Public Decision Processes, Creativity, and Psychoanalysis

Public decision processes in planning and environment management, in particular, should be creative in order to solve the frequent intractable conflicts that they cause. However, up to now, the concept of creativity has not been used in traditional approaches of public decision processes. Only learning and negotiation theories that can be used in this field deal with creativity. Yet, negotiation theories give advice to the parties, which the parties can find difficult to take, and learning theories either confront people with their own psychological defenses or are not prescriptive. Proposed in this paper is another conceptualization of creativity in this field, inspired by Winnicott’s psychoanalytical work. This conceptualization takes into account unconscious phenomena, in particular, psychological defenses, and allows for better understanding and improvement of public decision processes while refraining from giving advice to the parties. This conceptualization is illustrated in two different cultural contexts: in Québec and in France, where several cases are analyzed.