Illuminating a psychological theory (in a construction management context)

The study of therapeutic communities towards the end of WW2 provided psychologists with new conceptual models of group behaviour. Founded upon Freudian theories of the unconscious these models have remained largely unquestioned for fifty years. Recent attempts to validate these theories have proved problematic, which may in part be attributed to the quantitative instruments adopted. This paper discusses new work, which proposes an alternative approach following phenomenological principles. The discussion commences with a review of theory building in the field of group dynamics since the early 1920s. Illustrations from the early work of Wilfred Bion are offered together with more recent examples of group behaviour founded upon the notion of unconscious forces. An attempt to elucidate the 'unconscious' is made by recourse to metaphysics. The paper concludes with a discussion of research instruments to capture the phenomena under consideration.