Bridging the contradictions of social constructionism and psychoanalysis in a study of workplace emotions in India

Abstract

This article makes a contribution to the study of emotions in organizations by offering a systematic juxtaposition and cross-fertilization of psychoanalytic and social constructionist approaches. These two traditions have found it hard to communicate in the past when addressing organizational emotions. Points of similarity and tension between them are discussed in connection with two critical case studies of female Indian managers discussing their emotions at the workplace. These were obtained during field work in which emotions were studied through narratives generated by a free-association interview approach. Both the emotions described in the narratives themselves and the emotions of the interview encounter were analysed, as resources for a rapprochement of contrasting perspectives on emotion. This rapprochement acknowledges the psychoanalytic emphasis on unconscious dynamics shaping the emotional lives of individuals and groups, while also honouring the social constructionist emphasis on how emotions are influenced by social, cultural and discursive practices.

Navigating emotion in HR work: caring for ourselves?

“…Narratives are ways of communicating that enable us to know and interpret the world (Cunliffe et al, 2004) and therefore a narrative approach lends itself to an interpretive perspective. In seeking to access and understand the emotional experience of work, Boudens (2005) (Boudens, 2005), like how stories expose our emotions, (Ulus and Gabriel, 2016). This study aims to seek expressions of emotions in participants' narratives that help account for how HR practitioners, as Fisher (1984) Photo-elicitation, where a photograph is used as a prompt to elicit opinions in a research interview (Harper, 2002), is a method that can uncover otherwise hidden emotions (Höykinpuro and Ropo, 2014).…”

“…In seeking to access and understand the emotional experience of work, Boudens (2005) analysed narratives from secondary data sources about experiences of work, resulting in rich pictures of what aspects of work generate emotion. Intense emotional experiences were accessed indirectly through figurative language (Boudens, 2005), like how stories expose our emotions (Ulus and Gabriel, 2018). This study aims to seek expressions of emotions in participants' narratives that help account for how HR practitioners, as Fisher (1984) suggested, justify, guide and make sense of their individual lives.…”

Academic labour as professional service work? A psychosocial analysis of emotion in lecturer–student relations under marketization

“…Indeed, Fotaki et al (2012: 1113–1114) name psychosocial approaches as particularly suited to capturing ‘the diversity and complexity of emotions to understand people’s experiences of workplaces’, as exemplified in recent work by Baker and Kelan (2019) and Dashtipour et al (2020). Though there are tensions between social constructionist and psychoanalytic perspectives, scholars interested in understanding emotion have identified the critical potential of using psychoanalytic ideas alongside rather than instead of social constructionist theories (see Clarke, 2003; Craib, 1995, 1997; Ulus and Gabriel, 2018). As Clarke (2003: 153) argues, ‘neither discipline provides a better explanation, but together they provide a deeper understanding ’ [emphasis in original].…”

“…Theoretical concepts of psychoanalysis emphasize features of certain emotions that are often rendered invisible in sociological analyses (see Clarke, 2003). Transference is one of these key concepts and is especially helpful for an analysis of lecturer and student relations because it illuminates the ‘intricate, delicate dance of mutually affecting emotions between individuals’ and that these often occur ‘under the surface of explicit emotion rules’ (Ulus and Gabriel, 2018: 224). As such, a psychosocial approach allows us to identify the discursive positions our participants adopted under an institutional imperative of customer sovereignty and offer an explanation of the intrapsychic dynamics that account for the emotional meanings of such positions.…”

I am undone by these women: Identity and change in a feminist domestic violence organisation

“…Critical perspectives on emotion have taken up these latter two themes and demonstrate how emotions are political, emergent, and contingent on social and cultural norms (Sieben & Wettergren, 2010). Most prominently, studies of emotion in CMS have drawn from social constructionist and/or psychoanalytic perspectives (for an overview of strengths, weakness, and similarities of the two perspectives see Ulus & Gabriel, 2018) to critique conventional perspectives on emotion in organisations and provide alternative ways of theorising emotion.…”