly, although
there was an awareness of boundaries (on the part of group members as well as with the topic
having been purposely explored early on), these remained fluid, albeit continuously addressed, in
light of their endogeneity, as the work proceed. I believe that this kind of flexibility with the task
and boundaries is needed in country wide policy work93.
The Socio Analytic Policy Dialogue focus groups highlighted work specific issues (e.g., labor
contract types, office space) and showed how these issues were masking problems (or objects of
displacement) for much deeper feelings of resentment, exclusion, shame, and humiliation94.
Issues of fairness and predictability also dominated the discussions as feelings of not being in
control and losing trust in management structures were shown to induce strong anxieties. It was
also highlighted that what appeared as pride in one’s work was, in fact, a feeling of validation by
others as if one predicament (disillusion at work) could be offset by being admired by outsiders
for one’s work role. The discussions also showed how the ‘work place within’ mirrored the
‘society within’ as more global issues (e.g., loss of trust in the state, young carrying the burden
of the older generation) were also identified. Finally, the data generated by the series of Socio
Analytic Policy Dialogue groups were found to be consistent with those of comprehensive staff
surveys (based on much larger data sets and much costlier undertakings) but provided subtler
information on mental representations (‘work place within’) that could not have been captured
by the large surveys. For example, the fact that work pride played a defensive role in order to
facilitate coping and find meaning, could not have been identified by large surveys. This is
important since work motivation and, therefore, productivity, is affected by the nature of pride
(or personal investment) that one has in their place of work. The findings are somewhat95
consistent with studies on youth joblessness which shows how the young generation, in the
93
This is also how I interpreted Volkan’s work where the intervention techniques are adapted to the circumstances
(e.g., allow for ‘us’ versus ‘them’ dynamics to be expressed, respect ‘hot places’).
94
These issues were also poignantly highlighted by individual drawings that were subsequently analyzed by the
participants. These drawings were full of question marks and depicted scenes (representing the ‘work place
within’) showing downward spirals symbolizing entrapment, complete enclosure and domination by technology, or
a lone individual carrying a huge burden (the whole world) standing at the edge of a precipice and desperate, to
cross to safety on the other side.
95
Only ‘somewhat’ are our sample was biased since the average young professional in the Washington, DC and
Baltimore area has a relatively good job and better career prospects that the average young person in the US
Economy.
45
developed world in particular, is scared by the job crisis96. The type of work described above can
easily be extended at the country level. A such, it illustrates how country level Socio Analytic
P:olicy Dialogue groups (when needed, for subgroups and on specific policy issues) could be
used, in addition to more standard polls and attitude surveys, to help in understanding deeper
psychodynamics issues and their impact on policies.
We now turn to a country level example on Bolivia, to illustrate, from a different angle, the need
for flexibility since the type of issues, or analytical data, that can surface can be quite varied. The
importance of the trauma of loss of access to the sea following the War of the Pacific (and its
impact on the country psyche and its choice of policies) was discussed in Section 4.1 on
psychogeography. We now turn to a completely different issue, a state of general ambivalence
that could turn out to be the major psychodynamics feature of the country. It was briefly
mentioned in Section 3.3 where we referred to the 1952 Revolution having been almost buried in
the collective unconscious. As argued in Grindle and Domingo (2003), “9 April 2002, the fiftieth
anniversary of the Revolution of 1952, passed quietly in Bolivia. La Razon published a special
section on the revolution, detailing the importance of its legacy –the nationalization of the mines,
the agrarian reform, universal suffrage… Beyond these few events, 9 April was like most other
days in the country. There were no parades, it was not a national holiday, the government made
no official announcement about the event and most Bolivians seemed to take little notice of the
anniversary of their revolution”. Starting from this perplexing point97 which suggested that
something unusual may be at play, further work indicated that, from the very start there had, in
fact, been a lot of ambivalence among the protagonists of the revolution. Furthermore, it
appeared that this state of mind reflected attitudes towards all reforms as if there were attempts,
through a refusal to validate the country’s accomplishments, to undo some of the reforms,
something which was sometimes acted upon through policy reversal. There is also a near
complete lack of connection between political affiliation and reforms pursued in the sense that it
is particularly difficult in Bolivia to guess, simply by looking at a specific policy reform, which
political party pushed for it, in the sense that it could have been any of the political parties,
something which is rarely the case in other countries. It seems that this ambivalence towards
reforms may also be related to issues of identity that are prominent in the multiethnic, yet
divided, society that is Bolivia. For example, complex societal dynamics could have led
President Sanchez de Lozada to become the ‘vehicle’ for that society to express or attempt to
work through identity issues. More precisely, the society would have reflected its ambivalence
towards identity (this is a nation that is highly polarized along ethnicity and that, until relatively
recently, functioned with under a feudal exploitative system) by having a President that had been
portrayed as an outsider or a foreigner but was, nevertheless, pursuing reforms that led to the
96
See, for example, “The Lost Generation” in Business Week (October 19, 2009) where it is argued that ‘employers
are likely to suffer from the scarring of a generation” which is damaging both the young’s futures and the
economy.
97
The absence of observance of the revolution in Bolivia is in contrast to what is observed in other Latin American
countries, such as Cuba for the 1959 revolution or Mexico for the 1910 revolution. Furthermore, Grindle and
Domingo (2003) observed that “Even in Nicaragua, whose revolution left a country bitterly divided and
impoverished, there are statues and places that commemorate the vision and nationalism of the Sandinistas”.
46
redefinition of the nation as a multi ethnic society98. This ambivalence might still be displayed
with the election of President Morales, of Indian descent, who benefits from a strong support of
the population, in particular the indigenous one, but is still pursuing relatively orthodox market
oriented economic policies. Finally, coca cultivation is another area where societal ambivalence
may express itself. On one hand, it has been used as a rallying point for reaffirming a Bolivian
identity and defiance (coca might have acquired a symbolic significance in the sense that feelings
of hate or envy of the United States and its perceived inference into Bolivian affairs might have
been displaced into a defense of coca) while at the same time having also been perceived as a
tool of exploitation (what kept the miners in the Altiplano peaceful) and, therefore, rejected as
such. Nevertheless, President Morales was able to create a powerful and seductive image, in part
as head of the coca grower association.
We now turn to the communicating aspects of country level data work, namely resistance
diffusion, nation branding, and consolidate various aspects of transmission of interventions and
psychodynamics findings that were discussed throughout the paper.
Unlike the case of individuals or even organizations, reflecting upon a country’s behavior in
reference to its culture, history, and psychodynamics constructs is, in my view in most cases,
facilitated by the near absence of resistance to discussing issues, something which I call
resistance diffusion. An exception, as analyzed by Volkan (2006) is the case of regressed
societies where acute dynamics, often related to threats to identity, are activated. Even then,
although the techniques need to be adapted to work first with the strong societal splits, working
through the ‘us versus them’ behavioral differences is possible as done in reconciliation work.
The idea behind resistance diffusion is that, in country work, individuals with whom one works
with are almost always able to maintain their individual identity, separate from that of the
country (or the ‘country within’ which is not the only mental representation in their mind). As
such, country specific issues can usually be safely discussed (the first wall of resistance is
breached as individuals are able to hear what is being said) without individuals immediately
experiencing country level interpretations as personal attacks or even judgments. Furthermore,
my experience is that the notion of sovereignty and the multiple comparisons that are made
worldwide, across various indicators of well being between nations, both contribute, sometimes
even significantly, to resistance diffusion. The rationale behind is that government leaders and
citizen groups will often react positively to the idea of changing something in order to make their
nation, in their eyes and those of the rest o the world, look better. The corollary is that they will
become responsive to hearing what it takes (or identifying the obstacles) to change that
something. One example could be a psychodynamics led reflection that would originate with the
recognition that a nation’ education or health achievements are falling behind others. Thus,
98
The ambivalence may also explain the fact the education policy that enabled children to be taught in their native
language during the first three years was resisted by local teachers who aimed for assimilation by preferring
Spanish. Furthermore, the capitalization (Bonosol) which had the power to transform the poor’s lives by providing
access to capital was nevertheless, at first, criticized. This was kept, in a modified form as payments are now more
frequent since they are made on a monthly basis, by the Morales administration.
47
anytime it becomes possible to undertake psychodynamics based policy work, directly at the
level of a nation as an entity, resistance diffusion is likely to be facilitated.
For example, some discussions on a country’s inability to take charge (dependency, fear of
failure, humiliation) were held in Benin and Gabon and were welcomed by policy makers and
civil society participants. The reason for this was that the country felt ‘understood’ and ‘heard’ as
the issues resonated and were brought up in a manner consistent with the principles of the
Analytical Attitude at the country level that were introduced Section 3.3. I believe that, had this
kind of discussions continued further, there could have been notable progress on country
ownership and internalization. It is, nevertheless likely, that after a certain point (but that would
still have led to the gains on internalization and ownership mentioned above) the discussions
would have had to confront particularly difficult issues related to the role of the State and the
way it evolved following colonization and independence, as well as issues of inconsistency
between mental representations of wealth and power and the requirements of a modern economy.
African scholars such as Etounga-Manguelle (1991) and Kabou (1991) have already written on
these sensitive topics. In my view, African led ‘therapeutic’ interventions aimed at working
through the scars of history and failed economic performance and informed by the kind of data
and dialogue advocated by this paper, are prerequisites to a genuine economic take off. The
working through would require a mourning of the past and evaluation of ingrained modes of
behavior that are likely to be obstacles to these countries meeting their economic potential. Even
in Argentina, before the crisis and the fear that existed surrounding the abandonment of the
currency board, there was still resistance diffusion. Naturally, this kind of ‘psychodynamics
dialogue’ at the level of the entire country should have taken place shortly after the return of
democracy during the period that was known as ‘la plata dulce’, or ‘easy money’ when the
economy was performing well99.
The kind of approach advocated in the paper, especially the construction of the identification of
the Psychodynamic Map of a country, and possible ‘therapeutic’ country led discussions can also
be a useful input into Nation Branding100. As elaborated by Dinnie (2008) in his textbook on
Nation Branding, “The notion that a brand is something that resides in the mind of the
consumers has been noted by some of the major writers on branding. The brand-building
process requires long-term commitment over a period of several years… Nations need to
acknowledge this reality and adopt a long-term strategic view when building their nation-brand,
rather than aiming for a quick fix short-term advertising campaign whose effects may be
ephemeral”. As such, country level reflections on identity and aspirations can be seen as key
inputs to the nation’s brand. As Porter (1990) explains, differences in behavioral aspects, values,
and culture are important components of economic success. In my view, Nation Branding needs
99
Note that this kind of collective therapeutic efforts may be easier in emerging markets (where there is hope)
rather than in more advanced economies gripped by fear of declining standard of living, an aging of the
population, and tense dynamics surrounding income distribution issues, including envy.
100
In fact, even during ‘road shows’ with investors prior to the issuance of a sovereign bond, audiences often ask
political economy questions on the sustainability of the policy framework. The responses provided could be further
enhanced and, as a result gain in credibility, with information on country psychodynamics issues. In fact, I have
witnessed on several occasions how investors welcomed that kind of information. The case of the 2010 Greece
debt crisis (and the attitude of Germany in leading the preparation of a financial bailout to avoid a default) would
have benefitted from that type of reflection.
48
to go beyond the economics of competition and could be one of the impetus for a government to
engage in the kind of psychodynamics reflection suggested in the paper, which then could be
seen as a component of policy along the lines of what is suggested by Dinnie (2008): “Brand
management should be treated as a component of national policy… If brand management is put
into a silo of ‘communications’ or ‘public affairs’, there is little it can do. But when it informs
policy making and becomes implicit in the way a country is run, it can dramatically accelerate
change”. I believe the same holds for country level psychodynamic work which should even be
explicit rather than implicit. Naturally, what this paper advocates is far deeper (and aimed at very
different purposes) than Nation Branding. Furthermore, there are concerns about the likely
relative superficiality of a branding exercise for aspects as crucial as national identity. The only
point made here is, however, that what is proposed in the paper can inform (and, therefore,
improve) Nation Branding which, in turn, can be one way of helping policy makers internalize
the validity of the kind of approach that is proposed.
We now conclude this section by further discussing the transmission mechanism of country level
interventions, a topic already covered in Section 4.1., in particular with the discussion of Volkan
(2006)’s work in Georgia with IDP’s a specific example of a transmission mechanism of
psychoanalytic informed interpretations.
How country level psychodynamics findings are transmitted to the concerned population should
be a function of the ways data are collected, the nature of the issues, and the leadership. For
example, in the case of Volkan (2006), the data was collected at the individual level (one person
and a family unit) using a technique close to a traditional psychoanalytic intervention (repeated
individual discussions on affects and defenses) to improve overall conditions in the IDP camp
(and as the work progressed, the series of ‘unexplained’ death of IDP’s), and, in this case,
working directly with the leaders of the camp. The objective was to address specific IDP related
psychological issues through a demonstration effect by having other IDP’s follow the example of
the leader. This example remains close to mental health interventions (even if they are done
differently) when working with traumatized populations in post-conflict settings.
The work proposed by the “Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic Underpinnings” framework is
different since it concerns country wide resistance to change and, at a more abstract level, mental
representations (e.g., ‘country in the mind’). As such, I believe that the transmission mechanisms
of interventions will often have to be considered as part of large group level work on policies.
This would essentially be undertaken by the country’s government and civil society (depending
upon the issues and their respective roles and involvement on specific issues). However, both
governments and civil society are likely, at least at first, to require neutral facilitators to help
them sort out through their own projections and introjections and help them identify all the
psychodynamics issues. These issues were already discussed in Section 4.1 where it was argued
that there should be a natural evolution from incorporating psychodynamics in the design and
implementation of country wide policies to that of using the techniques as a tool of therapeutic
intervention. This, in turn, should naturally lead to the successful design of large group
‘therapeutic’ interventions, in ways similar to coalition and consensus building activities.
49
Once a Psychodynamic Map of the country has been derived, it must be communicated
empathically to others101. I suspect that the type of information would be so new, while still at a
fairly aggregate level, that some resistance diffusion would be in effect, especially if the
interventions are seen as repairing (or enhancing) a society by increasing (or recapturing)
connectedness and increase (or rebuild) basic trust. Increased willingness in recognizing societal
anxieties would already go a long way in that direction. As argued in Section 4.1, the
dissemination work of the state and non state actors could be further enhanced by the media, for
example by providing psychodynamics based assessments of in-country developments as well as
reporting on findings of Socio Analytic Policy Dialogue groups102.
5. Conclusions
This paper concludes with a long quote from Freud (1930) found in the last chapter of
‘Civilization and its Discontents’:
“I believe the line of thought which seeks to trace in the phenomena of cultural development the
part played by super ego promises still further discoveries. I hasten to come to a close. But there
is one question which I can hardly evade. If the development of civilization has such far reaching
similarity to the development of the individual and if it employs the same methods, may we not be
justified in reaching the diagnosis that, under the influence of cultural urges, some civilizations
or some epochs of civilizations –possibly the whole of mankind- have become ‘neurotic’? An
analytic dissection of such neuroses might lead to therapeutic recommendations which could lay
claim to great practical interest. I would not say that an attempt of this kind to carry
psychoanalysis over to the cultural community was absurd or doomed to be fruitless. But we
should have to be very cautious and not forget that, after all, we are only dealing with analogies
and that it is dangerous, not only with men but also with concepts to tear them from the sphere in
which they have originated and been evolved. Moreover, the diagnosis of communal neuroses is
faced with a special difficulty. In an individual neurosis, we take as our starting point the
contrast that distinguishes the patient from his environment, which is assumed to be ‘normal’.
For a group all of whose member are affected by one and the same disorder no such background
could exist; it would have to be found elsewhere. And, as regard the therapeutic application of
our knowledge, what would be the use of the most correct analysis of social neuroses, since no
one possesses authority to impose such a therapy upon the group? But in spite of all these
difficulties, we may expect that one day someone will venture to embark upon a pathology of
cultural communities.103”
101
As already discussed in Section 3.3, this can be difficult as it requires the ability to be confronted by radically
different, possibly contradictory, viewpoints and mental representations. This is, again, where the complete non
judgmental and empathic approach of psychoanalysis comes in.
102
This is not that different from what is already done by the media when they conduct town halls or report on the
state of mind of a country by conducting group interviews except that the emphasis would also be on
understanding country level psychodynamics issues.
103
As stated in footnote 1, there is no emphasis whatsoever, in the proposed work, on anything that could be
considered a pathology, and this regardless of the dynamics that may exist in a country.
50
As the paper has argued, there have been significant theoretical advances in the field of
psychoanalysis to allow for the kind of work that Freud anticipated. In particular psychoanalysis
based ‘therapeutic’ approaches in the field of organizational behavior and management have
already been developed and successfully applied in various settings (e.g., health care,
transportation, financial services). As Volkan (2006) demonstrates, unlike what is implicit in
Freud’s writings, the work can only be multidisciplinary, for example working with diplomats,
historians, political scientists, and mental health professional, including psychoanalysts. This is
also the view of Eisold (2010) who stresses the importance of applying knowledge of
unconscious dynamics to understand vitally important social problems and, as such, argues for
this kind of work in politics and diplomacy. Furthermore, this paper has emphasized the need for
country work to move away from any ideas, even implicitly, of pathology in line with the non
judgmental approach that is the essence of psychoanalysis. The point was made at the very
beginning of the paper and is mentioned again at the end, in part, because the quote from Freud
(1930) shown above ends with ‘a pathology of cultural communities’.
Globalization’s contributions to adverse societal dynamics, increased incidence of perverse
dynamics in organizations, and risks of huge economic dislocations (e.g., housing crisis, Greek
crisis) all make it clear that the work proposed under the “Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic
Underpinnings” framework is timely and relevant: the work is important; the techniques to
undertake it do exist; and governments and civil society are likely to be increasingly ready to
work along those lines.
Unlike previous work that has been more political or psychological in nature, the framework
proposed in the paper suggests to focus directly on country-wide policies and, more precisely, on
policy transmission mechanisms. Policies are what connects citizens to the state, to one another,
and are the source of most tensions in countries. As such, the approach is adapted to government
country strategy work policy with its focus on policy design and formulation and prioritization of
country ownership and internalization. Furthermore, the kind of data that would be collected and
analyzed with group and policy specific, as well as more general, Socio Analytic Policy
Dialogue groups should, ultimately, become easily understood by policy makers. My own
experience suggests that resistance to acknowledging and understanding country wide
psychodynamics issues may be lower than expected. As such, this would facilitate coalition and
consensus building, and therefore, addressing resistance to change.
As Eisold (2010) argues, psychoanalysis experienced a decline and resulting loss of credibility
due to several factors, in particular the appearances of rigid and competing institutions and a
general distrust of its medical applications, especially in consumerist societies, since “the pace of
the modern world no longer seems compatible with the long, drawn-out, open-ended processes
of free association and reverie that have long been seen as essential elements of psychoanalytic
process”. Nevertheless, the field completely permeates our culture and understanding of human
behavior. Furthermore, psychoanalytic training institutes are increasingly incorporating in their
curriculum all the teachings of modern psychoanalytic theories without the splitting into different
theoretical schools that existed more in the past. Rapid changes in the world have allowed for the
beginning of an increased appreciation of how group unconscious processes may be influencing,
in a fundamental way, policy decisions and international politics. Yet policy makers and the
51
general public have, in general, still limited knowledge and appreciation for what the mode of
inquiry and way of being of psychoanalysis, meaning its essence, is.
The premise of this paper is that psychoanalytically influenced policy dialogue should go a long
way towards decreasing the frequency and intensity of adversarial and potentially dangerous
societal dynamics. It would not only enable to identify early hidden emotions and perverse
behaviors that are, ultimately, the source of these dynamics but also, through the adoption of an
Analytical Attitude at the country level, provide a framework for truly non-judgmental and
empathic exchanges. As such, the paper has motivated and introduced several ideas and
concepts, including some that are new. Taken together, they constitute the basis for applying the
proposed “Policy Making and its Psychoanalytic Underpinnings” framework.
These ideas and concepts are the following (in the order in which they appear in the paper):
1) Motivation example on Argentina of a policy ‘hijacked’ by unconscious group
dynamics;
2) Since policies are essentially derived from economics, a review of behavioral
research in financial economics, macroeconomics, and microeconomics and a
discussion, from the perspective of each field having its own mode of thinking and
resistance, of cross fertilization between economics and psychoanalysis;
3) A discussion of two fundamental psychoanalytic concepts, social systems as defense
against anxieties and projective identification. These are essential background for
policy makers. Furthermore, applications -with examples- to country level work are
given.
4) The introduction of a new principle, the Sequencing Principle regarding the primacy
of social defenses needs over policy stated objectives, which could have modeling
applications but, more importantly, capture one of the key motivation and thinking of
the proposed framework;
5) A discussion of analytical listening and the introduction of a new concept, the
Analytical Attitude at the county level. The Psychodynamic Map of a country is
defined as the mental representations (including the ideal ones) of the country across
subgroups as well as the inter-groups projections and identifications;
6) A review of existing country level psychoanalytic based work and of large group
dynamics issues; and
7) A discussion of data gathering techniques, in particular Socio Analytic Policy
Dialogue groups and of country level transmission mechanisms of findings. The idea
of resistance diffusion is also discussed.
The work itself could address societal wide issues or global development strategy and be more
focused on specific policies and or subgroups. The dissemination phased of the data is important
as it constitutes the mechanism to foster improved understanding and communication at the level
of entire country, an important component of a more open society. An understanding of the
societal dynamics, through the construction of a Psychodynamic Map of the country should also
be particularly helpful in informing leadership issues. This is an important component as
decision makers are seldom aware of group emotions and dynamics, until it is often too late, and
even, they can still be misunderstood.
52
Similarly to what is described in Volkan (2006), in what he describes, in the case of Estonia, as
the ‘Tree Model’104, the work would include a diagnosis phase, which requires substantial in
depth discussions and a proper assessment of the economic and political constraints, followed by
dissemination and discussion at various levels and with a variety of format, including meetings
across groups that have conflicting views on policies.
Finally, in order to reach its full potential, the proposed framework should be increasingly
implemented on a variety of issues in countries representing different stages of development and
different regions. To do so, it is also suggested that the key concepts and their application be
disseminated to policy makers. All policies are implemented by government institutions, which
themselves can be subjected to adverse dynamics, or are often, as is often the case of regulatory
reforms, the result of organizational failure elsewhere (e.g., financial sector). Therefore, one way
would be to start with disseminating knowledge (e.g., training workshops for policy makers,
media, civil society) on psychoanalytic based organizational behavior interventions, ideally
adapted to the policy context. Additional country-wide material could also be made available.
Further elaboration, mainstreaming, and implementation of the “Policy Making and its
Psychoanalytic Underpinnings” framework will ideally require an independent structure, an
Institute. There are no reasons to assume that countries or societies, as long as it is homegrown,
cannot change profoundly. Ultimately, the move to psychoanalytically influenced policy making
work can only be introduced by the countries themselves as well as by a variety of civil society
actors, homegrown or foreign. Nevertheless, there is also no reason, as long as the basis are
completely revised, to assume that external processes, if they are inspired by psychoanalysis and
its empathic and non-judgmental approach, cannot play a useful role in this.
Examples of issues that could be addressed include (i) countries, for example Bolivia, with
societal splits, that are perceived by some outsiders to position themselves in defiance of the
existing globalization framework; (ii) countries, for example Syria, aiming for an opening of
their economy and society, in accordance to their cultural norms, while navigating a complex
geopolitical environment; (iii) countries, for example several EU including Greece, struggling
with external structural constraints and welfare expectations of their population; (iv) countries,
for example some of the more advanced economies in Sub-Saharan Africa such as Ghana, that
have yet to truly integrate to the global economy; and, fragile states, not only on conflict
resolution issues but also on aid dependency.
“Remembering the Past, Shaping the Future”
Bruno Boccara,
[email protected]
New York, May 13, 2010
104
Since Volkan’s work addresses post-conflict issues, the structure is more elaborated (plenary followed by small
group meetings, participants together in the evening, particular attention given to meeting location) but the ideas,
in particular carrying concepts over from psychoanalytic practices, are similar. Even on policy issues, meetings with
no pre determined agenda can take place.
53
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