Enough is enough: from humiliation to empowerment: the case of Spanish sports woman

This article is the result of two pieces of sociological research (2012 and 2023) ,
about woman in sports. The first one is a description of the characteristics,
competencies and mindset of woman in this area. With an ample sample of
participants where a comparison between men and woman was done and also a
comparison between active and retired sports people.A very innovative piece is
how their emotional and physical world is created. How they are separated from
society to ehnhance their habilities and the effect in the different moments of their
life cycle. From infancy to retirement.Also the particular competencies of this
proffesion are analized and how their resilience is can be taken as a model for the
organizational world, and a change of culture from submission to innovation.
As a second part I consider how a new cohort/generation won the world cup and
how , they fought externally and internally to get rid of the mind colonisation the
previous generation was submitted. They overcome fear they confronted the
masculine oppression and by their action achieved that some of the general
managers (men) were expelled from the organization. It has been an interesting
process to follow how the change has been possible and how they sustain and
overcame this confrontation. 

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Small group discussion; impressions of the paper and developing questions for the presenter

20 MINS

Discussion forum with the presenter; moderated for the speaker to elaborate their ideas

10 MINS

Discussion forum with the presenter; themes from the discussions

5 MINS

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The Politics of Difference: Uses and Abuses

Through my work, as a consultant, I recently started noticing a phenomenon which became a source of both disturbance, and interest. This paper attempts to set out my thinking around this phenomenon and invites colleagues to consider and share their experiences and consider the propositions I make.

In today’s political, economic, and global environment, matters of equality and diversity have become increasingly important. Since the murder of George Floyd in 2020, the resurgence of Black Lives Matter and the emergence of the Me-Too movement, there has been an increased recognition in Western society of the need to tackle institutionalised discrimination based on race, sex, gender, age, disability, sexuality, and religion. Whilst some progress has been made there is a long road ahead to travel.

As a consultant to a range of small groups, the phenomena I began to experience with increased regularity is the group’s preoccupation with matters of difference to the extent that at times it obscures the task of the group. I notice this preoccupation often manifests in a particular manner, starting in quite a sophisticated and intelligent in manner discussing difference, it can soon turn into a battle around which minority group is and has been discriminated against the most, and which is the most oppressive / discriminatory. This often becomes personal with the minority groups being represented by individuals embodying that difference fighting something. The group seeks out an individual or sub-group, often the one assumed least discriminated against by society in general and uses projective identification in its evacuative form to load that individual up psychologically and emotionally with all the unbearable feelings of the group, usually those of both persecutor and persecuted. The individual on the receiving end often then finds themselves torn between denying this by joining in the battle and sharing their own tale of discrimination or surrendering to the projections and bearing the shame, pain, blame, hatred, isolation, aggression, guilt, self-loathing generated by the dynamic of discrimination.

Initially, seduced by the groups apparent interest in exploring matters of difference, I sat in hope of witnessing some profound progressive working through that might occur on behalf of society. Whilst there have been such occasions, more often, I experience groups engaging with matters of difference in a manner that resembles Bion’s (1961) Basic Assumption Fight/Flight where difficult, are projected around the system in an evacuative manner. The question that emerged for me is whether basic assumption fight /flight was being used as useful temporary defensive retreat as the group oscillated back and fore to the work group when discussing matters of difference, or was there something else, another matter within the group that is being avoided and what might the group be talking about if there were not using matters of equality and diversity as a vehicle to defend against another difficult reality.

This paper explores Bion’s BaF in more detail in relation to this phenomenon with the use of examples from my work.

Bion, W (1961) Experiences in Groups.

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30 MINS

Paper presentation

20 MINS

Small group discussion; impressions of the paper and developing questions for the presenter

20 MINS

Discussion forum with the presenter; moderated for the speaker to elaborate their ideas

10 MINS

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An exploration of dynamics, resistances and challenges when aspirations of decolonisation inhabit the work

We think any effort at decolonisation is an invitation to begin interrogating one’s
readiness for change. Decolonisation may be easier to name than really do. The desire
for ‘de-colonisation’ may repeat the very unconscious discriminating structures it wishes to change. To remove or reverse colonising structures infers a position of power from which to do this; and may become an ‘as if’ enlightened act toward the other, who remains though positioned as the other. Power is the persistence of an unconscious dynamic that cannot be questioned.

We will explore dynamics of decolonisation based on our experience as co-consultants
to the strategic planning process of a global membership based organization in sustainable agriculture, headquartered in the Global North. Some dynamics of
decolonisation were more difficult to question: gender, corruption of task by ambition, eurocentrism, and seeking a special status. We will draw on selected critical incidents to examine some initial questions, from which others may emerge. What were the dynamics of our being hired and eventually fired? What did our own experience tell us about what hinders and what helps the process of dismantling ‘discriminatory colonial structures’? What were the unconscious motivations and payoffs in associating with the status quo of power?

Our client explicitly wished to change the north/south balance as they invited a proposal from a consultant, an Indian woman, from the South. The proposal to work with unconscious dynamics in a process consultancy was accepted by the client. The consultant invited her colleague, an Irish woman from the North, to join her. The client had perhaps not expected this and called our South/North pair ‘the dream team’. The work began with a 4-day workshop with the global board and leadership team in its HQ.

Before the next in-person workshop, they communicated their concern about the process yet still wanted us to deliver an online event that was counter to our approach and stance. “It is ok if your mind has changed, we said, you do not need to give us a decent burial”. Their relief seemed palpable; we parted ways amicably.

Our rootedness in systems psychodynamic tradition and group relations helped us
move ahead in the work and contain the client at critical junctures. As consultants, we were interested in learning from the work, with and from each other. We focused on task, authorisations, accountability of those in authority, clarity of roles in the system. A key exercise entailed listening to different contexts, and how they related with significant others in these contexts. To be used by the client system to find insights on their functioning. It broke down continents into specific contexts with the relatedness to members could be heard; the exercise was initiated but not completed.

Ambivalence, splitting and envy were present among the consultants and within the client system. There was a wish to be ‘guardians of the proper’. Our work as a creative consulting pair, South/North, held a hope for the system but one that also exposed fault lines too soon or too difficult to broach for the client. We wonder how identity begins to influence – our own in our position and relation to western empire – when such collaboration hits up against the unconscious hierarchical status quo.

References

Bachrach P., Baratz M. (1962), Two Faces of Power, The American Political Science
Review, Volume 56, Issue 4, 947-952.

Brown W. (2006), Power after Foucault, in The Oxford Handbook of Political Theory, ed. Dryzek et al, Oxford University Press, London.

Long S. (2002), Organisational Destructivity and the Perverse State of Mind, Organizational and Social Dynamics, 2002, Vol. 2, Issue 2.

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5 MINS

Introduction

30 MINS

Paper presentation

20 MINS

Small group discussion; impressions of the paper and developing questions for the presenter

20 MINS

Discussion forum with the presenter; moderated for the speaker to elaborate their ideas

10 MINS

Discussion forum with the presenter; themes from the discussions

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Decolonising the Mind and Higher Education: Exploring Decolonisation through Social Dreaming in South Africa and the UK

Decolonisation is a concept and task that has gained momentum in universities globally. The United Kingdom (UK) and South Africa (SA) both grapple with different versions of the scars of colonialism. Recently, both countries experienced eruptions of student movements such as the #Rhodes Must Fall which progressed as the #Fees Must Fall in SA and BlackLivesMatter in the UK. These movements are rooted in an outrage against inequality, racism and exclusivity in Higher Education (HE). In the UK , decolonisation is often focused on the curriculum by challenging Western paradigms. In SA, while decolonisation aims to transform the curriculum, it is also directed at reimagining institutional cultures and rethinking the African university.

System psychodynamics brings the ‘organisation in the mind’ to the fore, by bringing an understanding of the deep influences of unconscious processes, internalized relationships, and the interaction between internal and external systems. Our project uses Armstrong’s (2005) conceptualisation of the ‘organisation in the mind’ and Manley’s application of the concept to slavery (2010) as a lens for analysing and interpreting social dreaming in the context of decolonisation in HE.

Social dreaming looks beyond the individual by focusing on the shared unconscious acquired through a collage of images of shared dreams, associative thinking and affect. By hosting a series of 6 social dreaming sessions online, we were able to elicit a collective vision about decolonisation in HE across two countries and continents. As hosts, one based in SA, the other in the UK , we were able to bring together our understanding, experience and backgrounds in academia and heritage to weave together a rich synthesis of meaning regarding decolonisation in HE . Examples of the emerging dreams include the leadership conundrum of a female CEO who moves in fear in a male-minded university while seeking to assert her talent in a transformed society compared with the ‘forest of decolonisation’ and attempts to find alternatives through the trees. Through these matrices, we learnt about the feelings of loneliness, anger and helplessness that lead to the silence and disavowal of racism and colonialism. The difficult and complex nature of d ecolonization brings contradictions and tensions of change as shown by a dream image of a black stone and its potential transformation into diamond, where the university in the mind is the diamond and the reality sits somewhere between the black stone and the diamond.

The social dreaming matrix provides a safe container for the emergence of painful emotions – raw, undigested thoughts and feelings – intertwined in the exploration of decolonisation. The flow of sharing dreams and associations facilitates a processing space in a non-judgmental fashion by ‘cloaking’ the unpalatable truths in the guise of condensed images and metaphorical expression. Our working hypothesis suggests that social dreaming works beyond instrumental changes and towards psychosocial and affective transformations of HE to bring about an authentic, lasting difference, what we term transformative change. In this way, decolonising the mind becomes a possibility

Session schedule

5 MINS

Introduction

30 MINS

Paper presentation

20 MINS

Small group discussion; impressions of the paper and developing questions for the presenter

20 MINS

Discussion forum with the presenter; moderated for the speaker to elaborate their ideas

10 MINS

Discussion forum with the presenter; themes from the discussions

5 MINS

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Decolonising Nature: Consciousness and Unconsciousness beyond the human

“We are the cosmos made conscious and life is the means by which the universe
understands itself.” (Brian Cox particle physicist 2021)

Increasingly evidence shows that non-human animals have emotional and cognitive capabilities well beyond what humans have previously thought. Even the earth as a system indicates its living nature. For centuries humans have exploited the earth and its living creatures. We have colonised nature for our own purposes. Yet recognition of the coming of the Anthropocene age – where human activity has influenced geological, weather and ecological systems – shows that such a colonisation has led to systemic changes that now threaten the whole of humanity.

How might we collectively begin to decolonise nature – there is no plan-et B. Have humans evolved an ecological ethical consciousness? Is there an ethic to the unconscious in humans and in nature? This contribution examines these questions.

From my study four distinct views of the unconscious in nature start to emerge:
(i) the unconscious as implicate in all of life, including the earth as a system;
(ii) the unconscious of instincts and internal models evident in habitual behaviours and communicated through basic signs;
(iii) the repressed unconscious of psychoanalysis, evidenced in symbolic functions,
described as a human process and unknown as to its existence in other life
forms; and
(iv) the unconscious in ethical evolution evidenced through the development of
conscience and accountability (again, with some basics in species other than human).

References

Feinberg, T. and Mallat, J. (2017). The Ancient Origins of Consciousness: How the brain created experience. M.A.: MIT Press.

Hoggett, P. (2023) ‘Imagining our Way in the Anthropocene’ Organisation and Social
Dynamics Special Issue: Organisational systems and the earth’s mega-systems:
Volume 23 Number 1 Summer 2023 pp.1-14.

Long, S.D. (forthcoming Feb 2025). The Evolution of the Unconscious: Persons, groups, nature and spirit. Routledge.

Louie, A. H. (2010). ‘Robert Rosen’s Anticipatory Systems’ Foresight 12 (3) 18-29.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/228091658_Robert_Rosen’s_anticipatory_systems accessed May 21 2024.

Maran, T. and Kull, K. (2014) ‘Eco-Semiotics: Main Principles and Current Developments’, Geografiska Annaler: Series B, Human Geography 96 (1): 41–50.

Monso, S; Benz Schwarzberg, J. and Bremhorst, A. (2018). ‘Animal Morality: What it means and why it matters.’ J Ethics 2018;22(3):283-310. doi: 10.1007/s10892-018-9275-3. Epub 2018 Sep 27.

Van Swinderen, B. (2024). Discussion on the ABC Program All in the Mind- episode Animal Consciousness March 31 st 2024.

Session schedule

5 MINS

Introduction

30 MINS

Paper presentation

20 MINS

Small group discussion; impressions of the paper and developing questions for the presenter

20 MINS

Discussion forum with the presenter; moderated for the speaker to elaborate their ideas

10 MINS

Discussion forum with the presenter; themes from the discussions

5 MINS

Break

30 MINS

Whole symposium open reflection discussion

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