Social defenses against anxiety: explorations in a paradigm

Table of contents:

PART I: Theoretical;

1. Obsessional-punitive defences in care systems: Menzies Lyth revisited;
2. Beyond identifying social defences: "working through" and lessons from people whispering;
3. A psycho-social perspective on social defences;
4. Social defences in the information age;
5. Defences against innovation: the conservation of vagueness.
6. Reconceptualizing social defences for the purpose of organizational change: causes, consequences, and the contribution of cultural theory

PART II: Health and nursing;

7. Reflections on Isabel Menzies Lyth in the light of developments in nursing care;
8. "I'm beyond caring": a response to the Francis Report;
9. Anxiety at the front line;
10. A partnership of policing and health systems: containing the dynamics of sexual violence;
11. Running the gauntlet of institutional defence: from the prison gate to the hospital wing.

PART III The private sector

12. Extreme work environments: beyond anxiety and social defence;
13. Corporate cultures and inner conflicts;
14. Defences against anxiety in the law;

PART IV Social welfare and education;

15. Spotlit: defences against anxiety in contemporary human service organizations;
16. Still not good enough! Must try harder: an exploration of social defences in schools;
17. Work discussion groups as a container for sexual anxieties in schools;
18. Social defences in nurseries and the contemporary value of the concept;
19. Projective identification and unconscious defences against anxiety: social work education, practice learning, and the fear of failure;
20. Unconscious defences against anxiety in a Youth Offending Service;

This book revisits the theory of social systems as a defence against anxiety first set out by Elliott Jaques and Isabel Menzies Lyth in papers which they published in 1955 and 1960, and which have been influential points of reference ever since. Menzies Lyth’s study of the nursing system of a general hospital, with its roots in both psychoanalysis and socio-technical systems thinking, has remained one of the most convincing demonstrations of the influence of unconscious anxieties on social behaviour, and of their effects in inducing dysfunctional defensive systems in organisations. The theory of ‘social defences against anxiety’ remains one of the most significant contributions of the ‘Tavistock school’ to the study of human relations.
Contributors explore this theory as a generative paradigm, capable both of theoretical extension and of empirical application to different institutional settings. They review changes which have taken place in the theoretical and social context since these ideas were first advanced, and assess what conceptual revisions these developments require. The relevance of Menzies Lyth’s ideas to contemporary settings of health and nursing is examined, as is the value of these ideas in explaining anxieties and their concomitant social defences in the private sector and in various fields of public education and welfare. Finally, the book discusses some educational and therapeutic practices which have evolved at the Tavistock and elsewhere to ‘contain’ unconscious anxieties and to mitigate damaging forms of defence against them.

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