Psychosocial Constraints on the Important Decision-Maker
LESTER GRINSPOON M.D.1
1 Associate clinical professor of psychiatry, Harvard Medical School, and director of psychiatry (research), Massachusetts Mental Health Center, 74 Fenwood Rd., Boston, Mass. 02115
Although institutions may take impressive steps to safeguard the physical health of their highest decision-makers, they tend to ignore and in fact exclude provision for safeguarding vital interpersonal needs. The successful executive experiences a restriction of freedom in his relationships with other people, lessened objectivity and candidness among his subordinates, and increasing isolation and loneliness. There is no easy way for decision-makers and institutions to compensate for these psychosocial constraints, but the importance of devising some means seems clear.
