ABSTRACT
Group analysts such as Blackwell (1998), Nitsun (1988, 1996), and Wilke (1998), along with psychoanalysts such as Kernberg (1980, 2003) and Obholzer and Roberts (2002) have attempted to bring psychoanalytic ideas to understanding organisations. However, nearly all mainstream management training relies on the implicit assumption that human beings will relate in a sane, reasonable, and rational way. In management and financial terminology this “critical assumption” is clearly false. Again, using traditional management theory of strategic planning, the internal world of human beings is rarely clearly aligned to the external world of the organisation. In other words what people feel and think may not be aligned with organisational objectives. Internal worlds will not simply align themselves to the aims and objectives of the organisation as written out in the traditional business plan. The neat and tidy jargon of management training fails to take account of the 140reality of human relations that need to be analysed carefully to create a healthy working environment.
