‘Be a model, not a critic’: Self-help culture, implicit censorship and the silent organization

Organization ◽  
2020 ◽  
pp. 135050842093923 ◽  
Author(s):  
Erik Mygind du Plessis

This article seeks to explain ‘silent organizations’ (i.e. organizations with an absence of critical voices) through an analytical perspective derived from Judith Butler’s work on censorship, and in this way suggest an alternative to explanations in the existing literature on employee silence, which are often tied to the actions and motivations of the individual employee. It is thus argued that self-help books are reflective of wider cultural dynamics and concomitant normative pressures directed at the subject in contemporary capitalism, which among other things promote the absence of criticism in the workplace. The empirical point of departure for this argument is the two bestselling and culturally resonant self-help books The Secret by Rhonda Byrne and The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People by Stephen Covey. Theoretically, the article applies Butler’s notion of ‘implicit censorship’ where censorship is understood as productive in the sense of being constitutive of language and subjects. Hence, in the analysis, it is shown how discursive regimes in self-help literature tend to be constructed in such a way that extroverted criticism cannot emerge as a meaningful activity, and is thus implicitly censored.

1998 ◽  
Vol 27 ◽  
pp. 209-232 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katherine O'Brien O'Keeffe

This article explores some textual dimensions of what I argue is a crucial moment in the history of the Anglo-Saxon subject. For purposes of temporal triangulation, I would locate this moment between roughly 970 and 1035, though these dates function merely as crude, if potent, signposts: the years 970×973 mark the adoption of the Regularis concordia, the ecclesiastical agreement on the practice of a reformed (and markedly continental) monasticism, and 1035 marks the death of Cnut, the Danish king of England, whose laws encode a change in the understanding of the individual before the law. These dates bracket a rich and chaotic time in England: the apex of the project of reform, a flourishing monastic culture, efflorescence of both Latin and vernacular literatures, remarkable manuscript production, but also the renewal of the Viking wars that seemed at times to be signs of the apocalypse and that ultimately would put a Dane on the throne of England. These dates point to two powerful and continuing sets of interests in late Anglo-Saxon England, ecclesiastical and secular, monastic and royal, whose relationships were never simple. This exploration of the subject in Anglo-Saxon England as it is illuminated by the law draws on texts associated with each of these interests and argues their interconnection. Its point of departure will be the body – the way it is configured, regarded, regulated and read in late Anglo-Saxon England. It focuses in particular on the use to which the body is put in juridical discourse: both the increasing role of the body in schemes of inquiry and of punishment and the ways in which the body comes to be used to know and control the subject.


2021 ◽  
pp. 9-31
Author(s):  
Stephen Sirris ◽  
Harald Askeland

This chapter introduces the subject matter of this book – church organizing and leadership – and key concepts. The book’s point of departure is recent reforms in the Church of Norway as well as broader cultural and societal changes. This chapter answers the question: How can organization and leadership in the Church of Norway be understood as values-based and practice-oriented? We provide a conceptual framework that serves as the epistemic anchoring of this anthology. First, an institutional values-based approach (Selznick, 1957) takes into account the values and identity of the church as a religious organization. Second, a practice-oriented approach (Mintzberg, 2009), grounded in empirical studies, emphasizes how practices are performed and understood by individual leaders and collectives. These main perspectives facilitate our contextual interest in the Church of Norway focusing on the congregational level embedded in various other levels and interactions between various actors, including leaders, clergy and lay people. We position the individual chapters within the conceptual framework of the book before summarizing its key contributions.


2020 ◽  
Vol 51 (3) ◽  
pp. 183-198
Author(s):  
Wiktor Soral ◽  
Mirosław Kofta

Abstract. The importance of various trait dimensions explaining positive global self-esteem has been the subject of numerous studies. While some have provided support for the importance of agency, others have highlighted the importance of communion. This discrepancy can be explained, if one takes into account that people define and value their self both in individual and in collective terms. Two studies ( N = 367 and N = 263) examined the extent to which competence (an aspect of agency), morality, and sociability (the aspects of communion) promote high self-esteem at the individual and the collective level. In both studies, competence was the strongest predictor of self-esteem at the individual level, whereas morality was the strongest predictor of self-esteem at the collective level.


2013 ◽  
Vol 35 (2) ◽  
pp. 165-187
Author(s):  
E. S. Burt

Why does writing of the death penalty demand the first-person treatment that it also excludes? The article investigates the role played by the autobiographical subject in Derrida's The Death Penalty, Volume I, where the confessing ‘I’ doubly supplements the philosophical investigation into what Derrida sees as a trend toward the worldwide abolition of the death penalty: first, to bring out the harmonies or discrepancies between the individual subject's beliefs, anxieties, desires and interests with respect to the death penalty and the state's exercise of its sovereignty in applying it; and second, to provide a new definition of the subject as haunted, as one that has been, but is no longer, subject to the death penalty, in the light of the worldwide abolition currently underway.


1970 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 97-103
Author(s):  
Svitlana Kuzikova

The author's approach to the empirical study of the peculiarities of self-development of a person has been  considered. The criteria of self-development as a subject activity have been characterized. Its indicators have been  given.  The  psychological  resources  of  personal  self-development  have  been  singled  out:  the  need  for  self- development as its source and determinant; conditions that ensure its success; mechanisms as functional means and  conditions  for  its  implementation.  Their  essence  has  been  revealed.  The  need  for  self-development  has  been  determined by the actualization of the characteristics of self-development (self-activity, vital activity, development of  self-consciousness) and has been occurred when the content structure of the individual consciousness and the  transformation of semantic entities changed. Conditions of self-development has been defined by mature I of  personality, openness, tolerance to the new, the presence of a conscious goal of self-realization and active life  strategy. Reflection, self-regulation and feedback have been considered as mechanisms of self-development. The  methodical approaches and means of studying the peculiarities and factors of the development of the subject of self- development in adolescence in the process of professional training have been offered, and the results of their  integrated empirical research have been highlighted. Particular attention has been paid to the analysis of the level  of actualization of self-development resources among students, discovered with the author's diagnostic method  "DCPSD" (Dispositional Characteristic of Personality of Self-development). It has been proved that psychological  resources as a set of possibilities of development already exist in the psychological reality of a person. It has been  shown that the dominance of the level of self-development resources’ actualization of the individual (and their  combination) can be correlated with the dimensions of the individual psychological space, indicating the individual  peculiarity of the personal self-development organization. It has been noted that, at the same time, actualization,  strengthening and harmonization of all psychological resources of a person self-development, enrichment of its  relations with the environment and other people, and increasing spirituality is necessary for the implementation of  progressive conscious personal self-development. У  статті  розглянуто  авторський  підхід  до  емпіричного  вивчення  особливостей  саморозвитку  особистості. Охарактеризовано критерії саморозвитку як суб’єктної діяльності, наведено його показники.  Виокремлено психологічні ресурси особистісного саморозвитку: потребу в саморозвитку як його джерело і  детермінант; умови, які забезпечують його успішність; механізми як  функціональні засоби і умови його  здійснення.    Розкрито    їх    сутність.    Потреба    в    саморозвитку    визначається    актуалізованістю  характеристик саморозвитку (самоактивність, життєдіяльність, розвиненість самосвідомості) і виникає  при зміні змістової  структури індивідуальної свідомості та трансформації смислових утворень. Умови  саморозвитку  окреслюють  зріле  Я  особистості,  відкритість,  толерантність  до  нового,  наявність  усвідомленої   мети   самоздійснення   та   активної   життєвої   стратегії.   Як   механізми   саморозвитку  розглядаються рефлексія, саморегуляція та зворотній зв'язок. Запропоновано методичні підходи і засоби  вивчення особливостей та чинників становлення суб’єкта саморозвитку в юнацькому віці в процесі фахової  підготовки, висвітлено результати їх комплексного емпіричного дослідження. Особливу увагу приділено  аналізу  рівня  актуалізації  ресурсів  саморозвитку  у  студентів,  виявленого  за  допомогою  авторської  діагностичної методики «ДХСО». Доведено, що психологічні ресурси  як сукупність можливостей розвитку  вже існують у психологічній реальності людини. Показано, що домінування рівня актуалізації ресурсів  саморозвитку особистості ( та їх поєднання) можна співвіднести з вимірами психологічного простору  особистості,   що   свідчить   про  індивідуальну   своєрідність   організації   особистісного  саморозвитку.  Зазначено,  що  в  той  же  час  для  здійснення  прогресивного  усвідомленого  особистісного  саморозвитку  необхідна   актуалізація,   взаємопосилення   і   гармонізація   всіх   психологічних   ресурсів   саморозвитку  особистості, збагачення її зв’язків із навколишнім середовищем та іншими людьми, підвищення духовності.


2020 ◽  
Vol 22 (11) ◽  
pp. 11-15
Author(s):  
Gan N.Yu. ◽  
Ponomareva L.I. ◽  
Obukhova K.A.

Today, worldview, spiritual and moral problems that have always been reflected in education and upbringing come to the fore in society. In this situation, there is a demand for philosophical categories. One of the priority goals of education in modern conditions is the formation of a reasonable, reflexive person who is able to analyze their actions and the actions of other people. Modern science is characterized by an understanding of the absolute value and significance of childhood in the development of the individual, which implies the need for its multilateral study. In the conditions of democratization of all spheres of life, the child ceases to be a passive object of education and training, and becomes an active carrier of their own meanings of being and the subject of world creation. One of the realities of childhood is philosophizing, so it is extremely timely to address the identification of its place and role in the world of childhood. Children's philosophizing is extremely poorly studied, although the need for its analysis is becoming more obvious. Children's philosophizing is one of the forms of philosophical reflection, which has its own qualitative specificity, on the one hand, and commonality with all other forms of philosophizing, on the other. The social relevance of the proposed research lies in the fact that children's philosophizing can be considered as an intellectual indicator of a child's socialization, since the process of reflection involves the adoption and development of culture. Modern society, in contrast to the traditional one, is ready to "accept" a philosophizing child, which means that it is necessary to determine the main characteristics and conditions of children's philosophizing.


2018 ◽  
Vol 28 (6) ◽  
pp. 2161-2165
Author(s):  
Hristo Ivanov Popnikolov

From the subject presented in the report it is evident that the pre-trial and the court bodies may, to some extent, be influenced both by the person of the accused and by his competence to participate in the criminal process. In this regard as an expert, the psychologist can offer invaluable assistance. Each expertise would assist all actors involved in the administration of justice on their objective assessment of the offenders, the understanding of their individual protection and the inherent self-justification during procedural actions. The involvement of psychologists in the criminal process is key to establishing the truth in the investigation, because every crime as an act has a subjective side, expressed in the psychic attitude of the perpetrator to the committed act. Establishing these psychological motives is a key point in the criminal process with a view to establishing the truth.Psychological protection stabilizes the personality in the critical conditions of counteraction, related to the elimination of the experiences of tension, anxiety, stress and frustration, leading to maximum mobilization of its resources and at the same time to their overpayment. Thus, the individual who is the subject of the process action is protected against the adverse external influences, but at the cost of a lot of effort and enormous loss of nervous-mental energy, which increases his own vulnerability instead of contributing to its reduction. The appearance and functioning of psychological protection can be significantly impeded by the interaction of the investigator with the accused. Even more complicated is the situation when it breaks the communication contact that may arise in the psychological alienation and self-isolation of the accused due to the desire to protect himself.Protective psychological dominance is a real psychic activity that investigators, investigators, investigators and judges need to take into account in order to effectively deal with their task and to overcome the resistance of the investigated persons and in a time to prove in a lawful and moral way their guilt and participation in the commitment of the crimes.


Author(s):  
Katarzyna Czeczot

The article deals with the love of Zygmunt Krasiński to Delfina Potocka. The point of departure is the poet's definition of love as looking and reads Krasiński's relationship with his beloved in the context of two phenomena that fascinated him at the time: daguerreotype and magnetism. The invention of the daguerreotype in which the history of photography and spiritism comes together becomes a pretext for the formulation of a new concept of love and the loving subject. In the era of painting the woman was treated as a passive object of the male gaze; photography reverses this scheme of power. Love ceases to be a static relationship of the subject in love and the passive object – the beloved. The philosophy of developing photographs (and invoking phantoms) allows Krasiński - the writing subject to become like a light-sensitive material that reveals the image of the beloved.


2021 ◽  
pp. 136754942110060
Author(s):  
Karl Berglund

This article presents a holistic approach to the study of genres in book publishing that includes formal aspects of literary texts, marketing strategies and categorisations used by producers, and perspectives on how these labels are perceived by readers and critics, as well as a temporal and spatial understanding of how genres evolve. The empirical point of departure is the recent boom in Nordic Noir, exemplified by the following three Swedish authors successful in the 21st century: Lars Kepler, Jens Lapidus and Camilla Läckberg. The discourses surrounding Nordic Noir and how these authors and their writing relate and get related to it are used as an example of how book-trade genres operate in multiple and complex ways, and how genres produce effects that move back and forth among creators, producers and consumers. It proposes a twofold model, where genres are understood as constituted by all of the relations between these areas together. Through Kepler, Lapidus and Läckberg, the article shows how Nordic Noir has emerged over the years; how it changes with its publishing context; and how the genre’s internal discrepancy between literary content and marketing and reception is a crucial component in understanding Nordic Noir.


2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 84-95
Author(s):  
Esther Sánchez-Pardo

AbstractIn Sisyphus Outdone (2012), Nathanaël’s particular tribute to Albert Camus’ The Myth of Sisyphus (1942), the reader faces a challenging hybrid text in which the verbal and visual dimensions intermingle to produce an idiosyncratic type of narrative. Fragmentary, elliptical, a web of quotations, dictums, and meditations on the difficult condition of the individual in the current image-saturated scenario of the first decades of the 21st century, the text manages to propose a rigorous reflection upon crucial aspects of representation from History and temporality, to the Subject now, photography, catastrophe theory, architecture, failure and translation, among the most salient. Sisyphus, I suggest, exhibits a strategic photopoetics which operates as a self-reflective mechanism contributing to the persistence of an impermanent liminal subject and to the (re)production of textuality and the proliferation of voices against silence.


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