A seat at the table: some unpalatable thoughts on shame, envy and hate in institutional cultures

The unmentioned emotions that ghost this article include hurt, rage, loneliness and melancholia. It addresses pervasive and pernicious emotional dynamics among lesbians who work within the career structure of third-level institutions. These dynamics are like the elephant in the sitting room-we've all been to some extent a party or witness to these scenarios and hence are all implicated in the psychic life of these dramas, but we don't describe or analyze these relationships or address their emotional impact. This article uses object-relations theory to better understand these dynamics in order that we may respond more reflectively, and hopefully ethically, to the damage they cause.