ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses the ways in which Basil Bernstein both uses and suppresses ideas associated with Melanie Klein’s theorization of psychic defences. The aspect of Klein’s theory is her specification of different forms in which psychic defences might appear. Klein’s account of the way introjective and projective processes construct an inner representational world, which replicates the infant’s experience of both inner drives and external interactions, constitutes one aspect of the concept of psychic defences. The different forms of psychic defences have been used to explore the construction of social and institutional identities. There are three aspects of Elliott Jaques’ work that are of analytical interest in relation to the recontextualization of the concept of ‘psychic defences’ in organizational research and consultancy. Isabel Menzies Lyth’s study of the nursing service in a teaching hospital contextualizes social defences against anxiety in a way that shifts the analysis from individuals or groups of individuals to the broader structures and purposes of the organization.
