Abstract
In this paper I develop a new explanation that furthers our understanding of why whistleblowers are frequently hated and stigmatized. I call into question the implicit assumption in the literature that whistleblowers are hated and stigmatized exclusively because they represent the ‘other’. Instead, I take a different view and argue that, especially where staff have a moral commitment to their work, whistleblowers may also be felt to be problematic because they unconsciously represent the lost good ‘self’ of staff members. I draw on Kleinian psychoanalytic ideas in developing theory, and use the crisis at the Mid Staffordshire National Health Service Trust in the UK as a contemporary case illustration. This paper contributes to the whistleblower literature as well as to the literature that applies psychoanalytic ideas to the study of management and organization, and it also identifies areas for future research.
Highlights
One of the most striking features of the lives of whistleblowers is that they are frequently hated and scorned by others in their organizations, and are regularly treated with disdain and contempt. Such hatred regularly results in stigmatization so that whistleblowers may ‘become targets of harassment, intimidation, investigation, persecution and prosecution’ (Ash, 2016, p. 11)
While acknowledging the important and decisive contributions of many of these authors, I depart from their view by proposing the novel idea that whistleblowers may represent the ‘other’ and, unconsciously, the lost good part of the ‘self’ of the staff member projected into the other, and that this helps to explain the deep hatred felt towards them, as well as the resulting stigmatization
I argue that the hatred and stigmatization directed towards Donnelly and Bailey were intensified by unconscious projections of the lost good parts of the self of others in the service, and that staff hated these whistleblowers because they unconsciously stood for what the staff couldn’t do, but would like to have done
Summary
One of the most striking features of the lives of whistleblowers is that they are frequently hated and scorned by others in their organizations, and are regularly treated with disdain and contempt. While acknowledging the important and decisive contributions of many of these authors, I depart from their view by proposing the novel idea that whistleblowers may represent the ‘other’ and, unconsciously, the lost good part of the ‘self’ of the staff member projected into the other, and that this helps to explain the deep hatred felt towards them, as well as the resulting stigmatization.
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