Where there is Power, there is no Eros: A Jungian Interpretation of the Weberian Legacy

Abstract

This article examines the influence of Weberian rationality on the human unconscious. Using the work of the depth psychologist C. G. Jung, I conclude that Weber's ideal construct is too one-sided. This entirely masculine and conscious approach to organizing posits too much psychic energy with the conscious ego, and, accordingly, the feminine, and the entire unconscious, all that we are not consciously aware of, is repressed. Thus this article finds that modern-day careerists who identify their whole being with their work suffer from emotionally stunted lives. Moreover, this repressed state of being transcends the boundary of the individual's organizational and private life. Concluding that repression of feeling in our culture, and the integral part that modern organization plays within this societal context, is serious, this study calls for a tempering of rationality within organization. Following the Jungian perspective that anything repressed for too long turns violent and that psychic wholeness can be obtained only by integrating the masculine and feminine opposites, the article suggests that individuals, as well as society, must open an avenue to the unconscious that will permit the feminine its rightful existence along with the masculine.