The Saybrook Forum

Posts

New Existentialists

The Future of Existential Psychology: Just What Is Existential Choice?

03/21/2013

The issue of choice and “the freedom to choose” lies at the heart of existential thought and practice. But what is usually expressed about this key theme tends to be overly optimistic and solipsistic. In addition, choice is almost always perceived as being “multi-optional.” Below, I have attempted to present an overview of existential choice as I have come to understand it. You may disagree, but I hope that, nonetheless, you are challenged. Sartre made it plain: choice is more accurately a condemnation than it is a matter of celebration. Every choice made has its pay-...

Posted at 10:00 AM

Rethinking Complexity

Acting Like Owners, Be Careful What You Wish For

03/21/2013

Starting tomorrow, my colleague Ashley Welch and I will be in New Orleans for Entrepreneur Week. New Orleans Entrepreneur Week (NOEW) culminates a season of entrepreneurship sponsored by The Idea Village, a non-profit organization established in 2000 whose mission, according to their website, is to “identify, support and retain entrepreneurial talent in New Orleans.” Ashley and I are bringing a group of our clients to NOEW to learn how Idea Village creates incubators of entrepreneurship in hopes of translating some of Idea Village’s culture, system and practices to...

Posted at 09:00 AM

Rethinking Complexity

How can we best support cross-organizational collaboration?

03/20/2013

It seems that many of the conversations I am engaged in these days focus on the need for organizations to collaborate. When I first started working in the area of collaboration, the focus was on creating cultures in organizations that supported people in collaborating across their often siloed functional structures. Maybe that was the beginning of the emergence of complexity in organizations, when leaders began to recognize that functional silos couldn’t address the challenges of delivering services and products that would meet customer needs. As complexity has increased both...

Posted at 04:27 PM

New Existentialists

The New Apologists for Modernity

03/20/2013

While it is undeniable that science and technology has improved the living conditions of many, it is patently misleading to imply that, due to these developments, modernity has somehow “triumphed” over the spiritual and religious legacies of our past. And yet this is precisely the suggestion of some of the leading voices in social science. Basing their claims on so-called hard science, such as the evolution of genes and the cleverness of cognitive adaptation, these apologists for industrial Western values put forth platforms that vilify traditional religions (e.g., Harris,...

Posted at 10:00 AM

New Existentialists

Community and a Hermeneutics of Love

03/19/2013

One of Alexis de Tocqueville’s primary observations of America in the mid-19th century was the primacy of rugged individualism within our culture. He believed this individualism was both our nation’s greatest strength, as well as our greatest weakness. It was his assertion this emphasis on rugged individualism would ultimately be the undoing of our culture and society, as well as our experiment in democratic governance. In his book, Freedom and Destiny (1981), May states, “It is our destiny to live always in some form of community” (p. 232). May goes on to say,...

Posted at 10:00 AM

Rethinking Complexity

Missing Women’s Voices in Leadership: Makes for a Flawed Democracy

03/18/2013

In his March 11th 2013 article “Female candidates faced big obstacles in concluded polls” in the Standard Digital, Michael Wesonga asserted that “Kenyan women stand out as the greatest losers in the just concluded General Election after they failed to clinch top seats. No woman was elected as governor or to the Senate”. He further observed that “they were relegated to county women representatives and few MP slots, as the more appealing governor and senate positions remained a preserve of their male counterparts. Women lost as voter dynamics in all the elective...

Posted at 03:48 PM

New Existentialists

The “Pop”

03/18/2013

The Division 32/Society for Humanistic Psychology Conference at Pacifica Graduate Institute at the end of February reminded me of a conference catch phrase from the previous conference in Pittsburgh in 2012. A talk on community concluded with the idea that humanistic psychology seems to have all the right ingredients that can lead individuals to a positive transformational Pop! The pop is that moment when one’s professional and intellectual interests turn into an inspirational belonging. It is a moment of discovering your personal way and finding your professional community. Certainly...

Posted at 10:00 AM

New Existentialists

Intrapersonal Relationship & the Sensual: You Are the House of Bliss

03/15/2013

When you think about sensuality, what comes to mind? Sexuality? Touching other people? Attraction? Women slurping noodles with abandon, or men smelling like old spice? Sensuality is a way of being in contact. When we are in touch with our senses, it usually involves the impact of something external. If we smell a hyacinth, we are moved by fragrance. If we taste chocolate, we engage flavor and smooth texture. When we hear another’s sigh at our touch, we may recline a little more into their embrace, which then involves how we feel when we are touched. I suspect that we habitually...

Posted at 10:00 AM

New Existentialists

The Future of Existential Psychology: Upgrading Existential Psychology

03/14/2013

It is not uncommon for a person in distress to decide that he would like some help with what’s ailing him: a certain malaise, a certain sort of sadness, and a certain inability or unwillingness to go on. In his search for help, he might turn to spiritual and religious practices, to traditional psychotherapy and psychopharmacology, to filling his day with activities that he hopes will prove meaningful. Then one day he stumbles on something that has a familiar, comforting and even exciting ring to it: existential psychology. He reads about it. It sounds more like philosophy than...

Posted at 11:00 AM

Rethinking Complexity

Family Business as a Model for Sustainability and Social Responsibility

03/14/2013

I have been interviewing family owners of large global family enterprises that have sustained the family wealth and positive connections over several generations. One member of the 4th generation of a family--now numbering more than 100 family owners--reflected on her experience of going to annual family business meetings for nearly a half century! At first the meetings were information sessions, where the paternalistic family leader presented the news of the business to passive family owners. Over time, while family members were always proud of the values and long-term commitment to...

Posted at 09:00 AM