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The Psychoanalytic Relationship between Leaders and Followers

University of Leicester, UK, rjc48{at}le.ac.uk

In this article I shall argue that contemporary leadership theories and managerial techniques require the separation of individual and social psychologies. We shall establish a Freudian critique of this separation. According to Freud all psychology is primarily social. We shall see that the concept of psychological individuality, represented in Freud's concept of narcissism, is most accurately conceived as a product of the social connections within groups rather than the foundation of leadership. Consequently we shall see how the narcissism of leadership is both a useful mechanism to secure strong group relations and also a precipitating cause in the termination of groups.

Key Words: Freud • leader—follower relation • narcissism • psychoanalysis

Leadership, Vol. 4, No. 2, 201-212 (2008)
DOI: 10.1177/1742715008089638


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