Eliat Aram on the Edgy Ideas podcast

At the beginning of May, Dr Eliat Aram, CEO at the Institute, met with Dr Simon Western in the latest episode of his Edgy Ideas podcast. The two spoke about Group Relations, and about authority, authoritarianism, and identity so relevant today, plus the work and history (the thinking) of the Tavistock Institute, and “working within the context, to change it…”

In the podcast, Eliat talks about the tensions and paradoxes involved in the work of the trans-disciplinary practitioners and how they blend their work at the Institute and the learning potential within and around us.

She discusses our 70th anniversary Festival, some of the leadership / organisational change developments over the years, and shares new pioneering directions, particularly around aesthetics, the arts, and the relationship between humans and their spaces – the place where we live – and how these inform our working lives today.

Eliat and Simon talk about sustainability, the environment, urban development, and creative working around how the future is being shaped; how we can make mistakes, fight, and learn together – the importance of space for reflection. An eco-system way of thinking that allows for multidisciplinary insights and integrating different, innovative, and experiential ways of working.

Eliat also speaks about the model of group relations as being based in action research and focused on systems psychodynamics – it’s about how psychoanalytic thinking and open systems theory coming together into something that we call ‘under-the-surface processes.’

If you are interested to hear more about the history of the Institute, its pioneering work and people, and how Eliat perceives group relations, you can listen to the podcast here.

About the podcast: Edgy Ideas explores what it means to live a ‘good life’ and build a ‘good society’ in our disruptive age. It aims to re-insert the human spirit, good faith, ethics, and beauty back into the picture, offering new perspectives and psycho-social insights by paying particular attention to how ‘the unconscious that speaks through us’ entrapping us in repetitive patterns and shaping our desires.