The Neurotic Organisation (Part 2)

'Remember, it is the secret force hidden deep within us that manipulates our strings; there lies the voice of persuasion, there the very life, there, we might even say, is the man himself’

- Marcus Aurelius, Meditations.

Dreaming of Organisational Life

I had a dream soon after I left a client organisation. This is the dream: I’ve boarded a flight and sitting in business class. It is total luxury. Reminds me of an Emirates or Qatar Airways business class cabin and seat but even more luxurious. I am welcomed to my seat. I marvel at the comfort and look forward to the long journey ahead. I think someone is travelling with me. A female cabin crew member comes over and says something to me. She tells me where the toilets are. I feel a little conflict in myself. Do I use the toilet or do I ask for a pre-take off glass of champagne. I choose the former. I get up from my seat and start to walk to the toilet. I then realise that it is a double decker plane, maybe the Airbus A380. There are lounges everywhere. It is quite a marvel to see. How on earth does this plane fly with this much space? I see a spot where me and my travelling companion can sit down and enjoy a relaxing meal and drink. I remember the cabin crew member telling me that the toilets are downstairs. I walk towards the toilets on the same floor which I find are out of order. This seems a little weird given the total luxury of this place. I walk down the stairs and begin to feel that I am getting lost. I walk down a spiral staircase which turns into a wider spiralling road. I find myself outside and panic. I don’t know how to get back and don’t want to miss my flight. I start to rush back.

So why am I sharing this dream with you? Well, dreams form the most accessible part of our inner mental life. Sigmund Freud famously said that dreams are the "royal road to the unconscious" in his landmark 1900 book, The Interpretation of Dreams. He suggested that while our conscious minds are governed by strict rational principles, sleep lowers these barriers, allowing repressed memories, desires, fantasies and hidden conflicts to emerge. Carl Jung defined the dream in broad terms as a ‘spontaneous self-portrayal’ in symbolic form of the actual situation in the unconscious (Collected Works (CW) 8, para. 505). He saw the relation of the dream to consciousness as basically a compensatory one (Samuels et al. A Critical Dictionary of Jungian Analysis. 1986. p.48). Dreams are therefore a direct expression of the unconscious and can be interpreted for their meaning in the dreamer’s life.

But how does one interpret a dream? The psychoanalytic concept of compensation is a fundamental principle in interpreting dreams. Compensation is found in psychological processes: a part of the self-regulatory function of the psyche which balances, adjusts, and supplements the two realms of the human mind: consciousness and unconscious. What this means essentially is the compensatory activity of the unconscious tends to balance any tendency towards one-sidedness on the part of consciousness. For example, if you tend to be of a thinking, intellectual personality type in consciousness, then a feeling, more related self is in the unconscious. A person with this disposition will tend to have dreams of a ‘feeling’ nature. This means when they interpret their dream, they will notice how they i.e. the dreamer felt in the dream and in their relationship with other persons in the dream.

Mental contents repressed, excluded and inhibited by the conscious orientation of individual lapse into unconsciousness and therefore form a counter-pole to consciousness, this counter-position strengthens with any increase in emphasis on the conscious attitude until it interferes with the activity of consciousness itself. Finally, repressed unconscious contents gather a sufficient energy charge to break through in the form of dreams. Compensation therefore acts like a bridge between conscious and unconscious minds.

The more dysfunctional the personality-the more the unconscious appears in stark contrast to consciousness. Dreams are prospective in that they express an unconscious anticipation of a future conscious achievement. So you might look a dream as a preliminary sketch map or a plan roughed out in advance of a future conscious awareness. You might also look at the dream dramatically as a play in the internal theatre of the psyche: there is an introduction of a problem situation, a development and then a conclusion. The unconscious functions effectively with consciousness’ collaboration so it is recommended that you record your dreams and try to consider them in relation to your life context and situation.  

So how might you interpret my dream? First of all, what is the problem situation? I am sitting in the luxury cabin of business class on a prestigious airline. Then there is a development. I feel a call to nature so I get up to find the toilet aided by the air stewardess who gives me directions. However, there is a problem with the toilet. Oddly enough, the toilet does not work. I am amazed that a luxury cabin has a broken toilet. Then there is a conclusion. I find myself going down an endless spiral of stairs and then realising that I am far from where I started and if I go any further, I will miss the flight that I was looking forward to. Where is the compensation?

The compensatory activity is in the part of the dream where I find the broken toilet. My client organisation is a prestigious organisation. However, after I joined the organisation it soon became apparent to me that it did not function very well as an organisation. I pushed these thoughts out of my head for many months. Things reached a point where I knew I had to decide about my continued role at the organisation. Despite the client's assertions that they wanted to transform, the organisation lacked the will on many levels to make change and transformation happen. The transformation mindset was simply not there. The dream was a perfect image of the situation that I was unconsciously aware of. It was a stark realisation that the most basic and crucial function of the organisation, represented by the toilet in the dream, did not work. Repairs to the most basic function of the organisation was needed. I was not the right person to repair the toilet. The conclusion of the dream sees me go down a spiral staircase representing how I felt about working there. An endless spiral of stairs going nowhere and I was losing myself in the process. This was a bitter pill for me to swallow. But the unconscious has wisdom and your best interests at heart. I can afford to sit in business class and that represents a standard in my profession that is best played out in another client organisation that is more functional at a basic level. The dream has a symbolic message not just for your personal life but also your work life too. If you ever find yourself facing a work problem that you cannot resolve, it is worth paying attention to your dreams for a truthful answer to your predicament. It is of course entirely up to your consciousness whether it heeds the advice and guidance of the unconscious. Troubled by your workplace? The dream is a useful diagnostic tool which can help you accept an uncomfortable reality or to find a solution to a tricky problem at work.

My pitch: The unconscious is an untapped source of personal transformation, it can help you to improve your resilience, better understand yourself and others, develop more effective personal and work-based relationships, find creative solutions to long-standing problems and a source of inspiration, knowledge and wisdom. The unseen and unknown unconscious dynamics can also have unintended and less constructive, even damaging, consequences for you, the people around you and the workplace. Getting to know your unconscious can help to address emotional issues and improve your relationships with others.

The idea of the ‘unconscious at work’ draws on Jungian psychology or Jungian psychoanalytic and general psychoanalytic thinking and practice.  Jungian concepts of the unconscious can help us to understand more about the ‘irrational’ side of organisational life. A psychoanalytic approach to making sense of organisational life. Bringing an 'irrational' perspective into the rational workplace.

My aim is to enlarge organisational / business leaders and managers’ sense-making toolkits so that they can look at themselves and their organisations with fresh eyes, deepening their psychological understanding of the psyche in the workplace, gain in-depth understanding of the human psyche, bring the insights to bear on the challenges they face and provide new possibilities for action.

Following on from the previous blog, I will continue looking at the concept of personality and the dynamics between people within troubled organisations.

The Unconscious

Jungian Psychology is a study of the conscious and unconscious mind. Essentially, it is about the human mind also known psychologically as psyche. Psyche has two layers-Consciousness and the unconscious. Psyche: Totality of all mental processes and contents, conscious and unconscious. Jungian Psychology provides a framework and concepts to understand the human mind from a psychological perspective and the dynamics between consciousness and the unconscious. One of the main concepts of Jungian Psychology is the unconscious. The unconscious can be described as: mental contents which are inaccessible to consciousness and the boundaries or limits of a psychic or mental place with its own character, laws and functions.  A place where there is a lot of psychological activity. There are hidden aspects of human mental life which while remaining hidden nevertheless influence conscious processes. The unconscious contains memories of past personal experiences concealed from consciousness unless remembered consciously.

The initial layer of the unconscious is known as the personal unconscious which contains suppressed painful ideas, subliminal perceptions, and autonomous complexes-clusters of long-forgotten memories and associations which had a negative impact on the personality. We all know the phrase that someone has a ‘complex’. The complex is developed entirely from your individual life experiences, they carry unusual weight or intense emotional content and may trigger compulsive urges and reactions. They are clusters of emotionally charged thoughts, feelings, and memories that influence behaviour. They come and go as they please, either hindering or possessing consciousness. The deeper layers of the unconscious has a quieter and more ethereal feel to it. It seems relatively quiet because it is hidden, but it is far from uneventful. This is where shadow-personality attributes that consciousness represses resides, and in the larger social arena we see the origins of shadow projections: discrimination, hatred, mass persecutions, and genocide. On a more positive note, we find in the deeper layers of the unconscious, the archetypes or collective unconscious which contain universal patterns of human development. This deeper layer is identical in all humans and serves as a psychological heritage. The collective unconscious contains universal instincts and predispositions shared across all cultures. Finally, it is worth reiterating that the unconscious operates independently of consciousness.

Consciousness on the other hand can be equated with awareness, intuition, perception and reflection. Attainment of consciousness would appear to be the result of recognition, reflection and retention of psychic experience, enabling the individual to combine it with what he or she has learned, to feel its relevance emotionally, and to sense its meaning for life. Again, balance of the personality can only be attained if consciousness takes into account the unconscious i.e. the two must be consciously related to one another (Samuels et al. A Critical Dictionary of Jungian Analysis. 1986. p.36).

The Troubled Personality

Personality can be defined as: ‘Those relatively stable and enduring aspects of individuals which distinguish them from other people, making them unique, but which at the same time allow people to be compared with each other’. What does the troubled personality look like? You might want to look at healthy and unhealthy personality as a continuum of layers. The troubled personality gets even more troubled the further down the layers of unhealthy personality. At the heart of the troubled personality is conflict. Conflict between the unconscious and conscious mind. You might find yourself ill at ease with a problem at work that constellates a negative pattern of behaviour or emotion. You might even become rigid and maladaptive which lasts for some time but does not become habitual. Sooner or later you come to your senses and restore yourself with healthy personality characteristics.

Healthy Personality: 

adaptable, flexible, ability to regulate emotions, appreciation of oneself and others as a distinct personality

Unhealthy Personality: Neurotic e.g. obsessive compulsive personality disorder

Unhealthy Personality: Borderline e.g. borderline personality disorder, narcissistic personality disorder

Unhealthy Personality: Psychotic  e.g. anti-social personality disorder

Let’s look at the dynamics of the conscious and unconscious mind: A Lack of balance between consciousness and the unconscious = conflict or conflicting thoughts or feelings between conscious and unconscious = creates an emotionally charged complex =  which come into play i.e. become constellated, complexes contribute to behaviour, autonomous to conscious will, and are marked by affect whether a person is conscious of them or not = neurosis. The personality that becomes habitually rigid, inflexible and maladaptive = personality disorder. The personality disorder that habitually denies reality = psychotic personality. Treating the neurosis brings back balance and not just restoration of balance, an equilibrium between consciousness and unconscious is restored, and in analytical therapy or coaching, this can lead to a potential transformation of the personality and a transformation in one’s personal and work life. We all dip into unhealthy personality from time to time. There is no such thing as a perfect healthy personality. For the purposes of this blog series, I will focus on the neurotic personality and the more serious personality disorders specifically narcissistic personality disorder, borderline personality disorder and schizoid personality disorder in the workplace.

Everyone’s personality is unique. Our personalities are not only shaped by the world around us but also shape the way we view the world. They affect how we act and think, what we believe and how we relate to others. How our personalities develop can be strongly influenced by our childhood, environment, experiences in early life. For some people some of these early experiences are difficult or traumatic. These experiences can impact how an individual’s personality develops. Personality Disorders are defined as a special group of psychological disorders of which the general public and most workplaces are generally unaware. Personality disorders affect the main areas of living or major life tasks: work, profession or studies, love and sex, social life, creativity and which affects one’s wellbeing and enjoyment of life.

How does personality impact the workplace? In the blog series, I will refer to individual and group dynamics in the troubled workplace. My aim is to raise your awareness and understanding about how the unconscious of impedes or enables business success. To do this, we need to look at the whole personality and the psychological dynamics within an individual and between individuals. When I use the term individual or intrapsychic dynamics, I am referring to the psychological dynamics within an individual specifically the conscious and unconscious content and dynamics. And when I use the term group or interpsychic dynamics,  I am referring to the psychological dynamics between individuals specifically the conscious and unconscious dynamics between two or more people. Psychoanalytically speaking, there are 6 relationships between 2 people, and 18 relationships between 3 people. Let me explain.

The Transformative Field

Meet Frederick and Gabriella. I’ll let you use your imagination. Frederick and Gabriella are in a romantic relationship, work colleagues or both! Entirely up to you. How do we perceive of their relationship from a conscious and unconscious standpoint? The diagram below visualises the relationship. The double-headed arrows indicate a two-way communication and relatedness.

1. Refers to the Conscious relationship between Frederick and Gabriella.

2. Reflects that Frederick consciously or unconsciously draw on their own Unconscious for an understanding of Gabriella.

3. Similarly, reflects that Gabriella consciously or unconsciously draw on her own Unconscious for an understanding of Frederick.

4. Proposes a direct communication between the Unconscious of Frederick and Gabriella.

5. Indicates the impact of the relationship upon the Unconscious life of Frederick.

6. Indicates the impact of the relationship upon the Unconscious life of Gabriella.

This framework is adopted from the relationship between the Analyst (therapist) and Analysand (client or patient) in an analysis, therapeutic or coaching session. The relationship is considered transformative if the personalities of Frederick and Gabriella are in balance i.e. there is no conflict between their consciousness and unconscious. However, it is a fallacy to think this is always the case. Our biography, past, present and future will interrupt the harmony of the individual personality and in their relationship. Frederick and Gabriella in the course of their relationship will encounter each other’s past, present and future and this might interrupt or facilitate a harmonious relationship. I call this dynamic: the transformative field consisting of energy vectors. Relationships can transform us. In the workplace, a transformed individual > transforms a group or team > who then transform their organisation. It is like a golden thread from the individual to the organisation. Too often, I have seen individual dysfunctional behaviour transform into dysfunctional group behaviour which thwarts the organisation’s own attempts to transform. The root cause of the dysfunctional behaviour can be found in the interpsychic and intrapsychic dynamics at play in an organisation. Now imagine the transformative field between 3 or more people.

The Hidden Forces in Organisational Life

There are 18 relationships between 3 people. 24 relationships between 4 people. 30 relationships between 5 people. 36 relationships between 6 people and so on and so forth. Relationships get more complex the larger the group. In an organisation this brings much complexity in the effectiveness of the organisation. Given much of the relationships are ‘unconscious’ organisational leaders are blindsided by the dynamics at play within their organisation. This is what I refer to as the ‘hidden forces’ in organisational life: the intrapsychic and interpsychic dynamics in an organisation which were shown in the previous diagram as the patterns in the transformative field between Frederick and Gabriella. Whether they are in relationship or work colleagues, their personal biography plays a conscious or unconscious role in their relationship. Both consciousness and unconscious are prime opposites of psychic life.  

Tracking the unconscious in psychoanalysis is typically through dreams. If you don't have dreams then drawing, painting, art, fantasies can work as a way to dialogue with the unconscious. We can demonstrate the existence of the unconscious by drawing attention to dreams, slips of tongue, mistakes and so forth as evidence of meaningful mental life of which we are not aware. Another introspective way to access our inner is provided by Russell Hurlburt, a clinical psychologist who developed a new method to probe inner life. Descriptive Experience Sampling or DES is a method that aims to uncover the contents of a person's consciousness over the course of short intervals. To do this, practitioners use devices that deliver random beeps. Participants wear the device and hear these beeps as they go about their daily life. After each beep, they jot down in a note book what was in their inner experience in the short moment directly before the beep. This could be a thought, feeling, ‘voice in their head’, or whatever else is present.

Hurlbut discovered 5 common types of inner experience or Frequent Phenomena:

1.    Inner Speaking: voices, your own or of another person

2.    Inner Seeing: images, symbols

3.    Sensory Awareness: interested in some sensory object for the sake of it

4.    Feelings: people experience emotions from time to time

5.    Unsymbolised Thinking: thinking about something, no words or no images

There are all kinds of variations of inner experience phenomena. This list is not exhaustive but it gives a good idea of the common phenomena associated with the inner mind.

The conscious and unconscious minds must work together to create psychological health or a healthy personality. The unconscious generates dreams to balance out one-sided conscious attitudes. A balancing out of the dynamics between a person’s conscious and unconscious mind has a ripple effect on groups and the organisation as a whole. A transformed individual = a transformed group = a transformed organisation. Psychoanalytically oriented consultants extend these concepts to understanding organisations. The organisation unconscious is the sum of unconscious mental contents unique to an organisation’s people that operates beyond the conscious control and awareness of those who lead and manage the organisation. It is the realm of unconscious psychic or mental activity in an organisation that lies between the conscious life of the organisation and the unconscious.

The organisation unconscious, a complex web of usually unseen and unrecognised energy vectors, provides the psychological foundations of organisational culture, at times supporting, and at times frustrating, organisational life, or enabling or impeding business success. The existence of the organisation unconscious can be inferred from the irrationality of the social behaviour that bind organisations together e.g. inexplicable actions, inactions, discriminations, resistance to change etc.

Conclusion: Jungian analytical thinking is one way to approach thinking about what goes on in organisations. This approach does not provide a comprehensive explanation or even a complete description. But looking at an organisation through the spectrum of psychoanalytical concepts is a potentially creative and value-add activity which may help in understanding and dealing with certain issues.