A Psychologist in Industry

The psychologist described here had been working in the company under discussion for about two years before he joined our research team. As a result, his situation in the company, by all accounts, could no longer be changed. Moreover, even before his appointment, he had been friendly with one of the two owners. Our account of the workings of the company reconstructs the interventions our team suggested to the psychologist. These were proposed for two main reasons. The first was to provoke responses likely to yield information that otherwise might not be forthcoming. The second, by contrast, was the result of the group’s exasperation when it became clear that it could not influence the repetitive game of the partners. Deciding that the company was “sick” and in need of “therapy,” the group proposed its interventions.