This collection of new contributions from psychoanalysts, group analysts and organizational consultants from Europe, Australia and the United States examines the patterns of conscious and unconscious life of those organizations in which traumatic experience is ubiquitous. Among the organizations studied are hospitals and clinics for the care and treatment of the mentally ill and the intellectually disabled; prisons; international industrial and financial firms; trade unions; universities and institutes for training mental health professionals; and churches. Drawing from Freudian, Kleinian, Independent and Lacanian perspectives in psychoanalysis and from Foulkesian and Bionian perspectives in group analysis, the authors illustrate the fourth basic assumption of Incohesion: Aggregation/Massification, and elucidate the painful personifications of it. Of special interest are the transmission of psychotic anxieties and the traumatic enactments of them, especially when people are insensitive to the rights and obligations of organizational citizenship. --- from the publisher Reviews and Endorsements: “A veritable tour de force in the study of institutional trauma; eminently readable; adds new and interesting perspectives; gives the psychoanalytical and group analytical approach an appropriately powerful voice.”
- Dr Anton Obholzer, FRCPsych., psychoanalyst and organisational consultant; former Director , Tavistock Centre, London “To organizational consultants of all disciplines: please don't miss this book! Oriented around Hopper’s theory of a Fourth Basic Assumption, these scholarly case studies illuminate multiple systemic reactions to failed dependency in traumatized organizations as their members struggle to survive the unconscious dynamics of incohesion.”
- Yvonne M. Agazarian, Ed.D. DGAGPA, FAPA; Founder , Systems-Centered Training and Research Institute, Philadelphia “This breakthrough volume shares a wealth of insights honed by consultants to diverse organizations haunted by the experience of failed dependency. It will influence discussions for years to come.”
- Victor L. Schermer, MA, psychologist; Fellow , American Group Psychotherapy Association, Philadelphia “Vividly written and remarkably coherent, few books match its rigour, insight, and scholarship; uses psychoanalysis and group analysis as tools of socio-cultural enquiry.”
- Dr W. Gordon Lawrence, Director , Social Dreaming Solutions Ltd “I wish this book had been available when I was first a consultant in the NHS. These authors have long experience with managing the effects of traumatic events on complex organisations, especially in the field of health care.”
- Dr Gwen Adshead, Consultant Forensic Psychotherapist , Broadmoor Hospital, UK “Deepening our understanding of unconscious processes and the systemic nature of leadership, eighteen psychoanalysts and group analysts explore disorientating and profoundly painful affects, projections and defences located in traumatized organizations. Notably, the authors also attend to potentially creative outcomes of traumatic experience fostered through the transcendent imagination of hope and resilience.”
- Professor Joan Raphael-Leff , University College and Anna Freud Centre, both London “An international working group of consultants to a variety of organizations share their theoretical and practical insights into the dynamics of trauma – highly recommended."
- Dr Anne Lindhardt, Director , Psykiatrisk Centre, Copenhagen "Demonstrating the need to ‘invest in its people’ and to focus on continuous improvement, a beneficial new perspective emerges from this collaborative contribution to the study of trauma in organisations. The pedigree of rich experience and the qualifications of the contributors shine throughout.”
- Ann Allen, business director and part-time lecturer in business studies, Northern Ireland “Rich in knowledgeable and innovative ideas about the structure, process and content of traumatized organizations and their leadership, these open and honest descriptions of the reality of organizational life will be valuable to all who are interested in the group analytical study of organizations and of trauma more generally.”
- Robi Friedman, PhD, President , Group Analytic Society (International) and the Israeli Institute for Group Analysis Contents: Introduction – Earl Hopper
Focus on Processes and Systems
1. A Study in Institutional Change: – Howard Kibel
2. Traumatogenic Processes in a Psychiatric Hospital - Bent Rosenbaum and Gerda Winther
3. Trauma as a Cause and Effect of Perverse Organisational Process – Susan Long
4. The Basic Assumption of Incohesion - David Wood
5. A Study of Trauma and Scapegoating in the Context of Incohesion - Ellen McCoy
6. The Survival and Development of a Traumatised Clinic for People with Intellectual Disabilities - Alan Corbett, Tamsin Cottis and Elisabeth Lloyd
Focus on Leaders and Leadership
1. Personal Trauma and Collective Disorder – Robert Hinshelwood
2. Disorganised Responses to Refusal and Spoiling in Traumatised Organisations - Christopher Scanlon and John Adlam
3. Trauma and Leadership Succession - Louis Reed
4. Leaders and Groups in Traumatised Organisation - Gerhard Wilke
5. Organisations in Traumatised Societies: The Israel case - Orit Nuttman-Shwartz and Haim Weinberg
6. Building Individual Resiliency and Organizational Hardiness – Jeffrey Kleinberg
Epilogue – Gordon Lawrence | 
