Sex, Money, Happiness, and Death

MANFRED KETS DE VRIES is The Raoul de Vitry d'Avaucourt Chaired Professor of Leadership Development and the Clinical Professor of Leadership at INSEAD, France, Singapore, and Abu Dhabi. He is also the Distinguished Professor of Leadership at the European School of Management and Technology in Berlin (ESMT), Germany. He has also held professorships at McGill University, the Ecole des Hautes Etudes Commerciales, Montreal and the Harvard Business School. Kets de Vries is a founding member of the International Society for the Psychoanalytic Study of Organizations. The Financial Times, Le Capital, Wirtschaftswoche, The Economist, and the New York Times have judged him one of the world's leading thinkers on leadership. He is the author, co-author or editor of 30 books and more than 300 articles. His books and articles have been translated into 29 languages. He is a member of seventeen editorial boards. Kets de Vries has been elected a Fellow of the Academy of Management. He has received theLifetime Achievement Award for his contribution to leadership research by the International Leadership Association.   www.ketsdevries.com

• Preface  Meditations on Sexual Desire  Meditations on Money  Meditations on Happiness  Meditations on Death  Afterword: The Quest for Authenticity  About the Author  Selected Bibliography

'This book is the distillation of the life experiences of an internationally renowned guru of management and leadership studies. Combining insight with his signature wit, Kets de Vries cuts to the bone as he reflects on and gently guides executives, and others, through some of the core issues that bedevil our lives. A book that will linger in memory, creating ever-widening ripples, long after the ephemeral offerings of the usual management literature have disappeared.' - Dr. Sudhir Kakar, Psychoanalyst, Anthropologist, Novelist and one of the major thinkers of the world 'The art of understanding oneself is crucial to understanding others. Professor Manfred Kets de Vries' insight into our motivations and levels of emotional intelligence exposes the hidden fact that lies at the heart of business behaviour; namely that we are all human.' - The Viscount Rothermere, Chairman DMGT 'This book made me laugh, it made me feel uncomfortable sometimes, but I learned a lot. It makes the reader think about how much s/he can do - good and bad - to her/himself and to others in family, business and social life. With his free and easy style Kets de Vries lines up the latest findings of human science and gives examples of the highs and lows of real human life reminding us that we are in the driving seat. Seize the opportunity.' - Janos Csak, Economist, Sociologist, Chairman, Constellation Energy Institute