Where's Daddy? Integrating the Paternal Metaphor within the Maternal, Tavistock tradition of Organizational thinking.

This paper proposes a new approach for organizational psychoanalytical thinking, linking the maternal focus from Object Relations work with the apaternal metaphor drawing on Freudas and Jaques Lacan's thinking. An organizational consultancy case study is utilised to describe the practical application of this approach. It is proposed that the paternal metaphor is a pre-requisite for maternal-containment to take place in any organizational work. Maternal-containment then provides the space for emotions to become thoughts, and the apaternal metaphora is then required to pass through the Oedipal, opening organizations to engage in relationships and relatedness both internally and externally. It is at this point that Systemic and Psychoanalytic theory meet and that thinking becomes action in organizational terms.