What is Systems Psychodynamics?
What is Systems Psychodynamics?
Introducing the concepts, history and contemporary applications
Photo by Danny Greenberg on Unsplash
Why do capable organisations repeatedly undermine their own goals?
Why do sensible reforms stall or fragment?
Why do experienced leadership teams sometimes lose the capacity to think clearly under pressure?
Systems psychodynamics is an approach to understanding organisations that examines the unconscious emotional forces shaping behaviour in groups, organisations and systems.
It begins from the premise that organisations are not only rational or technical structures but emotional ones (Miller and Rice, 1967; Armstrong, 2005).
Beneath policies, procedures and formal hierarchies lie anxieties, defences, loyalties and conflicts that strongly influence behaviour and decision-making.
A multi-disciplinary framework
The field developed through the post-war work of the Tavistock Institute of Human Relations and associated researchers including Eric Trist and A. K. Rice. Early socio-technical studies of coal mining demonstrated how technological change affects not only productivity but also identity, trust and the emotional fabric of work (Trist and Bamforth, 1951).
Drawing on psychoanalysis, open systems theory, group relations and socio-technical thinking, systems psychodynamics explores the relationship between emotional life and organisational structure (Trist and Bamforth, 1951; Obholzer and Roberts, 1994). It asks not simply what organisations say they are doing, but what emotional purposes their behaviour may actually be serving.
Central concepts
Several concepts are central to the approach.
The primary task refers to the essential work an organisation exists to perform (Miller and Rice, 1967). Yet organisations frequently become organised around anxiety management rather than the task itself.
Social defences describe the unconscious ways institutions protect themselves from distress, often through excessive procedures, fragmentation, endless restructuring or cultures of avoidance (Menzies Lyth, 1988).
The organisation-in-the-mind refers to the internal image people carry of their institution — who holds authority, what can safely be spoken about and where power lies (Armstrong, 2005). These emotionally charged internal representations shape behaviour as much as formal structures do.
The work of Wilfred Bion introduced the idea of basic assumption states, where groups under pressure drift into dependency, conflict or unrealistic hope rather than remaining focused on work (Bion, 1961).
Closely related is the concept of containment: the capacity of leadership, relationships and organisational structures to hold anxiety in ways that support reflection rather than impulsive reaction (Winnicott, 1965; Kahn, 2001).
Contemporary systems psychodynamics
Contemporary systems psychodynamics continues to evolve. It now engages with complexity theory, digital transformation, AI-mediated authority and ecological crisis, examining how surveillance technologies, virtual working and algorithmic systems reshape trust, identity and human judgement (Lawlor and Sher, 2022; Lawlor and Sher, 2023a).
Rather than asking, “What is wrong with these people?”, systems psychodynamics asks, “What is the system producing, and why?”
Applications
Today the approach is applied across leadership development, organisational consultancy, coaching, healthcare, education and public policy.
It is particularly valuable where problems persist despite repeated technical solutions: recurring conflict, failed change programmes, cultures of silence or organisations that seem to work against their own stated values (Gould, Stapley and Stein, 2006).
References
Armstrong, D. (2005) Organisation in the Mind: Psychoanalysis, Group Relations and Organisational Consultancy. London: Karnac.
Bion, W.R. (1961) Experiences in Groups. London: Tavistock Publications.
Gould, L., Stapley, L.F. and Stein, M. (eds.) (2006) The Systems Psychodynamics of Organizations: Integrating the Group Relations Approach, Psychoanalytic, and Open Systems Perspectives. London: Karnac.
Kahn, W.A. (2001) ‘Holding environments at work’, Journal of Applied Behavioral Science, 37(3), pp. 260–279.
Lawlor, D. and Sher, M. (2022) An Introduction to Systems Psychodynamics: Consultancy, Research and Training. London: Routledge.
Lawlor, D. and Sher, M. (2023a) Systems Psychodynamics: Innovative Approaches to Change, Whole Systems and Complexity. London: Routledge.
Menzies Lyth, I. (1988) Containing Anxiety in Institutions: Selected Essays. London: Free Association Books.
Miller, E.J. and Rice, A.K. (1967) Systems of Organization. London: Tavistock Publications.
Obholzer, A. and Roberts, V.Z. (eds.) (1994) The Unconscious at Work: Individual and Organizational Stress in the Human Services. London: Routledge.
Trist, E.L. and Bamforth, K.W. (1951) ‘Some social and psychological consequences of the longwall method of coal-getting’, Human Relations, 4(1), pp. 3–38.
Winnicott, D.W. (1965) The Maturational Processes and the Facilitating Environment. London: Hogarth Press.
Subscribe to our newsletter
Related pages
