The Social Engagement of Social Science, a Tavistock Anthology, Volume 1 A Tavistock Anthology: The Socio-Psychological Perspective

World War II brought together a group of psychiatrists and clinical and social psychologists in the British Army where they developed radical, action-oriented innovations in social psychiatry. They became known as the "Tavistock Group" since the core members had been at the pre-war Tavistock Clinic. They created the post-war Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and expanded on their wartime achievements by pioneering a new mode of relating theory and practice, called in these volumes, "The Social Engagement of Social Science." There are three perspectives: the socio-psychological, the socio-technical, and the socio-ecological. These perspectives are interdependent, yet each has its own focus and is represented in a separate volume. Volume I, __The Socio-Psychological Perspective__, extends the object-relations approach in psychoanalysis to group, organizational, and wider social life. This extension is related to field theory, the personality/culture approach, and open systems theory. Action-oriented papers deal with key ideas in social psychiatry, varieties of group process, new paths in family studies, the dynamics of organizational change, and the unconscious in culture and society. The Institute's dynamic social science approach to industrial problems, which will be presented in Volume II, began with Eric Trist's coal-mining program for the development of more productive and personally satisfying self-regulating forms of work organization. The whole "Quality of Working Life" movement owes its theoretical and empirical basis to this pathfinding endeavor. Volume III will focus on non-hierarchical forms of organization facilitating inter-organizational relations in complex and rapidly changing environments—the socio-ecological perspective. This perspective is offered as a guide to institution building for the future. Contents Preface Historical Overview. The Foundation and Development of the Tavistock Institute Volume I. The Socio-Psychological Perspective Introduction A New Social Psychiatry: A World War II Legacy The Transformation of Selection Procedures. The War Office Selection Boards The Discovery of the Therapeutic Community. The Northfield Experiments Transitional Communities and Social Reconnection. The Civil Resettlement of British Prisoners of War Varieties of Group Process Bion Revisited. Group Dynamics and Group Psychotherapy An Educational Model for Group Dynamics. The Phenomenon of an Absent Leader Experiential Learning in Groups I. The Development of the Leicester Model Experiential Learning in Groups II. Recent Developments in Dissemination and Application The Psycho-Dynamics of an Inter-Group Experience Courses and Working Conferences as Transitional Learning Institutions Action Research in Minisocieties Task and Sentient Systems and Their Boundary Controls Individual, Group and Inter-Group Processes New Paths in Family Studies The Study and Reduction of Group Tensions in the Family Non-Medical Marital Therapy. The Growth of the Institute of Marital Studies Conjugal Roles and Social Networks Dual-Career Families. The Evolution of a Concept The Dynamics of Organizational Change Working-Through Industrial Conflict. The Service Department at the Glacier Metal Company The Use of Unrecognized Cultural Mechanisms in an Expanding Machine Shop. With a Contribution to the Theory of Leadership On the Dynamics of Social Structure. A Contribution to the Psychoanalytical Study of Social Phenomena Deriving from the Views of Melanie Klein Social Systems as a Defense Against Anxiety. An Empirical Study of the Nursing Service of a General Hospital A Psychoanalytical Perspective on Social Institutions The Assumption of Ordinariness as a Denial Mechanism. Innovation and Conflict in a Coal Mine Temporary Withdrawal from Work Under Full Employment. The Formation of an Absence Culture Freedom and Justice Within Walls. The Bristol Prison Experiment and an Australian Sequel The Unconscious in Culture and Society Culture as a Psycho-Social Process Thoughts on the Meaning of the Word Democracy Notes on the Russian National Character Latent Content of Television Viewing Asylum and Society Contributors Subject Index Name Index

World War II brought together a group of psychiatrists and clinical and social psychologists in the British Army where they developed radical, action-oriented innovations in social psychiatry. They became known as the "Tavistock Group" since the core members had been at the pre-war Tavistock Clinic. They created the post-war Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and expanded on their wartime achievements by pioneering a new mode of relating theory and practice, called in these volumes, "The Social Engagement of Social Science."

There are three perspectives: the socio-psychological, the socio-technical, and the socio-ecological. These perspectives are interdependent, yet each has its own focus and is represented in a separate volume.

Volume I, The Socio-Psychological Perspective, extends the object-relations approach in psychoanalysis to group, organizational, and wider social life. This extension is related to field theory, the personality/culture approach, and open systems theory. Action-oriented papers deal with key ideas in social psychiatry, varieties of group process, new paths in family studies, the dynamics of organizational change, and the unconscious in culture and society.

The Institute's dynamic social science approach to industrial problems, which will be presented in Volume II, began with Eric Trist's coal-mining program for the development of more productive and personally satisfying self-regulating forms of work organization. The whole "Quality of Working Life" movement owes its theoretical and empirical basis to this pathfinding endeavor.

Volume III will focus on non-hierarchical forms of organization facilitating inter-organizational relations in complex and rapidly changing environments—the socio-ecological perspective. This perspective is offered as a guide to institution building for the future.