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Organization
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Astrology, Alchemy and Retro-Organization Theory: An Astro-Genealogical Critique of the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator®

Peter Case

University of Exeter, UK, peter.case{at}exeter.ac.uk

Garry Phillipson

Bath Spa University College, UK, garryp{at}btinternet.com

The influence of astrology and alchemy on organizational conduct has not hitherto attracted much serious social scientific attention. Retro-organizational theory licenses paying closer attention to topics that are systematically occluded by modern knowledge regimes and is invoked in this article to examine the manner in which premodern cosmologies underpin certain contemporary organizational practices. The Myers-Briggs Type Indicator ® (MBTI) is presented as a particularly conspicuous example of how the modern may be suffused by the premodern. An astro-genealogical account of the development of the MBTI ® is offered, tracing its Jungian origins and exposing structural debts to Renaissance thinking and earlier forms of symbolism. The article concludes with a consideration of Latour’s claim that ‘we have never been modern’ and suggests ways in which his hybridization critique of modernity connects with astrological and alchemical cosmology.

Key Words: Foucault • genealogical analysis • geomancy • humours • Jung • Latour • management development • MBTI • organizational development • psychometrics

Organization, Vol. 11, No. 4, 473-495 (2004)
DOI: 10.1177/1350508404044059
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