PSYCHOANALYTIC BUSINESS CONSULTING: PARTNERSHIP AS TRANSFERENCE IN THE DYNAMICS OF FUSION AND DIFFERENTIATION

Abstract

This article presents an empirical case of psychoanalytic business consulting, examining the dynamics of a partnership in a small IT company founded by two friends who are software developers. The central phenomenon under investigation is the specific function of the founders’ friendship, which simultaneously played a stabilizing and a dysfunctional role within the organizational system. In the early stages, their closeness and mutual trust provided the company with a psychological “container” for processing anxiety related to the uncertainties of entrepreneurial activity. As the organization developed, this same closeness became a source of resistance to the necessary differentiation of roles, quickly leading to the emergence of distrust, intensified control, and tacit revision of prior decisions. The consulting process was conducted in accordance with principles of psychoanalytic organizational practice and professional supervision. Interventions included the creation of a safe space for reflecting on the partners’ interactions, normalization of conflict, joint analysis of a critical incident, and differentiation between personal and organizational relationships. The outcome of this process was an enhanced capacity for the partners to openly discuss strategic decisions, formalization of role distribution, integration of previously suppressed critical events into the collective experience of the company, and transformation of latent distrust into a more differentiated and reflective collaboration. The findings highlight the significance of a psychoanalytic approach in consulting partnership structures, as it enables the understanding of unconscious interaction dynamics, reduces the risk of structural vulnerability, and supports sustainable organizational development. Future research is planned to explore the role of personal relationships in partnerships and to develop supervision models capable of maintaining role differentiation across various business systems.