Michael Maccoby Ph.D

Washington, DC

Episode Description:

Dr. Steven Rolfe welcomes Dr. Michael Maccoby. Dr Maccoby is a psychoanalyst and anthropologist globally recognized as an expert on leadership for his research, writing, and projects to improve organizations and work. He has authored or co-authored fourteen books and consulted to companies, governments, the World Bank, unions, research and development centers and laboratories, universities, and orphanages and taught in 36 countries. Dr. Maccoby has taught leadership at Oxford and directed the Program on Technology, Public Policy, and Human Development at the Kennedy School from 1970-90. In 2008 he received the Swedish honor of Commander of the Royal Order of the Polar Star for his work in Sweden and, in 2017, he received the Lifetime Achievement Award from the Washington School of Psychiatry.

Key Takeaways:

[4:21] Dr. Maccoby talks about how he first became interested in psychoanalysis.
[9:21] Dr. Maccoby was in analysis with Eric Fromm for 8 years while working with him.
[10:56] Dr. Maccoby talks about his work with organizations early in his career.
[11:55] Humanizing the workplace.
[14:10] The beginning of Dr. Maccoby’s studies in leadership.
[14:33] Dr. Maccoby shares how Eric Fromm influenced his career.
[17:43] Dr. Maccoby talks about his book. Narcissistic Leaders: Who Succeeds and Who Fails. and the reaction it caused in Donald Trump.
[18:03] The productive and destructive aspects of narcissism.
[20:22] Dr. Maccoby updated Fromm’s personality types with his own set of ideas.
[23:48] Dr. Maccoby talks about Donald Trump’s personality type as a Marketing Personality.
[25:50] Dr. Maccoby shares what motivated him to write Psychoanalytic and Historical Perspectives on the Leadership of Donald Trump: Narcissism and Marketing in an Age of Anxiety and Distrust.
[27:56] The kind of president the USA needs: Pericles’ principles for a leader applied to America’s greatest presidents.
[31:03] The role of aggression in the marketing personality type.
[33:45] The transition between the clinical work and consulting

Mentioned in This Episode

IPA Off the Couch – www.ipaoffthecouch.org

Recommended Readings

Maccoby, Michael. The Gamesman: The New Corporate Leaders. New York: Simon and Schuster, 1976.

Maccoby, Michael. Narcissistic Leaders: Who Succeeds and Who Fails. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2007.

Maccoby, Michael. The Leaders We Need: And What Makes Us Follow. Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2007.

Maccoby, Michael and Clifford L. Norman, Jane Norman, and Richard Margolies. Transforming Health Care Leadership: A Systems Guide to Improve Patient Care, Decrease Costs, and Improve Population Health. San Francisco, CA: Jossey Bass, 2013.

Maccoby, Michael. Strategic Intelligence: Conceptual Tools for Leading Change. Oxford University Press, 2015.

Maccoby Michael and Ken Fuchsman, editors. Psychoanalytic and Historical Perspectives on the Leadership of Donald Trump: Narcissism and Marketing in an Age of Anxiety and Distrust. Routledge, 2020.