Religion and spirituality in organisations: Lunchtime Talk with Mark Argent, psychotherapist and consultant
Why does religion and spirituality tend to disappear in day to day organisational life and what effect does this have?
No charge (optional donations)
No charge (optional donations)
Religions occur in all human societies, with the implication that the capacity for religion is an integral part of being human. But organised religion is in decline in the West, leaving a gap.
For some this turns into a potentially-artificial separating of religion and spirituality — of the public and the private — which might make sense as a “flight to the individual”. But it’s possible to think of religion as holding valuable collective unconscious content, and having a particularly important role in the processing of trauma — thinking of trauma as something that resists symbolisation, and religion as enabling some of this to come into language, and in a way that need not be isolating.
One aspect of this is around how we process our mortality. How far does career or financial success act as a defence against the fear of death in a way that inhibits thinking and innovation?
Another is around stories told in organisations: how far are these peculiar to the organisation, or linked to others through the relatively monochrome perspective of contemporary management theory, and how far do they help people find deeper meaning in their work?
About Mark Argent
Mark Argent is a psychoanalyst and organisational consultant. He trained in retreat giving and spiritual direction at Osterley Retreats, spent eight years doing full-time retreat giving in a retreat centre, and his thinking owes a great deal to experiences in Asia.
Surprising fact
Mark took part in one of the Wavendon jazz courses, on a five-string baroque cello.
Mark’s Lunchtime Talk will be hosted by Rachel Kelly, Principal, Group Relations Consultant at the Tavistock Institute.
