A Multitude of Little Luminosities : Dissociative Multiplicity as an Image of and Invitation to Psyche, through a Case of Dissociative Identity Disorder

This project sought to narrate a process of working with and learning from DID, through the researcher’s case study description of her work with a patient experiencing dissociative identity disorder (DID). The researcher focused on unique ways in which dissociation and multiplicity impacted the therapy relationship and impacted work on the patient’s experience of self, including healing traumatic wounds, developing richer intra- and interpersonal relationships, and moving toward increased self-integrity. The researcher additionally worked with psychoanalytic theory, particularly Jungian, post-Jungian, archetypal, and relational approaches, to consider the ways in which DID provides an opportunity to conceptualize broader human experience, not only the most radically unintegrated, in terms of dissociation and multiplicity. This argument was presented as a counter to tendencies to privilege unity—more specifically, the personal ego—within much of psychotherapy and broader Western culture, which both has shaped and been shaped by psychotherapy. The project ultimately presented and argued that a relational and archetypal approach to DID both provides a means of processing and healing trauma through new relationship and opens therapeutic work to ways of approaching psyche that transcend singular and personal visions of subjectivity, identity, development, health, creativity, agency, etc. In order to invite the project itself to realize its argument, the researcher augmented the case study method with imaginal methods. The researcher engaged in active imagination, informed by Romanyshyn’s “transference dialogues,” and treated writing as a method of discovery rather than merely a passive recording. These methodological augmentations were intended to invite integration of what we might call dissociated and/or unconscious imaginative material—personal, interpersonal, cultural, and archetypal—that was not necessarily a part of the researcher’s own initial conscious awareness of or intentions for the project

The role of stories in understanding the cultural context surrounding information systems practices

The culture of an organization constitutes the environment into which information systems (IS) practices take place. Despite the importance of culture in the organizational theory and management literature, this topic has received little attention in the IS area. The culture of an organization can be looked at from different angles. In addition to the usual view of culture, the integration view, two other perspectives have been identified in the literature: the differentiation and fragmentation perspectives. While the integration perspective focuses on the assembling role organizational culture is normally said to play, the differentiation perspective highlights important differences among groups of people in the organization and the fragmentation perspective includes the notion of ambiguity and uncertainty in the conceptualization of culture. This study uses organizational stories as a way to investigate the culture of an organization and as a way to better understand IS practices. It uses simultaneously the three organizational culture perspectives in order to get a broad picture of the cultural context surrounding IS practices. More specifically, the objective of this interpretive study is to investigate three research questions related to (1) the nature of the stories told and the themes that they carry, (2) the functions that these stories play in the organization, and (3) the relationships between themes and IS practices. Using an in-depth case study strategy, stories and their interpretations were collected from a software-development company using primarily semi-structured interviews. The results emphasize the bias resulting from the use of the integration perspective as the only way to look at the culture of an organization. This bias had a profound impact on the literature; it helped shape the identification of important organizational actors, the definition of stories, and the conceptualization of their functions. In this study, a broader conception of significant stories is given along with a broader range of functions that stories may fulfill. Finally, the results highlight the importance of cultural elements in understanding the general context surrounding IS practices and explore in more detail two very contemporary IS activities: implementing team reorganization (change) and managing outsourcing relationships

Sensemaking in Enterprise Resource Planning Project Deescalation: An Empirical Study

Enterprise resource planning (ERP) projects, a type of complex information technology project, are very challenging and expensive to implement. Past research recognizes that escalation, defined as the commitment to a failing course of action, is common in such projects. While the factors that contribute to escalation (e.g., project conditions, psychological, organizational, and social factors) have been extensively examined, the literature on deescalation of projects is very limited. Motivated by this gap in the literature, this research examines deescalation, that is, on breaking the commitment to the failing course of action with a particular focus on ERP projects. This study is organized as a single-case study of a complex ERP project that was undertaken after a merger of two organizations. It examines how the project team members’ sensemaking is implicated in deescalation. Applying sensemaking as a theoretical lens, this engaged scholarship research contributes to practice by providing recommendations on how to better manage ERP project deescalation. It contributes to theory by providing a nuanced understanding of ERP project deescalation through project team members’ sensemaking activities

Military Operations Research Society (MORS) Oral History Project Interview of Dr. Mark T. Lewellyn

Interviewers: Dr. George Akst, FS, and Dr. Bob Sheldon, FS. The interview was conducted via Zoom on August 9, 2022

An examination of doctoral training from the students\u27 perspective

This study examined doctoral training from the students\u27 perspective. Several different aspects of the involved experience of doctoral training were investigated, including higher education, political and psychological concerns. Eight Ph.D. students enrolled in the social sciences were interviewed. A qualitative methodological approach was used for the data gathering and analysis. A variety of findings were reported. Two of the main findings were (1) the importance of social relationships (with mentors and colleagues) for the students; and (2) the bi-directional aspect of the mentor relationship. Several changes were suggested for the improvement of the Ph.D. training. One conclusion emphasized the importance of departments and universities having established policies to increase the likelihood that mentor-mentee and peer relationships will be formed. An additional suggestion for the improvement of Ph.D. training includes providing training for professors and students involved in mentor relationships

Swimming upstream : navigating the complexities of erotic transference

The focus of this study is to examine therapists\u27 subjective experience of erotic transference and determine what clinical skills and techniques are useful for managing such encounters. The purpose of the study is to answer the following questions using qualitative interviews: How do clinicians\u27 reactions to erotic transference impact the therapeutic relationship? Also, how do clinicians formulate and symbolize aspects of the erotic transference? The participants were thirteen clinicians who practiced some form of therapy in the Bay Area of California. The sample included psychiatrists, marriage and family therapists, PhD psychologists, and clinical social workers. Given this subject matter is still taboo for some clinicians, I interviewed therapists from mixed backgrounds and mixed theoretical orientations; thus my sample was diverse and includes different types of clinical dyads. The findings evoked different countertransference responses depending on the degree of intensity of the erotic transference. Additionally, the level of psychopathology corresponded to the intensity of the erotic transference. Most of the clinicians went to a supervisor or peer group to help manage erotic dynamics, as the majority did not receive any formal training around working with erotic dynamics; all reported the process of consultation was extremely helpful. Those clinicians who practiced therapy in managed care settings were constrained by working within a time-limited model that did not allow for exploration of the erotic transference. In cases where erotic feelings were reciprocal, clinicians were reluctant to seek consultation and experienced higher levels of anxiety and discomfort

Beyond Symptom Accumulation: A Lacanian Clinical Approach to Obsession - A Case Study and Theoretical Exposition

Contemporary approaches to psychotherapeutic intervention increasingly utilize a medical-based diagnostic system focused on identifying and eradicating discrete symptoms. Mental disorders are determined by identifying pathological behaviors and superficial symptoms which are then lumped together arbitrarily and labeled as specific mental illnesses. Despite a gross lack of supporting evidence, these mental illnesses are then attributed to various brain abnormalities and biological malfunctions, most often with reference to chemical imbalances believed to be the origin of mental distress. Evidence for such biological reductionism is presented conclusively, with little regard for the implicit ontological assumptions made by such a positivist perspective. When psychopathology is viewed in this way, the role of human experience is devalued, resulting in an egregious medicalization of human distress that has devastating consequences for those who suffer. The work of Jacques Lacan offers a radically different approach to diagnostic formulation and treatment that has, until recently, largely been ignored in Western psychology. This dissertation seeks to participate in correcting this imbalance by offering a Lacanian clinical approach to working with obsession. I offer two case studies of former patients--both of whom presented with classic symptoms of the medical syndrome known as obsessive-compulsive disorder--to illustrate Lacan\u27s structural approach in contradistinction to a descriptive, symptom-based approach. I endeavor to make Lacan\u27s obsessive structure and his diagnostic schema accessible to mental health professionals interested in employing Lacan\u27s work. To do so, I utilize a qualitative case study methodology, with particular emphasis on the psychoanalytic interview. I draw specific attention to the difference between obsessive-compulsive disorder and Lacan\u27s obsessional structure. Finally, I highlight the ethical implications for clinicians of the ideological construction of mental distress as solely biological and suggest that Lacan offers a diametrically opposed discourse that is sorely lacking and needed at this time

There is something you should know : the reasons therapists disclose their chronic physical illness to clients and the therapeutic implications of self disclosure

This study sought to ascertain reasons why therapists with a chronic physical illness chose to self disclose information about their illness to their clients, and their perception of the effects those disclosures had on the therapeutic relationship. This qualitative, exploratory study aimed to expand the body of knowledge on self disclosures of this nature, which is limited and written largely from a psychoanalytical perspective. Licensed psychotherapists diagnosed with a chronic physical illness in adulthood, who had self disclosed their illness to at least one client, were recruited from the Boston metropolitan area to participate in a single, in-person interview. Ten therapists participated in the study. The major findings of this study were that the therapists were more likely to self disclose to clients who also had a physical illness. They utilized their disclosures to clients with an illness to model certain behaviors, join/identify with their client\u27s experience and decrease the client\u27s anxiety. The most frequent reasons why participants disclosed to clients without a physical illness were: the illness was visible; they had to take time away from their practice; and to maintain authenticity in the relationship. Common effects on the relationship include increased anxiety/worry and caretaking behaviors in the client; relationship building or termination by the client