CONSCIOUSNESS‐RAISING AND WELL‐BEING IN PUBLIC SPHERE ORGANIZATIONS: A HISTORICAL REVIEW OF PSYCHOANALYTICAL APPROACHES

Abstract

This paper traces a lineage of ‘organizational depth‐psychology’ from Freud through to post‐Bion perspectives on organizational consultancy. In reviewing the psychoanalytic approach to organizations two dominant strands emerge; first, that theories seem to be constructed around a critical conception of institutions and, second, that the active process of organization al consultancy, deriving from this critical base, is inclined to consciousness raising through the disruption of familiarity in the culture of the organization. The challenges of de‐stabilization in the process of organizational progress, survival and decay are considered.