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    Thanatos: Freudian manifestations of death at work

    Kahn, Susan and Liefooghe, Andreas (2014) Thanatos: Freudian manifestations of death at work. Culture and Organization 20 (1), pp. 53-67. ISSN 1475-9551.

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    Abstract

    While Eros in all his vicissitudes has been analysed, reinvented and applied, Thanatos 1 has held an important but overlooked place in the canon of psychoanalytic literature. This research note draws on Freudian theoretical notions of death and applies these to organizational demise. Psychoanalytic writing on death is examined and the theory themed through aspects of: loss vs. desire; the impossibility of death; and nothingness vs. destruction and working through death. This is then considered as a means to better understand organizational collapse. We argue that Freudian notions of death provide a useful lens through which to view organizational mortality.

    Metadata

    Item Type: Article
    Keyword(s) / Subject(s): death drive, loss, organizational death, psychoanalysis
    School: Birkbeck Faculties and Schools > Faculty of Business and Law > Birkbeck Business School
    Depositing User: Administrator
    Date Deposited: 07 Nov 2014 12:37
    Last Modified: 02 Aug 2023 17:13
    URI: https://eprints.bbk.ac.uk/id/eprint/10929

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