In last week's Post we looked again at role of the The Primary Task, which belongs more to the Open Systems half of this model and today we will look at the Analytic Part of the model - away from the more conscious, observable and more towards the unconscious part, 'visible'only be inference.
For explanatory purposes let's break down this overall concept into some important constituent parts:
The unconscious
Avoidance of pain
Defences
Paranoid-schizoid (PS) and Depressive (D) Positions
Counter-transference
Envy
1. The Unconscious:
The conscious life of the organisation is valid but organisations/groups also have an unconscious life, There will be resistance to the interpretation of this. The organisational consultant (external or internal) takes up the position on the boundary between the conscious and unconscious life of the organisation.
A Staff-Group talking about repeated breakdowns of internet connections might also be talking about other communication problems.
* Do our managers really listen to us?
* Does anyone really care/know what we think or do?
* Do we really openly communicate with each other?
When the staff-group constantly quibbles over the tea and coffee-fund, the milk, the kitchen facilities etc they might also be talking about other issues:
* Are we being looked after by the wider organisation?
* Are outsiders intruding onto our space/model/ professional territory etc?
* Are we valued and/or do we value ourselves.
The word also is in bold because we know that both the conscious reality of the bad internet connection can be acknowledged and dealt with while, at the same time, the possibility of an unconscious meaning can also be allowed for. So, if the internet problems are fixed and later, the team is upset that letters to and from patients/customers/clients are not being delivered/received we think.....hmmmm - maybe this problem has a deeper meaning too that we can usefully explore.
2. Avoidance of pain
Institutions develop defences against pain: The pain of reality can include institutional dynamics (closure etc) but also the pain of the very nature of the work itself.
Think back to the new District Acute Hospital that was designed and being built with all conceivable amenities except for ........a mortuary! Think back to the seminal work of Isabel Menzies-Lyth and as to how the entire nursing process was designed to keep nurse and patient apart by work practices (task oriented nursing) that ensured that they would never form more then functional/mechanical 'relationships'.
In our next post we will continue to look at the psychoanalytic aspects of this model and think more about defences and especially look at the fundamental theories around the paranoid-schizoid and depressive positions.
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