The Art Of Leaning In

Jack Slattery asks Anastasia to elucidate how her version of “leaning in” contrasts with viewpoints offered in the recently controversial best-seller “Lean In: Women, work and the will to lead” by Facebook CEO, Sheryl Sandberg.

An intriguing dialogue ensues in which Jack invites Anastasia to elaborate on her “Surviving Addictions” unpublished manuscript material, based on her still relevant research on contemporary women and their survival-driven adrenalin addictions. (WMST, UMCP, 1985.)

Stressing that her research findings strongly empathize that contemporary women now override outmoded addictions to relationships with the traditionally male addictions to money, power, status, righteousness, Anastasia urges all to, instead of these destructive patterns, strive for a balance between excessive strivings and fulfillment, derived from harmonious affiliations.

To drive her points home Anastasia recounts a poignant story of a keynote speech she gave to key women executives in the Washington, D.C. area that concluded with participants in tears, as if at a consciousness-raising group. High profile achievements were bringing complications along with them with too high a premium in their relationships with family members, begging the question where is the gain not worth the pain.