Toward an applied framework for psychoanalytic organizational research

Anderson de Souza Sant'Anna, Daniela Martins Diniz
DOI: https://doi.org/10.21529/RECADM.2026001

Abstract

This article proposes an applied methodological framework for conducting psychoanalytic research within the field of organizational studies. Grounded in a clinical-discursive perspective, the work stems from the recognition that traditional research methods in management often fail to capture the unconscious, contradictory, and symptomatic dimensions of institutional life. In this context, psychoanalysis offers a unique approach by privileging listening, transference, and interpretation as central operators in the production of knowledge. After presenting the theoretical contributions of psychoanalysis to organizational inquiry - articulating authors such as Freud, Lacan, Bion, Dejours, Kets de Vries, and thinkers from the Frankfurt School - the article outlines a step-by-step research process: field delimitation, in-depth listening, case construction, analytical operations, and conceptual formalization. A practical example is provided to illustrate these stages, based on a real case study in the agribusiness sector, revealing both the methodological challenges and potentialities. Finally, the article discusses the epistemological, ethical, and political implications of psychoanalytic research in contemporary organizations shaped by discourses of performance, transparency, and rationalization. It concludes by proposing psychoanalytic listening as a practice of symbolic resistance and as a pathway for reinventing how we research, understand, and intervene in organizational life.


Keywords

psychoanalysis; organizational studies; qualitative research; institutional symptom; clinical method

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