From Dependency to Autonomy: Studies in Organization and Change

Description The author draws on the experience of three decades as organizational consultant to a variety of institutions, employing approaches drawn from psychoanalysis, systems theory and the group relations movement. Among the sites analysed in these papers are an airline; hospitals for incurables, the elderly, the mentally ill; a diocese; a prison; a diplomatic mission; manufacturing companies and rural sites. Throughout his case studies Eric Miller addresses issues of dependence, independence and counterdependence. In all of the settings his aim has been to help people to gain greater influence over their environments. In the concluding chapters he lifts his eyes from small groups and society in microcosm to address society as an intelligible field of study. Throughout the book he focuses constantly on concepts in action.