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Course Code: D10
Unit Name:​ ​Theory
Unit Number: SC7001_01_001
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1
Title: To what extent do tasks, systems and structures ‘create’
anxieties and defences, and to what extent do primitive anxieties
influence how roles and work-systems are structured? Discuss
using examples from your own experience of working in
organisations.
Table of content
Introduction
3
Primitive anxiety and defences
4
Unconscious phantasies at work
5
Projection, defences and authority
5
From primitive to social defences, the notion of collusion
7
Basic assumption in groups
7
Social defences
8
Positive collusion
9
Challenge omnipotence
10
Dealing with change and systems
11
Change in organisation
12
Conclusion
13
References
14
2
Introduction
In this essay, organisations are to be understood as complex entities, in which many factors
play a role in how the organisation is designed and functions both consciously and
unconsciously, internally and externally (Lewin, 1952). They are open systems​ ​that can
survive only by exchanging materials with its environment ​(Rice & Miller, 1990). ​In an open
system, the organisation imports raw materials and converts them into end products by
carrying out various processes and tasks. However, the way an organisation is structured is
influenced by both the social economic environment and the internal unconscious dynamics
of its members.
Three years ago, I joined a small consulting firm as a psychologist, who applies data
analytics to behavioural change. Since I joined, the organisation has grown exponentially. It
has quadrupled in size and has enlarged the range of its service offerings. However, last
month, the organisation has been through a massive change due to a new data regulation,
moving from a plan for exponential growth to one of merely surviving.
To make sense of my organisations’ crisis, through the essay I will discuss its practices of
anxiety and defence mechanisms. It will first focus on how primitive anxieties and defences
operate in the work of Melanie Klein. Next, drawing on the work of Menzies Lyth, it will move
to explore how those primitive aspects of the inner world can be applied to group and
organisation. Lastly, I will draw on some of Tavistock’s theoretical work on change. My
experience at work will be considered as the material against which the theory will be
measured.
3
Primitive anxiety and defences
One of the bases of psychodynamic thinking is that individuals face the need to manage and
defend against the anxiety provoked by the tension of conflicting impulses. The study of
defences was developed by Freud but expanded by Melanie Klein, in her work with children
in the relationship with primary figures. One of the defences most explored by Melanie Klein
is the concept of splitting. The Kleinian idea is that the infant, since birth, has to deal with the
anxiety provoked by the death instinct. Moving from a secure and comfortable place to
reality, the infant experiences both hunger and frustration. To survive, the infant then
projects those primitive instincts to both his ego and the primary object, the mother’s breast.
The splitting, as a primitive mechanism of defence, is the result of the attribution of negative
feelings (the mother’s breast is felt to be frustrating and persecutory) and positive feelings
(the mother’s breast is gratifying and loved). From here the definition of good and bad
objects is central to the schizoid paranoid position. As Segal wrote, “...​​in Melanie Klein’s
view, sufficient ego exists at birth to experience anxiety, use defence mechanisms and form
primitive object-relations in phantasy and reality” ​(Segal 1988, p. 24). ​In Kleinian theory,
​unconscious phantasies​ underline every mental process and accompany all mental activity,
guiding the emotional experience of object and reality.
Those feelings, for Melanie Klein, are not just projected in the mother but they are also
interiorised in a circle between the infant and the mother. Klein introduced the concept of
​projective identification​, considered a two-person process. Following Klein theory, Ogden, in
his paper ‘On projective identification’, defined how projective identification is based on three
steps: ​ridding parts or aspect of him/herself and putting in someone else in a controlling way.
Second, aspecting that the recipient experiences the feeling projected. Lastly, the receiver
identify with the projection (Ogden, 1979)
The concepts of splitting, projective identification and unconscious phantasy are the basis for
understanding how primitive anxiety plays a role in organisations.
4
Unconscious phantasies at work
Drawing from the Klein theory I will discuss a problematic emotionality that pervades my way
to be at work and in my role. When I join my organisation, I was looking to work as a
psychologist for quite a while. In joining the organisation, I carried with me many phantasies
and expectations of my role. Firstly, I was looking to be recognised and acquire status as
professional. Secondly, I was looking for a structure where I could feel contained and where
I could work with other people and create relationships. Re-thinking of the last three years in
the organisation I realised how those phantasies guided my judgement, making me often
feeling trapped and immobilised.
After few months, I joined the organisation I felt I found a little family of friends, be part of
something that it was growing, gaining success and recognition. On the other side, I felt that
I was not aligned with the task or with the choice of clients. Referring to the Kleinian concept
of splitting; the organisation was for me a good object that fed my need to be part of a group
and may need to be recognised, but also it represented a bad object as its values, ethics
and methodologies were not represents me.
Projection, defences and authority
Being played by my phantasies in a schizo-paranoid position had a significant effect on my
capacity to take a role and dealing with authority. Obholzer (1994) describes three sources
of authority in organisations; authority from above (from a board or authority), below
(recognised by the member of the system) and within ( personal relationship with your
meaning of authority). Obholzer associates the lack of authority from within with the inner
world of infant relationships. Differently, I believe the authority from within has much to do
with unconscious phantasy of the workplace. A missed integration of personal authority can
affect how authority is perceived from above and below. I relate this hypothesis to my
experience. I can see how I projected my unwanted part to different people of the
organisation. In my three years in the company, I refused more or less directly, any of the
managers that I was given, often accusing them of being incompetent in managing me.
Re-looking at those dynamics, I believe the I projected in them my inadequate feelings,
which they then were identified with, so feeling unable to manage me. As a manager, myself,
I acted the strategy of being friendly and compliant, avoiding to be challenged or not
recognised. I believe that I was defending from the same anxiety that I projected on people
5
above me. My unconscious phantasies of being inadequate challenged my authority from
within performing defence and projection.
6
From primitive to social defences, the notion of
collusion
As discussed in the previous paragraphs, individuals use defences to deal with their life, and
their unconscious phantasies often guide their experiences. How do those primitive defences
develop from the individual to a large group and organisations?
Basic assumption in groups
One of the first who studied primitive anxiety and defences in groups is Wilfred Bion. In his
book ‘Experiences in Groups’, published in 1961, Bion argues that in every group, two
groups are present: ​work-group and ​basic-assumption​ mentality and functioning. These
terms refer to fundamental aspects of group thinking and feeling or defending from difficult
and painful real thought and true feeling. Both those mentalities describe the ability of group
members to relate and to engage, with each other and with the purpose for which the group
was formed. If the workgroup mentality is the one that consciously carries out its primary
task, the basic assumption mentality, by contrast, describes is based on unconscious
mechanisms. Those mechanisms have a defensive nature; the group uses them to defend
against difficult feelings in order to survive the task.
In my organisation, was interesting how the group unconsciously move from one basic
assumption to another, in the moment of crisis. Before the crises, the leader of the
organisation was seen as the one who had the power to make the company grow, idealised
by many and criticised by some senior individuals (​the basic assumption of dependency). As
soon as the crisis started, the group shift to attach the same leader, blaming him and waiting
for his resignation (​the basic assumption of fight-flight). Lastly, the group was distress and
freeze for its future the collusion in the group was to wait that to the two other leaders (the
CFO and the head of data), would pair to save and lead the company in the change (​the
basic assumption of paring).
With his work, Bion opened up the idea that there is a shared unconscious symbolisation of
the group from the individuals that are participating in the group. This idea of an ​unconscious
collusion​, which draws a fundamental bridge to understand human relations in organisations.
7
Social defences
​Menzies (1960) was the first to develop on both Klein and Bion’s psychoanalytic theories,
suggesting how groups of individuals unconsciously and collaboratively shape the
organisations to which they belong. ​Differently from Jaques (1951), in Menzies’ work the
system is more than a reflection of unconscious fantasy.
Developing from Klein’s theory: “​​The nurse project infantile phantasy situations into current
work situations and experience the objective situation as a mixture of objective reality and
phantasy” (Menzies, 1960, p.49). ​In her ​report on a study of the nursing service of a general
hospital, she observed how the nurses were using several defences in order to deal with the
difficult psychological demands of both patients and relatives. She called those defences
‘​​social defences​’.
A social defence system develops over time as a result of collusive
interaction and agreement, often unconscious, between members of the
organisation as to what form it shall take.
Menzies, 1960, p.51
In her work, she described a lively culture of projection, identification and primitive anxieties
not well contained1 b
​ y the social system: “​​Social defence systems represented the
institutionalization of very primitive psychic defence mechanisms, a main characteristic of
which is that they facilitate the evasion of anxiety but contribute little to it's true modification
or reduction​.” (Menzies, 1960, p. 77)
An example of defence against the anxiety from my organisation is the need for
standardisation of client proposal. This need has been express both by the client service
team and the sales team. Interesting is that both of those teams sit within the boundaries
between the organisation system and the client system. Opposite, my team part of
transformation phase in the organisation the system, was cut out from the proposal phase.
Standardisation, I believe, that the standardisation has the function of defending against the
anxiety of dealing with different clients’ need and the anxiety to bring more clients into the
business. Likewise, it plays as a defence against the anxiety of dealing within boundaries
and competences between teams in the organisation.
​Containment​ is for Klein the function of mother to contain the infant frustration. This construct it’s also use by
Bion, ​Container-Contained​, as foundation for his theory of thinking
1
8
Positive collusion
On the notions of collusion2 and unconscious phantasy is founded the ​technique theory​ of
the Italian psycho-sociologists Renzo Carli and Rosa Maria Paniccia. Based on their
approach, it is impossible to not collude. However, they posit that both a functional and
nonfunctional collusion exist, contrary to Menzies’ idea that all collusions are dysfunctional
which I believe it is one of the limits of Menzies work. For the Italian authors, ​organisations
tend to create functional collusion between different members of staff and also with their
clients. When external or internal conditions change, then those collusions lose their efficacy
and become dysfunctional - known as ​collusion failure. According to the authors, this is the
moment where the organisation calls in a consultant. The client in this instance has the
unconscious expectation to make the previous collusion functional again and project
phantasies to the consultant.
On the other side of the ocean, inspired by the Tavistock work, Edgar H. Schein defines
culture as ‘​a pattern of basic assumptions, invented, discovered, or developed by a given
group, as it learns to cope with its problems of external adaptation and internal integration,
that has worked well enough to be considered valid and, therefore is to be taught to new
members as the correct way to perceive, think, and feel in relation to those problems’
(Schein, 2010)
Concluding, seems that there is an agreement on how individuals unconscious phantasies
are shared in groups and organisation as a collusive basic assumption. However, the
significant contribution of Menzies to define and identify social defences, more recent
authors have taken a different position on the function of those defences in organisation.
​The construct of collusion allows for relationships to contain an asymmetry, which can organize the construction
of specific modes of relating oriented to the target. The collusive process is presented as the intermediate
dimension between the symmetry of the relationship that mixes the self and the other in an absence of identity,
and the capacity to exchange with the other person in a relationship designed to achieve shared aims. ​(Carli,
Giovagnoli 2010)
2
9
Challenge omnipotence
The last few months have been interesting as they opened up to many questions of what big
data are both from the consumer that from an organisation perspective.
Based on my experience, I believe that phantasy of omnipotence characterises data. This
phantasy has influenced how the business of my organisation has been based on. Within
this phantasy, the organisation has been selling more than we tested or what we were able
to understand. The organisation has invested in recognition of competence; it prioritised
sales over products. I've felt victim for quite a while invested by those phantasies, impotent
to questioning anything related to data methodology or data use. The data science
methodology it has been idealised internally as good/omnipotent (and omniscience) that
cannot be questioned, the cost of loss of professional legitimacy and internal credibility. To
avoid this realisation, the organisation has generated a working system in which any
department can see the whole production process, and no one department is responsible for
product outcome. Differently but also similarly of what Menzies discussed in her work, those
devices, such micro tasks, allowed the system to survive and deal with the anxiety of the
delivery quality results.
The crises I described, is the result of the failure of the omnipotent phantasies that data
where holding, uncovering defences acted by the organisation and provoking new anxiety
related change.
10
Dealing with change and systems
Many of the constructs now used by organisational consultants come from the work of Elliott
Jaques, Isabel Menzies Lyth, Eric Trist, Ken Bamforth, Ken Rice, Erich Miller and their
Tavistock colleagues. Working in different fields, they had, in commune, attempted to make
sense of the deep changes that were occuring in the social, economical, political and
technical aspects of organisations. In looking at those questions, they also observed the
interconnection between the inner world of the people in the organisation and the hard
systemic aspect of the organisation. Their thinking combined Klein’s work with children,
Bion’s work group s, and Lewin’s system thinking.
The work of Trist and Bamforth on the Longwall is a great example of how social defences
work in organisations; it also pioneered the sociotechnical3 a
​ pproach in organisations. In
their study, they examined the introduction of a new work system, from a hand-go system4 ​to
the
longwall
system.
This
change
was
intended
to
improve
productivity
and
mass-production, but it had an enormous impact on the structure of the work, roles and
tasks, and even more on the social relationships in the organisation. The change was
effective, just when the social system was integrated in technological one.
As Trist and Bamforth wrote: ​It would appear that the self-enclosed character of the
relationship makes it difficult for groups of this kind to combine effectively in differentiated
structures on a somewhat larger social magnitude (Trist & Bamforth, 1951)
An example in the work of Trist and Bamforth is the how the technological implementation
have changed the working hours. The longwall system is characterised by a series of
operations that have to follow each other in a rigid succession over three shifts of seven and
half hours. Workmen were distributed on each shift and operation, often different than the
one they were used to. The communication started to be difficult as before they used to work
in small group and have their own way to communicate but also because they were acting
an defence against the change of the social system.
​Sociotechnical systems is used in organisational development as an approach to complex organisational work.
This framework allows recognises the interaction between people and technology in workplaces
4
​In the earlier "hand-got" method people worked in face-to-face groups to mine coal. Their tasks were multiple,
and choice of workmates was critical and often kinship ties made by the men themselves​
3
11
In this paragraph I wanted highlight how, when considering anxiety and defences in
organisation, we must keep in mind that organisation are systems that deal with the outside
and inside changes. The commune point its that those changes challenges both
unconscious basic assumptions and work structures in the organisation creating often new
anxiety and new defences.
Change in organisation
As mentioned in the introduction my organisation is going through a change as consequence
of a recent scandal on data and the introduction of a new data regulation.
Just a few months before the crises the organisation hired a head of marketing with the role
of helping the organisation in branding and dealing with the different business identities
In this period of crisis, this new individual played a pivotal role in helping the organisation
moving forward, as a need to adapt to an external change. As a part of re-branding lead by
the head of marketing, I proposed to work with the different group to reflect on the change
and redefine the value, and consequently the work system moving forward. Even if this offer
was welcomed, it was differently interpreted by several people in the company. In particular,
the head of HR pushed back as he was afraid to uncover difficulty feelings in the
organisation. Opposite the head of marketing wanted me to do it as a matter of urgency. I
felt in the middle of a conflict, and I felt that from both the side, there was anxiety related to
change with great difficulty in naming it. To make sense of my position and my feelings
towards both sides, I started to think of what this rebranding meant for the system. Relating
to the work of Trist and Bamforth, I believe that the re-branding was the answer to the
external social change, but as in the introduction of new technologies in organisation, it was
not enough to help the company to deal with the anxiety. Contrary functioned as a defence
to the crisis-provoking more anxiety and conflicts. The head of marketing was holding the
need for change as a mechanism to survive, and the head of HR was expressing the anxiety
and defences of the system. In my proposal to create a space to think about the change I
was offering an alternative to those defences which probably the system was not ready to
explore.
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Conclusion
In a recent book, David Armstrong and Michael Rustin (2015) have collected together
different experiences of working with social defences against anxiety, including a
contribution from health care, the private sector, social welfare and education.
Organisations perform different tasks and have different structures and sizes, but they all
need to deal with anxiety and defences related to the task, structure and systems. However,
an organisation can positively collude and be challenged when this collusion fails (Carli &
Paniccia, 2005) or can trigger more anxiety and dysfunction (Menzies, 1960).
In my organisation, those anxiety are also related to the task, boundaries and role.
Interesting I believed, it is how a change in the organisation can help to reflect on those
unconscious but also systemic mechanism. However, I learn from my experience that
organisation tend to avoid quickly recreate new defences to answer to the anxiety provoked
by the change.
These last months were useful for me to realise how unconscious phantasies and primitive
defences blinded me from having a broader picture of the organisation. I realised that I turn a
blind eye to the organisation and its leaders, focusing mostly on my little world of conflict,
and not on the bigger picture. I conclude that I did turn the blind eye5 as many others,
probably as defences of the anxiety of leaving both the family I found and the status that I
acquire in working in a recognised organisation.
5
I relate this aspect to the work of the psychoanalyst ​John Steiner (1985). He argues that the story of Ophelius is
the story of a ​cover up. ​Steiner identifies two conditions which allowed the ​cover up ​of the Ophelius to be
effective. The first is based on the illusion that there are not prove in support, the doubt that it may be wrong. The
second is collusion, which require ‘conspirations’, interesting party who share the interest to turn away, turning
the blind eye.
13
References
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paradigm​. Karnac Books.
Bion, W.R., 2003. ​Experiences in groups: And other papers​. Routledge.
Carli, R., Paniccia, R. M. 2003. L’analisi della domanda. Teoria e tecnica dell’intervento in
psicologia clinica [The analysis of the demand. Theory and technique of the clinical
psychological intervention]. Il Mulino.
Carli, R. and Giovagnoli, F., 2010. The unconscious in Ignacio Matte Blanco’s thought.
Rivista di psicologia Clinica​, (1).
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Obholzer, A. and Roberts, V.Z., 1994. The troublesome individual and the troubled
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Ogden, T.H., 1979. On projective identification. ​The International journal of psycho-analysis​,
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Rice, A.K., 1953. Productivity and social organization in an Indian weaving shed: An
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Schein, E.H., 2010. ​Organizational culture and leadership(Vol. 2). John Wiley & Sons​.
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Segal, H., 1964. The paranoid-schizoid position. ​Introduction to the works of Melanie Klein​,
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