Indian Male and Teamwork: A Psychoanalysis

Damn, it still sounds like many of the presentations which I make everyday. I thought about a lot of names for this post (which includes “Psychoanalysis of Indian male and its association with team work” . Ha, that sounds like some typical, complicated and out of the world stuff) and zeroed on this and I promise, that it is not that complicated to understand as it sounds ;) . Please, bear with me.

Read this in “India Unbound “by Gurcharan Das and found very interesting. It’s about poor teamwork prevalent in Indian society that time (Somewhere around mid 50s).One of the probable reason explained by one of the psychologist was:


It begins with the Indian bride, who is not fully accepted in her husband’s home until she produces a male child. She is so grateful when a son is born that she indulges him to excess. As the boy grows up, he remains close to the mother and distant from the father. The end result is that boy grows up narcissistic and has a weak ego. He is less comfortable on his own. He needs appreciative, older, hierarchical figures, even late in his professional life. His relationship tends to be vertical and ‘control oriented’, and he is not good at forming horizontal, cooperative relationships with his peers. This translates into poor teamwork.
But since, Indian society is changing. More woman are working , and there is less time to overindulge the male child ; so perhaps there is hope that the Indian male will grow up with a healthier ego and be a better team player.

How was that? Interesting analysis right? I think that can be one reason (obviously apart from their hard work) of finding women at top in the corporate ladder nowadays and their being a good team player. ;). An era of suppression and discrimination had actually made us a good team player ;)