It’s not me! It’s him! Interactive puppet play to help children cope

Puppetry has been described as one of the most valuable and least understood of all tools for play therapy. This article describes the author’s experience using puppets to help children facing serious illness and hospitalization. One lens for understanding why puppetry is such a powerful therapeutic tool is informed by psychodynamic theory, especially object relations, in particular D. W. Winnicott’s writings on play, as well as the seminal work of Anna Freud and Melanie Klein in describing the psychological phenomena of projection and identification. In this context, the article explores, and gives examples of, the characteristics of therapeutic puppet play that facilitate mastery, modelling and self-expression.

Space lost, space found—a psychodynamic perspective on spaces, places, architecture, and furniture inside and around us

This article presents some considerations and perspectives on the issue of how to deal with rooms, spaces, places, and bodies informed by psychodynamic theory and practice. The armchair and the famous couch in the classic psychoanalytic arrangement, and the serious occupation with chairs in group relations and group analysis (circles and spirals, all the chairs of the same kind, no special chair for the group convenor) indicate that space and furniture are important. The reluctance to experiment with space and settings may signify that important areas may need to be investigated. This article presents a number of basic concepts that we apply and further develop to capture the impact of space and design on social and organisational dynamics in the network society and the interplay between conscious and unconscious motives in space and design: container; projective space; presenting oneself; staging and being staged; destruction and creativity; the making of culture and history and the house; the senses; and the organisation of memory.

Leadership in Groups and Organizations, According to Psychodynamic Theory in Psychology

This review abandons the popular understanding of leadership as a manifestation of the specific qualities and characteristics of “gifted” individuals, and takes the systemic and psychodynamic view of leadership as a phenomenon of human relationships within a group. Taking into account the social nature of leadership allows one to think of it not in substantive categories – as a given thing, but in relation categories – as a process of interaction between participants in groups, organizations and communities.