David Peat

146 From Certainty to UncertaintyOrganizations and AttractorsOrganizations can be similar to human personalities. They have theirfamily histories and personal stories; decades later they may still beplaying out the consequences of past traumas. I remember an old lady,quite comfortably off, who lived very parsimoniously, even chewingcrusts of stale bread rather than throwing them away. She had livedthrough the Great Depression and World War II in England, one atime of crushing poverty, the other of rationing and deprivation. Thetraumatic memory of those events had never left her. In this area of herlife she had become closed to change and trapped in the strangeattractor of her past.The French psychoanalyst Jacques Lacan noticed that people caneven become trapped by a name. Suppose, as is sometimes the case, ababy is given the name of a dead relation. That child grows within acertain matrix of stories told about the dead relation: memories, anecdotes,and amusing or tragic stories. It is as if, when the child looks inthe mirror, he sees not so much himself and his own face but a vagueimage of the person he is supposed to represent. Rather than identitybeing an interior matter, Lacan observed, in such cases the patient identifieswith that exterior image—a dead relation or some sort of idealthat parents have projected onto their child. In other words, he did notfeel himself as inhabiting his own body but as being elsewhere. He feltbound by certain dimly understood drives to fulfill a role and to becomethat person who can only lie outside himself. Again, what appliesto an individual can apply to a business, an organization, or even agovernment.It is often the case that a company calls in efficiency experts orbusiness consultants to observe its operation and offer advice. Just howeffective this proves to be depends on factors that are also seen in therelationship between psychotherapist and patient. Many therapists setgreat store by the initial interview—that first meeting between therapistand patient in which the patient attempts to position herself inrelation to the therapist. Clearly this can be a very tense time. The patientis admitting that she is having problems in her life. She is askingfor help and anticipates having to go into painful and embarrassing