ABSTRACT
In this chapter, the author outlines a perspective on the key elements of leadership from his personal vantage point as a psychoanalyst and adviser to about 100 business leaders. He then speculates on why there has been so little attention paid to leadership by the field of psychoanalysis, to both sides’ detriment. Leadership is highly contextual, and to be successful in an advisory role, the psychoanalyst must take a systems approach. The psychoanalyst/adviser plays a valuable role in identifying and working through the range of dynamic factors affecting the leader. Leadership advising from a psychoanalytic perspective is not therapy, but it can work at the nexus of insight and action in a way that promotes the leader’s growth. There are deeper reasons why psychoanalysis has largely neglected leadership, and the author argues that one of them is the field’s own highly conflicted relationship to authority.
