þÿ<!-- * Author: Dr. Lynn Friedman * Copyright. 2006-8 Dr. Lynn Friedman. 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By examining workplace dynamics -- hirings, firings, narcissistic bosses and passive aggressive employees, the office scapegoat and the bosses pet, corporate dysfunction and corporate health, happy employees and miserable ones -- Friedman puts "Corporations on the Couch" in her widely popular column by that name. The psychoanalyst, psychologist, Johns Hopkins faculty member, organizational consultant and executive coach explains, in frank and often funny terms, how corporate cultures and corporate leaders support and sustain (albeit inadvertently) the surprising, strange and truly bizarre array of workplace behaviors. And, like any good therapist, Friedman helps readers to get off the couch, build healthy relationships and end bad ones."> <meta name="keywords" content="Dr. Lynn Friedman, Lynn V. Friedman, corporations on the couch - career satisfaction - career goals - organizational dynamics - organizational dynamic - corporate - corporations -coach -career -couch - what is the meaning of psychoanalysis - applied psychoanalysis - The Washington Psychoanalyst -Dr. Lynn Friedman - psychoanalyst - clinical psychologist - psychologist - psychoanalytic - psychoanalysis - psychoanalyst - washington - d.c. - dc - maryland - bethesda - chevy chase - silver spring - rockville - northern virginia - arlington - virginia - fairfax - baltimore - johns hopkins - psychotherapy - work-life - johns hopkins - lynne - lynn - friedman -freedman -friedman - washington psychoanalyst - apsa - american psychoanalytic-friendship heights- washington post,"> <meta http-equiv="content-language" content="en-us"> <meta http-equiv="content-type" content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1"> <meta http-equiv="expires" content="0" /> <meta http-equiv="pragma" content="no-cache"> </head> <!-- The first four attributes of the body tag are specific to IE and the last two are specific to Netscape. --> <body topmargin="0" leftmargin="0" rightmargin="0" bottommargin="0" marginheight="0" marginwidth="0"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="100%"> <tr bgcolor="003366"> <td rowspan="2" class="barBG">&nbsp;</td> <td rowspan="2" class="barBG" width="158px" align="left"><img src="../../graphic/navigationBar/logo.gif" width="166px" height="58px" alt="Logo" border="0" /></td> <td width="582px" height="30px" align="right">&nbsp;</td> <td rowspan="2" class="barBG">&nbsp;</td> </tr> <tr bgcolor="003366" valign="bottom"> <td class="barBG" align="right"> <table border="0" cellspacing="0" cellpadding="0" width="90%"> <tr> </tr> </table> </td> <tr> <td colspan="4" bgcolor="666699">&nbsp;</td> </tr> </table> </body> </html> <ul><p><h1><a href="http://www.corporationsonthecouch.com" target="_blank">Corporations on the Couch</a></h1></p></ul> <ul><p><h3><a href="http://www.drlynnfriedman.com/about.html" target="_blank">Lynn Friedman, Ph.D., Psychoanalyst, Clinical Psychologist and Executive Coach</a></h3></p></ul> <ul><p><h3>A monthly column published in the Washington Business Journal</h3></p></ul> <!-- Body of Text Begins Here --> <p align=center> <table cellpadding=5 cellspacing=0 border=1 width=700> <tr><td valign=top bgcolor="#dddddd"><FONT SIZE="3" FACE="verdana, arial, helvetica"> <b>My job, my life and why I'm not thrilled</b></font> </td></tr> <tr><td valign=top><FONT SIZE="-1" FACE="verdana, arial, helvetica"> <ul><p> Many successful people are frustrated and unhappy at work. But how do you clarify and resolve work-life issues? How do you know if people need help? And, after deciding that help might be useful, how do you know what kind to seek? An important starting point is to identify the work-life conflict. In general, people struggle with three work-life conflicts: </p> <ul><p> <li> What do I want to do with my life? </li> <li> How do I go about pursuing my goals? </li> <li> How do I galvanize myself to get started? </li></p></ul> <p>For some, answering those questions is straightforward. They know their likes and dislikes, their strengths and limitations. They know who they are and what they want. Others may be less confident but still able to make use of the plethora of staff development resources to clarify their answers.</p> <p>Not everyone can answer those three questions, however. Some people never find an enjoyable and rewarding career. That doesn't have to be the case. For the most part, with the right kind of help, career conflicts can be resolved and most individuals can be helped to have fulfilling work-lives.</p> <p>How does one assess whether help is warranted and if so, what type? My own bias is to encourage anyone in that situation to seek a psychoanalytically informed assessment.</p> <p>This type of evaluation is devoted to understanding the meaning of the conflict and identifying effective strategies for resolving it.</p> <p>A psychoanalytically informed career assessment asks: What function, or purpose, does the career conflict serve? At first blush, to most people this question feels counterintuitive. Consider this puzzling idea: When any of us have a conflict, we derive some benefit (often, unconscious) from it.</p> <p>For example, the man whose workaholism causes him to lose his marriage. He may be sad about this loss. However, simultaneously, (often, unconsciously) he may be frightened of intimacy. His workaholism may allow him to avoid closeness.</p> <p>The task of the psychoanalytically informed career assessment is to understand the career (or work-life) conflict in a broader context, asking how the conflict protects the individual from pain.</p> <p>The assessment tries to understand the individual in the context of the person's historical and current life situation, exploring early experiences in school, work and home.</p> <p>Current experience is also central, including the attitudes of the significant people in the person's life. How might the individual's career "success" or "failure" affect these significant people? Are they a source of support? Or are they part of the conflict?</p> <p>A psychoanalytically informed career assessment explores whether the individual's career difficulty is recapitulated in other areas of the individual's life, and if so, how.</p> <p>For example, does the person who has difficulties committing to a career also have difficulties committing to relationships?</p> <p>Answers to these crucial questions can lead to a recommendation on whether career coaching, psychoanalytic psychotherapy or psychoanalysis is warranted. What are each of these interventions and under what circumstances might they be useful?</p> <p><b>Career Coaching</b></p> <p>People who seek work-life consultation want a short-term, focused intervention that will allow them to identify and pursue their career goals.</p> <p>Career coaching entails supportive relationships that help the person establish and pursue concrete, measurable, behavioral goals. The coach, group members or both function as a supporting cast, encouraging the individual to pursue established goals. Each week, the individual makes a commitment to take small steps toward the identification or pursuit of the career goal.</p> <p>Although this approach can be valuable, it is not useful for everyone. The individual who has read numerous career books, taken career tests and consulted career counselors but still remains stymied likely needs a more in-depth approach.</p> <p>When self-help efforts prove ineffective, this might be a warning sign that career coaching is not likely to be comprehensive enough to address underlying concerns. Indeed, in this situation, work-life coaching can be enormously frustrating, particularly in a group, where an individual who is unable to change witnesses others' progress.</p> <p>When career coaching fails, it is because the true conflicts are outside the individual's awareness. A deeper approach, aimed at bringing the conflicts into awareness so they can be resolved, is more likely to prove effective. Ideally, people in this situation should seek a psychoanalytically informed work-life assessment to evaluate the most effective way to help them fulfill their personal and professional goals. <p><b>Psychoanalytic psychotherapy and psychoanalysis</b></p> <p>These treatments help deepen self-understanding. Occurring regularly over months or years, psychotherapy takes place in a safe and confidential atmosphere.</p> <p>People share their thoughts and feelings and reflect on their early and current life. Increased self-examination leads to a greater awareness of the obstacles that have prevented them from pursuing their goals.</p> <p>This awareness leads to change. Beyond psychotherapy, psychoanalysis is a highly potent form of intensive psychotherapy often leading to even greater change.</p> <p>Both treatments can be very useful in overcoming long-standing, often unconscious, difficulties related to pursuing work-life goals.</p> <p>The individual can be helped to understand the gremlins that often get in the way of work-life dreams such as depression, anxiety, fear of commitment, difficulty with authority figures, work inhibition, trouble with decision making, difficulty with self-assertion, low self-esteem, writer's block, anxiety about self-expression as well as other persistent maladaptive behavior patterns. </p> <p>Lynn Friedman, Ph.D., is a clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst and executive coach in Chevy Chase. This article, <a href="http://washington.bizjournals.com/washington/stories/2007/06/04/smallb2.html" target="new window">My job, my life and why I'm not thrilled, by Dr. Lynn Friedman, clinical psychologist, psychoanalyst and work-life consultant,</a> is reprinted with permission from the Washington Business Journal. This column is nationally-syndicated by the American City Business Journal. Dr. Lynn Friedman is on the adjunct faculty at Johns Hopkins University where she teaches Organizational Development in the Business School and Psychodynamics in the Clinical and Community Counseling Program.(Find the original article here.)</p> </font> </td></tr> </table> </p> </font> <!-- End of text page --> <!-- Body of Text Begins Here --> <p align=center> <table cellpadding=5 cellspacing=0 border=1 width=700> <tr><td valign=top bgcolor="#dddddd"><FONT SIZE="3" FACE="verdana, arial, helvetica"> <b><a href="http://www.drlynnfriedman.com/about.html"target="_blank">Connect with Dr. Lynn Friedman, psychoanalyst, psychologist, work-life coach</b></font> </td></tr> <tr><td valign=top><FONT SIZE="-1" FACE="verdana, arial, helvetica"> <i>Dr. Lynn Friedman provides organizational consultation and works with professionals and professionals-in-the-making to help them to achieve their work-life goals. </i> <br><br> <li>Is your career off-track? Are you unhappy at work? Do you find it impossible to follow through on the suggestions of career books and coaches? <a href="http://www.drlynnfriedman.com/careerassessment.pdf" target="_blank">Download Dr. Lynn Friedman's pdf file </a> examining the kinds of help that might be useful.</p> <li><a href="http://www.drlynnfriedman.com/about.html" target="_blank">If you'd like to schedule an appointment</a> with Dr. Lynn Friedman, feel free to give her a call at: 301-656-9650 <li><a href="feed://drlynnfriedman.typepad.com/dr_lynn_friedmans_blog_al/index.rdf">Subscribe to Dr. Lynn Friedman's blog feed, "All Things Psychoanalytic"</a></font> <li><a href="http://www.corporationsonthecouch.com" target="_blank">Corporations on the Couch</a> Read Dr. Lynn Friedman's monthly, Washington Business Journal, column on understanding workplace dynamics. <li>For your questions about relationships, psychotherapy and psychoanalysis, check out Dr. Lynn Friedman's new website, <a href="http://www.washingtonpsychoanalyst.com" target="_blank"> The Washington Psychoanalyst.</a></li> </font> </td></tr> </table> </p> </font> <!-- End of text page --> <!-- Body of Text Begins Here --> <p align=center> <table cellpadding=5 cellspacing=0 border=1 width=700> <tr><td valign=top bgcolor="#dddddd"><FONT SIZE="3" FACE="verdana, arial, helvetica"> <b>Would you like to read, "Corporations on the Couch" in your home town? <a href="http://www.corporationsonthecouch.com"target_blank></td></tr> <tr><td valign=top><FONT SIZE="-1" FACE="verdana, arial, helvetica"> <li><a href="https://www.bizjournals.com/subscription/index.html?market=washington" target="_blank">Working in Washington, D.C.? Subscribe here.</a> <li>Would you like to read, Corporations on the Couch, in your locale? It's nationally syndicated. Contact your local editor and request it. <a href="http://www.bizjournals.com/" target="_blank"> Find your market here.</a> </ul> </font> </td></tr> </table> <!-- Body of Text Begins Here --> <p align=center> <table cellpadding=5 cellspacing=0 border=1 width=700> <tr><td valign=top bgcolor="#dddddd"><FONT SIZE="3" FACE="verdana, arial, helvetica"> <b>People who read this article also enjoyed these columns by <a href="http://www.drlynnfriedman.com/about.html"target="_blank">Dr. Lynn Friedman, psychoanalyst, psychologist and work-life coach.</a></b></font> </td></tr> <tr><td valign=top><FONT SIZE="-1" FACE="verdana, arial, helvetica"> <li><a href="http://www.corporationsonthecouch.com/reversedelegation.html" target="_blank">Don't let your subordinates delegate work to you</a> <li><a href="http://www.corporationsonthecouch.com/retiringinplace.html"target="_blank">Retiring in Place may point to management issues</a> </ul> </font> </td></tr> </table> <br><br> <!-- Main heading bar --> <table COLS=1 WIDTH="100%" cellspacing="1" border="0"> <td BGCOLOR="navy"><font face="Arial,Helvetica" color=purple size=+2></font></td> </tr> </table> <br><br> <a name="1"> <hr noshade size=1> <center> &copy; &nbsp; <i> Copyright © 2006 Lynn Friedman, Ph.D. All rights reserved. </i></center> <font size="-3"> <p>This material is copyrighted. This blog is offered as a community service. You may transmit them free-of-charge. Feel free to forward these columns to anyone who you think might be interested, so long as not a single word is changed, added or deleted, inlcuding contact information. However, I ask that you adhere to copyright laws by providing, along with any column, all attached copyright information. It is a violation of copyright law to copy this column for commercial use and/or financial gain, to cut-and-paste this column or to use it without appropriate citation. I'll be glad to send these columns to anyone else who sends me email asking to be added to the dlist. While I invite you to link to this site, you may NOT reprint the material on a web site without my express written permission. Reprint permission will be freely granted, upon request, to student newspapers, universities and other non-profit educational organizations. Beyond this, advance written permission must be obtained prior to reprinting any of this material in modified or altered form. Thank you for your consideration.</p> <p>A final word, nothing published in this blog should be construed as a substitute for clinical, consultative or supervisory advice. If you have a mental health concern, or require consultation or supervision, please seek a consultation from a knowledgeable, well-trained, clinician. If it is an emergency seek treatment at your local emergency room.</p> <p><font face="times" size=-3><font size="-3"> </font></p> </center></font> <br><br></p> <c>Copyright Lynn Friedman, Ph.D. (2005)</c> </td> </tr> <!-- Below enter recommended readings. --> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> </tr> <tr> <td> <span class="text_2"> </span> </td> </tr> </span> </td> </tr> <tr> <td>&nbsp;</td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table> </body> </html>