Business and Economics WEEK 7 Defensiveness, Projection & Transference in Relationships Understanding Unconscious Processes in Relationships

Business and Economics

WEEK 7

Defensiveness, Projection & Transference in Relationships

Understanding Unconscious Processes in Relationships

The following slides have been prepared by Dr Anne Hartican of Bespoke Results and is drawn from work she intends publishing in 2013. The material remains the property of Bespoke Results.

Copyright, All Rights Reserved, Bespoke Results, Australia. Material may not be printed, copied or reproduced in any way without permission of Bespoke Results.

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Positive Psychology

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Well being

Strengths

Happiness

Flourishing

Flow

Depth Psychology

Psychological development

Patterns of thinking and behaviour

Unconscious processeshttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gSBZoCO8dA

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gSBZoCO8dA

Are we governed by unconscious processes? Neuroscience believes so!

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“”Freud’s insights on the nature of consciousness are consonant with the most advanced

contemporary neuroscience views,” Antonio Damasio, head of neurology at the University of Iowa College of Medicine.

Copyright, All Rights Reserved, Bespoke Results, Australia. Material may not be printed, copied or reproduced in any way without permission of Bespoke Results. 6

The Unconscious

“…information processing in the brain occurs simultaneously at two main levels: one conscious, or fully accessible to cognitive processes, and one unconscious, or hidden from cognition. …both conscious and unconscious processes are able to influence behavior”

– George I. Viamontes, MD, PhD; Bernard D. Beitman, MD.


The Unconscious

Processes in the mind that occur automatically and are not available to introspection, including:

Thought processes

Memory

Motivation

Subliminal perceptions

Repressed feelings,

Automatic skills and reactions

Habits

Copyright, All Rights Reserved, Bespoke Results, Australia. Material may not be printed, copied or reproduced in any way without permission of Bespoke Results. Presentation title 8

The Unconscious

A large amount of complex cognitive processing appears to occur at the unconscious level in both healthy and psychiatric and neurological populations

– Heather A. Berlin

28th February

2011


The Unconscious

Unconscious dynamic processes defensively remove anxiety-provoking thoughts and impulses from consciousness in response to one’s conflicting attitudes

Heather A. Berlin

“Until you make the unconscious conscious, it will direct your life and you will call it fate.”

– C.J. Jung


James Hollis

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCIOI71neL0




Defense Mechanisms - Purpose

Psychological defenses are primarily unconscious. They serve to protect us from experiencing the discomfort associated with unpleasant thoughts or emotions; to keep unconscious internal conflicts unconscious!


Defense Mechanisms - Development

Confidence, Acceptance,

Pleasure

Anxiety

Rejection

Pain


How the Human Psyche & Defenses Develop

A Kleinian Perspective


Archaic Thinking

“It operates from decisions and conclusions made in the past: it is controlled by pre-established rules, policies and boundaries; its habitually judgmental; it is expressed in slogans, clichés, and dogma; it fears and resists the new, novel and ambiguous; it seeks to preserve what is familiar and comfortable; it is often contaminated by unacknowledged emotions; and it filters, selects, distorts and rationalizes information to reinforce existing beliefs”.

Presentaton title


Dynamic Thinking

“It responds to current reality, here and now information, and possibilities; it respects evidence and is open to the “story” that emerges from thoughtful exploration….it is capable of judging and unjudging; it values ideas as a form of wealth; it values the new, novel, subtle and ambiguous; it is evolutionary and open to updating itself. It is aware of and acknowledges the emotional sources that influence it; and it respects all forms of knowing.”


Defense Mechanisms

What were the messages you received in childhood about what was acceptable and unacceptable?

What were you rewarded for?

What were you

punished for?


Psychological Duality

Real Self

Essential You

Adapted / False Self

Wounded / Defended You


“Every individual experiences conflict due to unacceptable feelings, wishes or ideas that create anxiety and lead to defensive reactions. Ironically, defensive behaviour stirs only a vague awareness of what an individual is protecting himself or herself against, because the exact nature of the unacceptable behaviours rarely reaches consciousness. Defensiveness is actually about the suppression of unacceptable feelings of unacceptable feelings it acts as a painkiller allowing us to function in an otherwise difficult to tolerate world.”

Manfred Kets De Vries


Common Defensive Behaviours in Executives

Changing the subject

Denying that there is a problem

Ignoring an admitted problem

Rationalising questionable acts

Acting out

– Kets De Vries


Public life as I have experienced it is lived almost entirely on the level of DEFENDED YOU. People relate, behave and think not from the clarity of the heart of ESSENTIAL YOU but from the defended position from which they feel safe. I'm not just saying that our defences don't have a place, they definitely do, it is just that they have often become our entire repertoire. We don't know how to do anything but defend. I can't, for instance, remember reading one management, public speaking or negotiation book that didn't operate on the level of improving the operation of defences. From memory, my entire MBA

degree was a course in how to be better defended.

Margot Cairnes



Which “You” or “Self” shows up in your key relationships?


Common Defense Mechanisms

Rationalisation

Identification

Displacement

Regression

Reaction Formation

Repression

Projection

Projection - “Attributing one’s own thoughts, feelings, or motives to another.”


Projection in Action

A man visits a therapist and says, “I’ve just gotten fired, for the seventh time in the last five years. I am having troubles with my wife, and I’ve already been divorced twice. I desperately need you to help me understand: Why are there so many screwed-up people out there in the world?”

» Source: Fifth Discipline Field Book


Identifying Projections

Recall experiences where you have had a strong positive reaction to someone – Identify at least three occasions. What was it that particularly appealed to you about the people you reacted positively to?

Recall experiences where you have had a strong negative reaction to someone – Identify at least three occasions. What was it that you found particularly confronting about the person? List the “offending” characteristics.


28th February

2011


Transference / Counter-transference

Transference

Displacement (false attribution) of feelings, attitudes, behavioral expectations and attributes from important childhood relationships to current ones

Counter-transference

A response to the transference based on your own past relationships/ experiences.


The Transference process

Memories of past psychological experiences are unconsciously revived and are perceived not as belonging to the past, but as being evoked by the person we are currently relating to.

These past experiences may include:

– Instinctual drives– Affects and emotions, – Early unconscious phantasised relationships, – Earlier actual relationships, cognitive– Paradigms, patterns of behaviour

A counter-transference occurs if others respond with attitudes that relate to their past.


“Transference is everywhere and unavoidable”!

Clarkson (1995)


In the management setting boss–subordinate and peer relationships are often laden with transferences from earlier experiences in the family, school and previous employment. This leads to unwarranted or inappropriate interpersonal attribution, which is detrimental to the working relationship.

It is the mode of relationship usually at the base of political rivalry and inter-departmental strife and can lead to ‘the snake pit organisation’ where ‘anxiety and stress are constant companions’

(Schwartz, 1990, in Nuttall, 2003)


Writing Personal Case Studies

Left Hand Column Method

Case Study Preparation


Homework for Week 9

Using the HS Framework ask 3 people who know you well to indicate common behavioural responses and the situations in which they typically observe these behaviours:

– Constructive Behaviours– Defensive behaviours (remember – some

defensive behaviours are appropriate – the question is – is the behavioural response helping or hindering you!

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Readings for Week 8 Trei, L. 2007. New study yields instructive results on how mindset affects learning.

Stanford Report, February 7, at http://news-service.stanford.edu/news/2007/february7/dweck-020707.html?view=print

Doidge, N. 2007. The women who was always falling down. Maclean's, 120(13), 40.Crum, A. & Langer, E. 2007. Mind-set matters. Psychological Science, 18(2), 165-171.

Walters, K. 2009. Mind over grey matter. BRW, Dec 11 2008-Jan 14 2009

Hassed, C. Stress Management in Chapter 2, Essence of Health (2008).

2000, Vol. 107, No. 3, 411-429 0033-295X/00/$5.00 IX)I: 10.1037//0033-295X.107.3,411

Biobehavioral Responses to Stress in Females: Tend-and-Befriend, Not Fight-or-Flight, (2000), Shelley E. Taylor, Laura Cousino Klein, Brian P. Lewis, Tara L. Gruenewald, Regan A. R. Gurung, and John A. Updegraff Psychological Review, Vol. 107, No. 3, 411-429.

The Effect of Mindfulness-Based Therapy on Anxiety and Depression: A Meta-Analytic Review , 2010, Hofmann S.G , Sawyer, A.T. , Witt, A.A., and Oh, D., Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology, Vol. 78, No. 2, 169–183.

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Readings for Week 8 cont.

Documents

Business and Economics WEEK 7 Defensiveness, Projection & Transference in Relationships Understanding Unconscious Processes in Relationships