Jung & PR – the starting point

The more I wrote about contested versions of public relations:the more it seemed that something deeper than a difference of opinion underlay the division.  The first, and most familiar from teaching, was that promoted in core text books as PR ’servicing society’ ‘in the interests of democracy’ ‘the ethical guardian of corprorations’ etc; the second involved the vilification of the business by writers like Stauber and Rampton, Ewen, Miller & others. Where PR books saw nobility and equality of engagement between organisations and publics, the critics saw sleaze, corruption and propaganda.

I was also writing a lot about propaganda and PR and became increasingly aware that the involvement of key PR players in 20th Century war propaganda was being marginalised or ignored altogether – as highlighted by other writers like Moloney & L’Etang. Not only was historical propaganda involvement edited out, accusations of involvement in contemporary corporate propaganda were often dismissed by leading academics as well as PR organisations.

On the other hand the most virulent critics seemed uable to envisage any kind of legitimate PR – as if the need of organisations – including charities, unions, NGOs  – to articulate their case professionaly was meaningless.

So: angels or daemons? I referred to this dynamic in a couple of papers (see links for relevant papers) as the rejection of Shadow material, using a generalised knowledge of Jung’s concept of Persona and Shadow and his insistence that one must confront and accept one’s own Shadow to become whole and fulfill personal and creative potential.

In the process of delivering said papers (eg one on persuasion ethics at the ICA conference in San Francisco, 2007) I realised that it was the tension in the denial and accusation that intrigued me: I couldn’t see how PR could claim to be ethical when its version of itself was so partial. This led to the basic premise of the PhD: that integrity is a precondition for  ethics, both personal and professional;  and that Jung’s ideas of integration could offer insights into how this might be achieved by professions in general and PR in particular.

To make a start on this I have spent the past year reading a great deal of Jung – often contradictory, elusive, allusive, weird, exciting, humble, arrogant, mystical and mystifying  – and have found enough material to support the idea that ethics stem from wholeness not ‘goodness’.

I have also made forays into modern & post-modern ethical thinking, particularly virtue ethics (MacIntyre), Bauman, some feminist ethics, theological ethics and professional ethics generally – as well some reading around the sociology of professionalism.

Most recent reading is Neitzsche’s Beyond Good & Evil – had no idea he was so funny – will write responses shortly.

Early summer was dominated by conferences – subject of next two posts.