PA211-6-SP-CO:
Organisational Dynamics
2025/26
Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies
Colchester Campus
Spring
Undergraduate: Level 6
Current
Monday 12 January 2026
Friday 20 March 2026
30
07 March 2023
Requisites for this module
(none)
(none)
(none)
PA229
PA215, PA216, PA217, PA218, PA221
BA LX5C Therapeutic Communication and Therapeutic Organisations,
BA C847CO Psychodynamic Practice,
BA C848CO Psychodynamic Practice (Including Foundation Year),
BA C849CO Psychodynamic Practice (Including Year Abroad),
BA C850CO Psychodynamic Practice (Including Placement Year)
This module aims to help students understand more fully the conscious and unconscious dynamics in organisations. Beginning with Freud's original and critical work on group psychology we explore the contribution the psychoanalysis and social organisational psychology have made to our understanding of working and organisational life. Using a primarily psychoanalytic/psychosocial lens, we will consider the ways in which organisational and working life can be pulled too far toward unhelpful technical and procedural practices by powerful unconscious defences operating within and between people and organisational structures they create.
We will be asking three principal questions. First, how have psychoanalytic and systemic ideas helped to make sense of seemingly irrational organisational phenomena and striven to keep alive the 'human touch' in organisational and group life? Second, what can be put in place to assist in supporting a capacity to face the realities of work more effectively? Third, what can the individual do to improve organisations, help keep them 'on task' and strengthen their potential to develop therapeutic or enabling qualities?
In particular, students will have the opportunity to deepen their observation skills by undertaking a psychoanalytic observation in a working organisation and learn how to make sense of both the objective and subjective material emerging from this research process.
In order to link theory to practice, students will also take part in an experiential workshop in which organisational and group processed can be directly experienced, observed and understood.
The aims of this module are:
- To understand the contribution psychoanalysis can make to the study of organisational dynamics and working life
- To provide students with greater capacity to make psychodynamic observations in different settings
- To enable students to develop psychodynamic and systemic understanding of organisational life and structures
- To develop students' capacity to generate hypotheses and gather relevant observational evidence to support or challenge them
- To develop students' capacity to observe themselves and others in group and organisational experiences
By the end of this module students will be expected to be able to:
- Understand the history, development and application of psychoanalytic ideas to organisational dynamics
- Be able to apply psychodynamic insight to a wide range of organisational settings
- Have developed a greater capacity for psychodynamic observation
- Have developed a more advanced capacity to generate and test hypotheses about organisational dynamics
- Have developed a more advanced capacity to make sense of their own and others' organisational behaviour and experiences
No additional information available.
Learning and Teaching Methods
Seminar part 1 - Students will discuss readings on topics relating to organisational dynamics. There will be a reflective group at the beginning and end of this module.
Workshop - Students will take part in a seven-week Group Dynamics workshop.
Seminar part 2 - Students will bring descriptions of their observations within their chosen organisation which will be discussed applying psychodynamic insights to the interactions, dynamics and experience.
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Hinshelwood, R. D. (1987) ‘Suffering the experience’, in What happens in groups: psychoanalysis, the individual and the community. London: Free Association Books, pp. 23–29.
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Hinshelwood, R.D. (1987) ‘Understanding in action’, in What happens in groups: psychoanalysis, the individual and the community. London: Free Association Books, pp. 30–37.
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Rees, J. (2000) ‘Food for Thought - The Canteen of a Mental Hospital’, in
Observing organisations: anxiety, defence, and culture in health care. London: Routledge. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.4324/9780203135150.
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Freud, S.
et al. (1953) ‘Volume 18: Group Psychology and the Analysis of the Ego’, in
The standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud. London: Hogarth Press and the Institute of Psycho-Analysis. Available at:
https://pep-web-org.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/browse/document/SE.018.0000A.
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Stokes, J. (1994) ‘What is unconscious in organisations?’, in What makes consultancy work: understanding the dynamics. London: South Bank University Press.
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Pick, D. (no date) ‘Freud’s “Group Psychology” and the History of the Crowd’,
History Workshop Journal, (40), pp. 39–61. Available at:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/4289386.
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Rioch, M. (1975) ‘The Work of Wilfred Bion on Groups’, in Group relations reader. Sausalito, Calif: GREX, pp. 21–35.
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Bion, W.R. (2001)
Experiences in groups: and other papers. Hove: Brunner-Routledge. Available at:
https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/universityofessex-ebooks/detail.action?docID=179104.
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Gordon Lawrence, W., Bain, A. and Gould, L.J. (1996) ‘The fifth basic assumption’,
Free Associations, 6(1), pp. 28–55. Available at:
https://pep-web-org.uniessexlib.idm.oclc.org/search/document/fa.006a.0028a.
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Chrzanowski, C.S. (2019) ‘The Group’s Vulnerability to Disaster: Basic Assumption and Work Group Mentalities Underlying Trump’s 2016 Election’,
The International Journal of Psychoanalysis, 100(4), pp. 711–731. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1080/00207578.2019.1591159.
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Menzies Lyth, I. (1988) ‘The Functioning of Social Systems as a Defence Against Anxiety: a report on a Study of the Nursing Service of a General Hospital’, in Containing anxiety in institutions: selected essays, volume 1. London: Free Association, pp. 43–85.
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Jacques, E. (1995) ‘Why the Psychoanalytical Approach to Understanding Organisations is Dysfunctional’,
Human relations, 48(4), pp. 343–349. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.1177/001872679504800401.
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Amado, G. (1995) ‘Why Psychoanalytic Knowledge Helps Us to Understand Organisations: A discussion with Elliott Jaques’,
Human relations, 48(4), pp. 351–335. Available at:
https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/001872679504800402.
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De Board, R. (2014)
The psychoanalysis of organizations: a psychoanalytic approach to behaviour in groups and organizations. Dual ed. New York: Routledge. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315752662.
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Roberts, V. (1994) ‘Chapter 4: The organisation of work: contributions from open systems theory’, in
The Unconscious at work: individual and organizational stress in the human services. London: Routledge. Available at:
https://www.taylorfrancis.com//books/e/9781351104166.
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Obholzer, A. and Roberts, V.Z. (eds) (2019)
Chapter- Beyond the Individual ( In ‘ The Unconscious at Work’). 2nd Edition. | New York?: Routledge, 2019. | Revised edition of The Unconscious at work, 1994.: Routledge. Available at:
https://doi.org/10.4324/9781351104166.
The above list is indicative of the essential reading for the course.
The library makes provision for all reading list items, with digital provision where possible, and these resources are shared between students.
Further reading can be obtained from this module's
reading list.
Assessment items, weightings and deadlines
| Coursework / exam |
Description |
Deadline |
Coursework weighting |
| Coursework |
Observation |
|
20% |
| Coursework |
Essay |
|
80% |
Exam format definitions
- Remote, open book: Your exam will take place remotely via an online learning platform. You may refer to any physical or electronic materials during the exam.
- In-person, open book: Your exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer to any physical materials such as paper study notes or a textbook during the exam. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, open book (restricted): The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may refer only to specific physical materials such as a named textbook during the exam. Permitted materials will be specified by your department. Electronic devices may not be used in the exam.
- In-person, closed book: The exam will take place on campus under invigilation. You may not refer to any physical materials or electronic devices during the exam. There may be times when a paper dictionary,
for example, may be permitted in an otherwise closed book exam. Any exceptions will be specified by your department.
Your department will provide further guidance before your exams.
Overall assessment
Reassessment
Module supervisor and teaching staff
Mr Chris Tanner, email: chris.tanner@essex.ac.uk.
From Department of Psychosocial and Psychoanalytic Studies
Student Administrator, 5A.202, telephone 01206 87 4969, email ppsug@essex.ac.uk
No
Yes
No
Dr Anthony John Faramelli
Goldsmiths
Lecturer in Visual Cultures
Available via Moodle
Of 64 hours, 64 (100%) hours available to students:
0 hours not recorded due to service coverage or fault;
0 hours not recorded due to opt-out by lecturer(s).
* Please note: due to differing publication schedules, items marked with an asterisk (*) base their information upon the previous academic year.
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