ABSTRACT
This chapter explains the working hypothesis that the family as a psychic template applied to organisations has moved from an explanatory hypothesis to an almost exclusive principle in group relations thinking and as a consequence, excluded other possible explanatory hypotheses and the use of other psychic templates. It explores the idea that the group relations community of practice may identify with the application of the family psychic template to the extent of at times acting it out rather than using it as a tool for thinking. The chapter also explores group relations must include the capacity to identify a number of psychic templates within organisational life and that the family Oedipal one is too often unconsciously adopted as the template when dealing with dynamics within its own community of practice. Of course, generational identification goes beyond the family to cohorts of people in history, although the overlap in terms of ages within a cohort can be broad.
