Staff and students to present at ISPSO Annual Meeting

The depth and breadth of research and practice undertaken at The Tavistock and Portman will be on show when staff and students present at the ISPSO Annual Meeting this July.

The International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO) will hold their Annual Meeting and Symposium in Sofia, Bulgaria from Monday 1 to Sunday 7 July 2024. The programme will include papers and presentations from several members of staff, graduates and current students at The Tavistock and Portman NHS Foundation Trust.

Established in 1982, ISPSO promotes the practice of studying and working with organisations and their leaders from psycho-dynamic and socio-dynamic perspectives. The theme of this year’s conference is: “Civilizations and their discontents”: What does that mean for the psychoanalytic study of and work with organizations?

A number of staff and students associated with our professional doctorate in Advanced practice and research: consultation and the organisation (D10D) will be presenting their work at the Annual Meeting, including our course lead, members of teaching staff, graduates and current students:

• Course lead, Dr Nick Waggett, will be presenting on: “More-than human relations: technology as an actor in our discontented organizations and civilizations.”
• Associate lecturer, Professor Mark Stein, will be presenting on: “The Tavistock work discussion group method: Using a group method to promote curiosity in work with discontented organisations.”
• Course tutor and supervisor, Dr Petros Oratis, will be presenting on: “Who takes care of co-existence at the collapse of social order? Exploring polarization in connection to the promise of radical laterality and the collapse of hierarchies.”
• D10D graduate, Dr Rebecca Nester will be delivering a keynote presentation jointly with Professor Paul Hoggett on: ‘Is Western Civilisation Against Nature?’
• D10D graduate, Dr Martin Lüdemann, will be presenting on: “Tensions on the production line: a conflict with obscured causes.”
• Current D10D student, Ekaterina Shapovalova, will be co-presenting a paper on: “Not alone in the trauma: The value of the Social Photo-Matrix and Social Dream-Drawing Methodologies for groups and teams in disturbed times.”

Our Executive coaching programme – Tavistock Consulting (ECP) will also be represented, with co-director Dr Beth Neustadt running a professional development workshop on “Attachment at Work”. While Charlotte Williams, Director of Tavistock Consulting, will be presenting a paper on: “Politics of Difference – Uses and Abuses.”

Lydia Hartland-Rowe, Dr Sarah Wynick and Dr Mellini Mahadevan will be running a professional development workshop on “Examining the unexamined: institutional learning from mandated Group Relations Conferences.”

Dr Louisa Brunner, advanced practice lead for our D10D professional doctorate, is on the organising committee for the event.

Looking ahead to July, course lead, Dr Nick Waggett, said:

“We are really pleased to have such a strong representation of staff and students at this year’s ISPSO meeting, which is a prestigious international event. It shows the value of our professional doctorate in developing new thinking and practice in work with organisations. It also demonstrates the depth and breadth of knowledge of our faculty that students can draw on.”

Registration for the Annual Meeting is currently open to members and non-members – with options to join remotely or in-person.