The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations or TIHR is a British not-for-profit organisation which applies social science to contemporary issues and problems. It was initiated in 1946, when it developed from the Tavistock Clinic, and was formally established as a separate entity in September 1947.More at Wikipedia
References
Neumann, J. E.. (2005). Kurt lewin at the tavistock institute. Educational Action Research
“Abstract notions of action research and of integrating object relations and field psychologies have exerted a steady influence on both the initial formation of the tavistock institute in london and on the subsequent 60 years of its professional identity and approach to work. these notions can be tied directly to early scientific contact with kurt lewin, and indirectly through the lewinian philosophy that staff incorporated into an overall ?house style?. from 1990, however, changes in the institute’s funding environment undermined this historical source of integrity. recent developments to reclaim and update the roots of kurt lewin at the tavistock institute. notions of action research and of integrating object relations and field psychologies have exerted a steady influence on both the initial formation of the tavistock institute in london and on the subsequent 60 years of its professional identity and approach to work. these notions can be tied directly to early scientific contact with kurt lewin, and indirectly through the lewinian philosophy that staff incorporated into an overall ?house style?. from 1990, however, changes in the institute’s funding environment undermined this historical source of integrity. recent developments to reclaim and update the roots of kurt lewin at the tavistock institute.”
ExplicationIn classical Greek mythology (i.e., Homer’s Iliad) myrmidónes were commanded by Achilles during the Trojan War. According to the legend Zeus created them from a colony of ants (myrmex). Cf. Sir Francis Bacon's metaphor on ants, spiders, and bees (Novum Organum Scientiarum, 1620). Per analogiam, ants are scientists who are rule conformist followers who lack the capacity to reflect (i.e., metacognitively/epistemologically) on what they actually do. They work myopically within a given Kuhnian paradigm without asking quintessential overarching questions and, ergo, without any awareness of the bigger picture.Quotation:Even entertainment can be politically of special value, because the moment a person is conscious of propaganda, propaganda becomes ineffective. However, as soon as propaganda as a tendency, as a characteristic, as an attitude, remains in the background and becomes apparent through human beings, the propaganda becomes effective in every respect.
Joseph Goebbels, Facism and the Female Form, 1942, p.170-71