Critical management studies

This chapter addresses some of the connections between psychoanalysis and critical studies of management and organization, especially those that come under the umbrella of critical management studies (CMS). As part of a long-standing radical perspective, CMS claims not only to want to interpret the world but also support/foster the generation of radical emancipatory alternatives. Has psychoanalysis helped with CMS’s critical political aim of generating radical alternatives and, if so, with what political and ethical consequences? To address these questions, the chapter discusses contributions that have mobilized psychoanalysis and are critical of the traditional managerial and economist neoliberal status quo. I_consider what has been used of psychoanalysis and as psychoanalysis and the multiple approaches found in management and organization studies. I_examine the politics, ethical responsibility, and subjectivities of some of these arenas that mobilize psychoanalysis to interpret and radically change work organizations. I_end with a call for those who mobilize psychoanalysis to get real with intersectional progressive politics.