- Tavistock Institute
:"This article is about the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations. For the organization which contains the Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships, see
Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology , and for the current National Health arm seeTavistock Clinic "The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations is a charity concerned with
group behaviour andorganisational behaviour . It was launched in 1946, when it separated from theTavistock Clinic .History of the Tavistock
The Institute was founded in 1946 by a group of key figures at the
Tavistock Clinic includingElliott Jaques , Henry Dicks, Leonard Browne, Ronald Hargreaves,John Rawlings Rees ,Mary Luff andWilfred Bion , with Tommy Wilson as chairman, funded by a grant from theRockefeller Foundation . Other well-known names that joined the group later wereJohn D. Sutherland ,John Bowlby ,Eric Trist , andFred Emery .Kurt Lewin , a member of theFrankfurt school in America, was an important influence on the work of the Tavistock, according to Eric Trist, who expresses his admiration for Lewin in his autobiography.Many of these founding members of the Tavistock Institute went on to play major roles in world affairs. Brigadier
John Rawlings Rees became first president of theWorld Federation for Mental Health . [http://www.moderntimesworkplace.com/archives/ericsess/tavis1/tavis1.html]Jock Sutherland became director of the new post-war Tavistock Clinic, when it was incorporated into the newly established British
National Health Service in 1946. Ronald Hargreaves became deputy director of theWorld Health Organization . Tommy Wilson became chairman of the Tavistock Institute. [http://www.moderntimesworkplace.com/archives/ericsess/tavis1/tavis1.html] [A history of the Institute can be found in "The Social Engagement of Social Science: A Tavistock Anthology" published by theUniversity of Pennsylvania Press in three volumes between 1990 and 1997.]Focal point for psychoanalytical theory
Many well-known psychologists and psychiatrists have passed through the Tavistock Institute over the years, and it became known as the focal point in Britain for psychoanalysis and the psychodynamic theories of
Sigmund Freud and his followers. Other names associated with the Tavistock areMelanie Klein ,Carl Gustav Jung ,J. A. Hadfield , Beckett,Charles Rycroft ,Wilfred Bion , andR. D. Laing . [http://www.bbk.ac.uk/english/skc/beckbion/] [Laing came to the Tavistock Institute in 1956 at the invitation of Jock Sutherland, who was then director of the Tavistock Clinic, to train on a grant. [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1263] [http://www.nybooks.com/articles/1263] His training, under Charles Rycroft, was at theInstitute of Psychoanalysis . [http://www.writing.upenn.edu/~afilreis/50s/laing.html] He left in 1965, and went on to develop his own ideas, particularly with regard toschizophrenia , which he suggested might be a natural and understandable curative process, rather than a disease of the mind. His views of schizophrenia, based largely on the concept offamily nexus , were explained in a series of famous books such as "Sanity, Madness and the Family". Laing is often associated with theAntipsychiatry movement.]Current activities
According to its website, the Institute engages in educational, research, and consultancy work in the
social sciences andapplied psychology . Its clients are chiefly public sector organizations, including theEuropean Union , several British government departments, and some private clients. The Institute has its own publishing house, and owns and edits "Human Relations", the international social sciences journal. It also edits the journal "Evaluation".It provides two MSc degree courses:
* Advanced Organisational Consultation, [http://www.tavinstitute.org/aoc/] , jointly withCity University, London [http://www.sba.oakland.edu/ispso/html/AOCTavi.htm]
* Leading Change andOrganizational Development , jointly with theNational School of Government and theUniversity of Birmingham [http://www.nationalschool.gov.uk/news_events/stories/msc_lcod.asp]Relation to other 'Tavistocks'
The Tavistock Institute shares common roots with other organisations that also emerged from the Tavistock Clinic. This is a source of much confusion, though the facts can be ascertained from the historical account of the Tavistock by Eric Trist, one time chairman of the Institute. [http://www.moderntimesworkplace.com/archives/ericsess/tavis1/tavis1.html]
The Clinic is now part of a
National Health Service trust, while the "Tavistock Institute", which once did research in many areas and was funded by many sources, is now a charity.The name "Tavistock Institute of Medical Psychology", which was the name used for the original parent body, is now used to refer to an organization that grew out of that parent body but now specializes in couples relationships under the section name of the "Tavistock Centre for Couple Relationships".
Notes
Further reading
* [http://www.tavinstitute.org/index.php?mode=063d0d25586e5520&location=533208655f34024b514b07125a4b083a57300a62033f0267046957385e2351615b640a235b3a5a6b066f513b0d665162544f5c4d034b0548073401310b33 Tavistock Institute website]
* [http://www.moderntimesworkplace.com/archives/ericsess/tavis1/tavis1.html The Foundation and Development of the Tavistock Institute to 1989] byEric Trist andHugh Murray .
* [http://www.uvm.edu/~mkessler/akrice/rice.html Rice Institute and Tavistock research]
*Young, Robert M. [http://human-nature.com/culture/paper5h.html "The Culture of British Psychoanalysis"]
*Trist, Eric L. et al. "The Social Engagement of Social Science: A Tavistock Anthology : The Socio-Ecological Perspective (Tavistock Anthology)", University of Pennsylvania, May 1997. ISBN 0-8122-8194-2
* [http://www.moderntimesworkplace.com/archives/ericbio/ericbiobody/ericbiobody.html Eric Trist - Autobiography online]
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