This book is about the psychodynamics of analyzing and changing organizations. Michael Diamond and Seth Allcorn define organizations as relational and experiential systems. They offer a contemporary psychoanalytic model for immersion, diagnosis, and intervention in organizations. The authors discover workers who view their organizations as silos--fragmented and dysfunctional. They come across workers who demand but rarely find organizations where they feel safe and secure enough to question authority or challenge the status quo. The authors address issues of oppression, persecution, moral violence, chaos, and workplace democracy. Case examples illustrate the collision of social and psychological structure in the workplace.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 193-203) and index.

Introduction : analyzing organizations as experiential and relational systems -- Layers of experience : an object relational model for organizations -- Boundaries and surfaces -- Silo mentality -- Organizational change and the analytic third -- Organizations as defective containers -- Moral violence -- Chaos and complexity -- Shame, oppression, and persecution -- Shared emotions : transference and countertransference -- Perversions of democracy -- Immersion and diagnosis -- Conclusion : human nature and organizational silos.

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