David Peat

From Clockwork to Chaos 147details. It is out of this tension that the therapist notices many of thepatterns that have been underpinning the patient’s past life. Does sherelate to the therapist as an authoritative parental figure? Or as someonewho can be seduced into giving in, making deals about fees, cuttingcorners, and arriving at compromises? Is she afraid that the therapistmay not always be there for her at the same day and same hour?Does she feel that in some way she is being cheated out of the 50-minute therapeutic hour she has paid for? Will she adopt strategies towin a few minutes more? or attempt to invade the therapist’s privatelife by discovering details of home, family, and background? Will thetherapist end up colluding with the patient? or take a vicarious enjoymentin her shady sexual and business exploits?Within that first therapeutic encounter the future course oftherapy may be made or broken. It is as if the therapist is always indanger of being contaminated by what could perhaps be called thepatient’s attractor, that history of relationships and repetitive patternof behavior. If the therapist is strong, firmly centered, experienced, andalert the therapy will go well. But sometimes a therapist becomessucked into playing along with a lifelong survival strategy establishedby the patient. The patient may win over the therapist to her side, orlean on the therapist for months to come, or use the therapist to gainapproval of her behavior with a partner or business figure.The same thing applies to organizations. To the extent that theyare gripped within their own history they are incapable of engagingfully in a creative act of growth and of maintaining flexibility in theface of change and uncertainty. Individuals and organizations that behavein repetitive ways are always following some limited set of goalsand repeating their mistakes. They are similar to self-organized systemsin the grip of an attractor. No matter if employees and directorscome and go, no matter if computers are exchanged for typewriters, oreven if the company moves from a Victorian building to a modernhigh-rise, a hidden magnetic attraction will still be present.Some consultants refer to the “story” of an organization and theway this continues to play itself out decades later. A large organizationoperated with two corporate executive officers (CEOs) rather than themore common single CEO. Naturally this gave rise to all manner of