The Psychotic Organization: A Socio-Analytic Perspective

CLASSICS OF APPLIED PSYCHOANALYSIS

Abstract

"The Psychotic Organization: A Socio-Analytic Perspective" has somehow become the leitmotiv of my research and writing on organization and management for about a decade. First, I would like to introduce my understanding of organization from a socio-analytic perspective. I will then briefly describe the experience of a Group Relations Conference in which organizational madness predominated. In the third part I will outline my understanding of psychotic organization and indicate some of the thinkers and sources upon which I have built my conceptualization. The fourth part comprises some of the insights that I have gained in ‘applying’ this perspective to various organizational and societal dynamics. In the conclusion, the assumption is further elaborated that the psychotic organization as a socio-analytic attempt at understanding organizations in depth opens up new thinking and important vistas on the theory and politics of organizations.