The first in Russia master’s program in psychoanalytic business consulting has opened at the Higher School of Economics.
Psychologies: Psychoanalysis and coaching – how do these two different approaches fit together?
M. K. de W .: Indeed, coaching is aimed at quickly solving specific problems and is very different from years of research into the unconscious. But psychoanalytic training enables the business coach to work really deep. Most of the difficulties we face at work are related to unconscious processes — internal conflicts, psychological defenses, hidden rivalries, unconscious fantasies and fears. If only the explicit (rational) is taken into account, then the consultant will unsuccessfully try to solve the wrong problem at all.
Such as?
M. K. de W .: For example, the owner of a company is used to controlling the work of each employee — he is sure that they cannot cope without him. At some point, he invites a coach to teach his subordinates to take on more responsibility. But the more independent the workers become, the stronger the anxiety and irritation of the manager. And the psychoanalytic business consultant sees: the difficulty of the owner is that he is unconsciously afraid of the «growing up» of his subordinates, because he does not separate the company from himself and behaves like an absorbing, controlling mother.
The psychoanalytic coach helps the leader to recognize this internal conflict and (on a symbolic level) to discover the paternal principle within himself. Only in this way will he be able to open the merger — and he will be ready to calmly, confidently accept and support the initiative of his subordinates.