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This book happens to be extremely timely. Covid-19 and the subsequent international lockdowns are impacting the economy worldwide. Brexit—since the title alludes to the city of London—will probably also create some economic difficulties, the decline of organisations, and will bring emotional and economic suffering to the respective workforce. The decline of an organisation ends in its death—a very unusual word being used in this context—it makes one feel somewhat uncomfortable, which I assume is part of the idea of this book. Opening our minds up to what happens emotionally to the people within a suffering, and ultimately ending organisation seems to be the aim. Until now, the death of organisations from the emotional perspective of the workforce has been a rather taboo and under-researched subject. Not only is it difficult to think and talk about death in a general manner, the dark and painful feelings involved in organisational decline have also yet to be intensely researched. This book fills this gap as the title already suggests. It describes from an observer's perspective the emotional experiences of the workforce, such as mourning, melancholia, and related emotional reactions, during the decline of a bank in the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
The book consists of an introduction and a first chapter on “Introducing death and the city” and is followed by two parts, “Death in theory”, and “Death at work”, which have two and five chapters, respectively.
The introduction explains the usefulness of the book for “those experiencing, anticipating, or recovering from organisational death” and sets the frame for a psychoanalytic, mostly Freudian, investigation by drawing on Klein, and Bion in particular. This is to be achieved by applying Freud's notion of the death drive, Thanatos, and his ideas on mourning, and melancholia to work. As the title is reminiscent of Sex in the City (a famous TV series) combined with “death”, it also alludes to Eros, the instinct to