Donald Trump, Leon Black, Bob Iger and More - What Are the Lawyers Saying? - Poof Has Gone 20th Century Psychobabble

 There we were. We boomers became The Therapy Generation. We knew all about Woody Allen's time on the couch. It was more difficult to be admitted into a clinical psychology Ph.D. program than Harvard. Everyone, be it our boss, our neighbor or a national figure like Richard Nixon, was raw material for jaw-jawing about their inner demons. At those cocktail parties we overshared what our analyst had said (and igored the glazed-over looks). Critics of that psychological scrutiny labeled the phenomenon "psychobabble."

That was then.

Now the national mindset is shaped by lawyers, not psychologists. We want to analyze our leaders through the legalities they put in play or which are foisted on them. For that we turn to lawyers. The bestseller “Servants of the Damned” by David Enrich documents the current power and influence of the legal profession.

Think about it. Right now, the headlines about Donald Trump track his surging legal woes. There is no national fascination with who he is as a complex human being. Forget Daddy or Mommy issues.

As for Leon Black, who just filed another lawsuit - "Black v Wigdor and Ganieva" - we aren't hunting for a "Rosebud Moment" when he supposedly became the Leon Black. Back in the 20th century, business media might have run with articles speculating that his father's suicide reshaped him. Currently we reach out to legal experts to assess the merits of the litigation he has been filing.

Then there is Disney's Bob Iger. Stopped abruptly has been the focus on his supposed high Emotional Intelligence. (It had been psychologist Dan Goleman who got us hooked on being preoccupied with EI back in the 20^th century.)

Instead we dig through the litigation Iger has been filing. Most recently Disney countersued the Central Florida Tourist Oversight District. From a public relations point of view, we want to size up if Iger is enhancing or hurting his and the corporate branding with the legal thunderbolts. For that, you got it, we need the lawyers’ points of view. 

Where does this shift from probing the inner lives of leaders to where they are legally leave psychologists? They have lots of runway as organizational advisors. So much of that is to prevent lawsuits contending a hostile work environment. 

But, the ball is really in the lawyers' court. If toxicity is suspected a top law firm is parachuted in to investigate. That trend kicked in when Paul Weiss investigated 21st Century Fox in 2017. Quickly that type of task evolved into a core practice for myriad large law firms.

Obviously, psychologists' power as macro influencers has lessened. Scroll professional anonymous networks like Reddit Career Guidance and you will bump into the difficulty of psychology majors landing jobs. Those who have gone all the way to the Ph.D. have a better shot at getting, holding and moving on to better work.

 ChatGPT could accelerate the downward trajectory of that job category. We can insert into the prompt our feelings about a professional setback and ask for guidance. Provided for free will be something solid. You could reset to being grounded again.

Maybe more to the point, with all our own troubles in this chaotic 21st century, we don't have the energy to be motivated to enter others' inner space. 

As an intuitive career coach I am experiencing the clients' focus on workplace policies and politics, not if the supervisor is a broken human being. The meme right now is about trauma but in professional life survival is about figuring out the concrete dynamics of game. 

Data or the gut for your careers and communications? Both of course. Complimentary consultation with intuitive coach, content-creator, and Tarot reader Jane Genova (text 202-468-8579, janegenova374@gmail.com).