Psychoanalytic Perspectives on a Turbulent World

This article is intended to contribute to our understanding of the December 2001 collapse of Enron. The existing literature on Enrons demise falls largely into two broad areas, involving either micro psychological explanations or macro accounts that emphasize the workplace and its environment; this paper is an exploratory study that focuses on a new interpretation which links the two areas more closely together. It is proposed that Enrons culture was influenced by both micro and macro factors: an experience of unsuccessful paternal authority figures within the family history of Enrons leaders, coupled with an experience of problematic government and regulatory regimes associated with the gas industry. Drawing on concepts from psychoanalysis and its application to organizational dynamics, it is argued that these micro and macro factors helped to generate an Oedipal mindset in Enrons leaders according to which external authority was seen to be weak and not worthy of respect, and that this contributed to Enrons demise. Implications for theory are examined.