ABSTRACT
The uncertainty of the corporate situation, and of the members' future organizational roles, might have precipitated persecutory anxiety and paranoid defenses against it. The manager had begun his story in an almost indifferent, detached tone of voice. The question arises whether an organizational consultant might more systematically, efficiently, and deliberately inquire into possible links between a client's professional and personal, or present and past, realms of life. Group identity, history, feelings, and meanings are themselves psychological realities that can be lost as well as symbols that serve as vessels for other unacknowledged losses. A decade of animosity and mistrust existed between the two groups, now exacerbated by, among other events, the recent failure of a school bond issue, the resignation of a controversial superintendent, and at this retreat an already embattled school board joining a group of administrators who had spent two days together developing a sense of boundaries and identity.
