MEMORIES OF ISABEL MENZIES LYTH

I undertook analysis with Isabel Menzies Lyth in the course of my training in London as a child psychotherapist. This contribution is about my memories of her as my analyst, and in my long and friendly relationship with her after my analysis ended.     

REMEMBERING THE FOUNDATIONS AND BUILDING FOR THE FUTURE

The paper draws on the influence of the thinking of Isabel Menzies Lyth on the development of new approaches to events within group relations conferences sponsored by The Grubb Institute of Behavioural Studies.     

FROM AUTONOMY TO DEPENDENCY?

This paper traces the theme of dependency and autonomy from a historical perspective, showing how individual needs and defence mechanisms link with societal developments. It elaborates on the work of Menzies Lyth and her capacity to bridge the intrapsychic world of the individual with the business world and society at large. The paper analyses current events, commenting on how greed, denial and omnipotence have contributed to the recession of 2008–2010 and how ‘basic assumption’ dependency and hope have been invested in the first black American President of the United States of America.     

LEGEND,MYTH AND IDEA: ON THE FATE OF A GREAT PAPER

Isabel Menzies Lyth's seminal paper on social systems as a defence against anxiety is so well known and frequently cited that it risks acquiring mythic or legendary status. But what explains its phenomenal influence? In this contribution I suggest that it is a model example of the psychoanalytic case study, deriving its power from a deep engagement with organizational particularities as a basis for general theorizing. Its continued influence depends upon the way in which it is used to conceptualize new organizational experiences. An example from an institutional observation undertaken as part of an advanced social work training at the Tavistock illustrates this. Institutional observation is one of a range of non-clinical psychoanalytically informed methods of training at the Tavistock, and in the final part of the paper I discuss new applications of Menzies Lyth's work that aim to illuminate the irrational forces shaping modern social policy. Death and anxieties about death emerge as a subtext of the present paper, perhaps reflecting the fact that it was prepared as part of a memorial conference to Menzies Lyth herself, and also that the paper taught us to think better about death as an aspect of organizational experience.     

SOCIAL DEFENCES AND TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY ORGANIZATIONS

The author addresses the concept of social defences as originated by Isabel Menzies Lyth. After reviewing the origin and development of the concept, he discusses some of the challenges encountered in using it in the service of meaningful change, and finally highlights some features of emerging 21st century organizations that are well suited for social defence analysis. Social defences, in Menzies Lyth's sense, are aspects of organizations that: (1) exist independently of their members, such as structures and policies; and (2) come to serve the purpose of reinforcing peoples' defences against the primitive anxieties stimulated in the workplace. The concept illuminates otherwise hidden sources of resistance to change and, as such, provides a valuable perspective on the challenges of continuous change and adaptation required of contemporary organizations.     

ON DISLIKING WRITING

In this contribution I describe Isabel's approach to editing her papers for publication. I consider the ‘unanxiety’ that allowed for a constructive relationship to her work on her papers, and coexisted with her well-known dislike of writing. I go on to consider possible reasons for the dislike, including Isabel's longstanding preoccupation with the issue of how to translate the language of psychoanalysis into terms that could be meaningful to the organizations she was working with. I suggest that Isabel felt that the face-to-face encounter was needed to achieve this, and illustrate this with an example from a piece of consultancy at the Cassel Hospital that she undertook, which I observed. It is hoped that work on her literary archive, just beginning, will shed further light on these issues.     

GOVERNMENT AND THE PERVERSE SOCIAL DEFENCE

Part of Isabel Menzies Lyth's legacy is the concept of social defence. This article examines the perverse social defence, recently hypothesized by Susan Long, and deploys the concept in a critical exploration of aspects of the modernization of the public services in the UK. It is argued that the ‘targets and indicators’ culture constitutes a perverse defence which fosters the development of an as if relationship between government and reality. The article explores the damaging impact of this defence upon the capacity of government and society to stay in touch with the suffering generated by increasing social inequalities.     

WORKING WITH GROUPS: THE CONSULTANT STANCE

The paper recalls experiences as a member of groups taken by Isabel Menzies Lyth during the 1960s and the significance of matters of ‘presence’ and stance. It sketches out ways in which she was to extend Bion's frame of reference to take account of the institutional contexts in which groups were located and her insistence on the two-way inter-relation between individual and group work, psychoanalysis and group relations.     

WORKING WITH BUSINESS LEADERS AND THEIR TEAMS

Two topics are addressed in this article. Firstly, the author explores some of the connections between Isabel Menzies Lyth's work on organizations and her own practice as a psychodynamically-oriented consultant and coach working with business leaders and their teams. In particular, the author explores the relevance of Isabel's ideas about anxiety in the context of the 2008–09 economic crisis. Almost all the companies with which the author was working were impacted by the recession. This brought to the fore the challenges faced by leaders as they navigate their organizations through a period of great uncertainty. A vignette is provided about a client company at which the author helped the CEO and Board to contain and manage their own anxiety and that of their staff in order to optimize performance during the downturn. Secondly, the author shares some reflections on her experience of Isabel as an analyst. She highlights Isabel's ‘fairly unanxious’ personality as a powerful therapeutic element in the analysis, describing how Isabel's calm, self-possessed and undemonstrative manner could help others, including the author, to contain their own anxiety and move forward.     

EARLY DAYS AT THE TAVISTOCK INSTITUTE

The paper describes a developing sociological and psychoanalytic approach to the study of 20 London families in the early 1950s.     

ISABEL MENZIES LYTH – TRADITIONS AND INNOVATIONS

The authors sketch their personal recollections of Isabel Menzies Lyth and the various roles in which they knew her, in particular, as a group relations consultant and as an organizational development consultant. They describe Isabel's contribution to the fields of group relations and consultancy and her critical views of the use of unmodified psychoanalytical models and her innovative ways of working. The authors make the point that Isabel never departed from her scientific research and change-oriented consultancy roots; they describe how she strove to move people and organizations on; they also describe how her most powerful tool lay in holding the balance between the content of groups and organizations and the processes of researching, listening and consulting and her expert use of the transference and countertransference.