Struggling with the demon: perspectives on individual and organizational irrationality

About the Author(s)

Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries Manfred F. R. Kets de Vries offers a distinctive and influential perspective on the interconnected worlds of psychotherapy, organizational behavior, leadership, executive coaching, and consulting. Drawing on a rare combination of academic training in economics (Econ. Drs., University of Amsterdam), management (ITP, MBA, and DBA, Harvard Business School), and psychoanalysis (member of the Canadian Psychoanalytic Society, the Paris Psychoanalytic Society, and the International Psychoanalytic Association), his work explores the psychological and existential dilemmas that shape individuals, organizations, and societies.

Kets de Vries is Distinguished Clinical Professor of Leadership Development and Organizational Change at INSEAD, where he founded the Executive Master’s Program in Change Management and established the INSEAD Global Leadership Centre, which he directed for many years. A pioneer in psychodynamic leadership studies and team coaching, he has played a central role in developing group-based intervention methodologies that support transformational change in individuals, leadership teams, and organizations. His work is widely recognized for integrating clinical depth with organizational practice.

Kets de Vries has received INSEAD’s Distinguished Teacher Award on six occasions, reflecting also his sustained impact in the classroom. He has held faculty positions at Harvard Business School, McGill University, and HEC Montréal, and serves as a Distinguished Visiting Professor at the European School for Management and Technology (ESMT) in Berlin. He has lectured at leading institutions around the world.

His influence extends well beyond academia. Publications including The Financial Times, The Economist, Le Capital, and Wirtschaftswoche have repeatedly recognized him as one of the world’s foremost thinkers in management, leadership development, and organizational change—reflecting his rare ability to bridge rigorous scholarship, clinical insight, and executive practice. He has become one of the world’s foremost thinkers on the psychodynamics of leadership and organizations.

Kets de Vries is the author, co-author, or editor of more than seventy books on leadership, coaching, and organizational dynamics. His titles include The Neurotic Organization, The Irrational Executive, The Leadership Mystique, The Leader on the Couch, Family Business on the Couch, Coach and Couch, Sex, Money, Happiness, and Death, The Hedgehog Effect, Mindful Leadership Coaching, The CEO Whisperer, Leadership Unhinged, Leading Wisely, Storytelling for Leaders, The Darker Side of Leadership, A Life Well Lived, Narcissistic Leadership: Narcissus on the Couch, The Management of Loss, Trump in Mirror Land, The Theater of the Absurd, Trumpian Explorations, The Endless Trump Show, The Trumpian Circus, Leading from the Inside Out, Who Are You Really? Aesop’s Quiet Lessons on Character, The Moral Architecture of Social Life: The Values That Build a World, and The Reflective Leader Within, among many others. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages.

In addition, he has published over 500 academic articles, contributed to numerous book chapters, and authored more than 100 case studies—seven of which have received Best Case of the Year awards. He is a frequent contributor to Harvard Business Review, INSEAD Knowledge, and Medium, and his insights have appeared in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Economist, The Financial Times, Le Figaro, El País, and other leading publications.

Kets de Vries has developed widely used leadership assessment instruments, including the Global Executive Leadership Mirror, the Leadership Archetype Questionnaire, the Inner Theatre Inventory, and the Organizational Culture Audit. He serves on seventeen editorial boards, is a Fellow of the Academy of Management, and sits on the boards of several nonprofit organizations. He is a founding member and lifetime honoree of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations (ISPSO).

His contributions have been recognized with numerous international honors, including the International Leadership Association’s Lifetime Achievement Award—the first awarded to a non-US recipient—as well as the ILS’s inaugural Board Chair Award. He has also received the American Psychological Association’s Harry and Miriam Levinson Award, the Freud Memorial Award, the Vision of Excellence Award from the Harvard Institute of Coaching, and honorary doctorates from four universities. INSEAD honored also him with its Dominique Héau Award for inspiring educational excellence, and he has been appointed an Officer in the Order of Oranje-Nassau by the Dutch government.

As a consultant, Kets de Vries specializes in organizational design, transformation, and strategic human resource management. He has worked in more than 40 countries with organizations including McKinsey, Bain, Accenture, Goldman Sachs, Standard Bank, Aegon, NAB, Lego, Nokia, Heineken, Novo Nordisk, ABN AMRO, Shell, BP, and many others. He is the founder and non-executive chairman of the Kets de Vries Institute (KDVI), a global boutique consulting firm dedicated to leadership development (www.kdvi.com).

Outside academia and consulting, Kets de Vries is an avid explorer and fly fisherman. He was the first to fish in Outer Mongolia and once held the world record for the Siberian hucho taimen trout. A member of New York’s Explorers Club, he can often be found trekking through the rainforests and savannas of Africa, the taiga of Siberia, the mountains of Central Asia, or deep within the Arctic Circle.

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