This document discusses Freud's concept of the "impossible professions" of governance, psychoanalysis, and teaching. It argues that management consulting should be added to this list due to the complex affective dynamics between consultants and clients. The case method is effective for teaching about these professions because it allows exploration of technical and relational dimensions of decision-making. A psychoanalytic understanding of complexity, disruption, and unconscious processes can provide insights into client relationships and decision-making under stress. Business schools should incorporate more cases about professional services firms and draw from psychoanalytic case-writing traditions to better capture psychic conflicts that influence workplace decisions.

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The Case Method in the ‘Impossible’ Professions
INTRODUCTION
Sigmund Freud was fond of arguing that ‘governance, psychoanalysis, and teaching’
are the three impossible professions (Malcolm, 1980). What is an impossible
profession? Why did Freud describe these as the impossible professions? What are
the lessons, if any, for management education in thinking about these impossible
professions? And, finally, what does it mean to learn decision making in the context
of these three impossible professions? These then are the four important questions
that are addressed in this essay on the relationship between the impossible professions and
the case method. I will start with the notion of the ‘impossible’; which, in
psychoanalysis, is related to the idea of ‘complex’ structures and phenomena as
opposed to ‘linear’ structures and phenomena. What is at stake here however is not
the analytic difference between the complex and linear forms of analysis as a
response to complex structures and phenomena per se. What is at stake is that this
analytic distinction will help us to make sense of the psyche of the patient, the
citizen, the student, and the client. It is important to remember at the outset that

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contrary to whatever the patient might say to the analyst – he is not really interested in
getting well either because of a ‘negative therapeutic reaction’ to the analyst or
because there is too much ‘resistance’ to the need to seek help from a medical
practitioner. The patient would rather be cured by his own efforts or endlessly endure
his own neurosis rather than seek help since that will involve a loss of control on his
part (Rycroft, 1995; Laplanche and Pontalis, 1973a). In the case of the negative
therapeutic reaction, the patient will drop out of analysis and prematurely declare
himself to be ‘cured’ before completing the treatment; in the case of resistance, he
will not even want to ‘begin’ the treatment. It is important for the analyst or the
consultant to have a formal theory of the psyche because it is possible to help the client
only if there is some basic agreement on the ‘terms of engagement’ between the
consultant and the client in the attempt to find a decisive solution to the client’s
problems (Malone, 2008; Kets de Vries, 2009a; Kets de Vries, 2009b). This means that
a client either knows what he wants at the outset of the engagement or that he is at
least willing to defer to the advice of a professional consultant who is knowledgeable
in a given area of technical expertise.
AFFECTIVE-DYNAMICS
In situations where the client is not clear as to what he wants, and is not willing to go
by what the consultant has to offer by way of a solution, there will be a need to re-
think what exactly constitutes the ‘affective-dynamics’ at work in such firms and
organizations, and how that will affect the basic ‘terms of engagement’ between the
consultant and the client. This area of expertise is the province of those who are
known as ‘engagement managers’ in management consultancies (Arnaud, 1998; Kets

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de Vries, 2007). These affective-dynamics can emerge in various forms such as time-
inconsistency in the client or the consultant; lack of agreement on what is the best
way forward; asymmetries of information, knowledge, and skill-sets; value
differences; or simply new forms of regulation about which the concerned parties
may be lacking in clarity. In situations such as these, there are other aspects as well
that make it difficult to solve client-based problems at the level of linearity. This is
where the notion of complexity and psychic ‘over-determination’ comes into the
problem-solving situation. This is especially the case when consultants advise their
clients on what precisely to do, or not to do, in the context of a given engagement
(Laplanche and Pontalis, 1973b). It is these pervasive notions in the context of
transferential-dynamics that is characterized by the negative therapeutic reaction
and resistance that prompts Freud to situate ‘governance, teaching, and
psychoanalysis’ in the loci of the impossible professions. These professions are also
constituted by ‘asymmetric’ relationships in which it is difficult for professionals to
justify what they do to those whom they are trying to help. It would not be a stretch
then to add management consulting to this list of the impossible professions.
LINEARITY & COMPLEXITY
The dimensions of complexity, especially in situations involving a number of
variables of the sort set out above, leads to a different definition of what is involved
in these decision making or problem solving situations. Thinking through a complex
problem then is about understanding how the different layers of ‘causal
determination’ affect the different elements of problem solving in any given instance
(Evans, 1997). So while complexity is not easy to reduce in problem solving

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situations, it becomes a little easier to address once we are able to recognize the need
to move beyond the linear or reductive approaches to problem solving. What Freud
meant by the notion of the impossible then is mediated by the elements of
complexity and over-determination in the psyche. It also makes room for something
which constitutes forms of disruption in individuals, interpersonal encounters,
human relationships, and in the structure of the symbolic as such. This, simply put, is
the unconscious (Freud, 1911; Freud, 1912; Freud, 1915; Lacan, 1979). The recognition
of the systemic implications of such forms of disruptions where the client and the
consultant may not necessarily know what is in their best interests - for reasons that
are not reducible to the levels of indeterminacy in the immediate environment - is
the main challenge in thinking through the differences between the ‘possible’ and
the ‘impossible’ in not only a theory of the psyche, but in any situation where
psychic factors play an important part in decision-making in firms and organizations
(Arnaud, 2002; Arnaud, 2003; Arnaud and Vanheule, 2007).
THE ROLE OF THE UNCONSCIOUS
Freud’s preoccupation with governance, psychoanalysis, and teaching then is an
attempt to understand the special role played by the unconscious in these professions.
The basic wager in psychoanalysis is that in complex situations that are marked by
the notion of the impossible, it is important to understand the transferential-
dynamics at play. This is the point at which the intersection of management and
psychoanalysis becomes interesting, since psychoanalysis makes it possible to work-
through forms of psychic over-determination within the space of the transferential-
dynamics that constitutes the relationship between the consultant and client, or how

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firms coach and manage their own employees; psychoanalysis as a tool of
management then can be deployed both internally and externally (Diamond and
Allcorn, 1990; Kets de Vries, 2010; Srinivasan, 2010a; Korotov et al, 2012). The case
method is invaluable as a form of teaching technology precisely because it makes the
space and time available to do the pedagogical equivalent of this form of thinking
and decision making in business schools (Srinivasan, 2010b). It makes it possible to
recognize that complexity is always already a part of the situation in which
contemporary firms find themselves in and can’t be wished away. It is therefore
important that we go beyond the traditional differences between the linear and
complex, and adopt a more nuanced approach to client management, decision
making, employee relations, and problem solving.
TRANSFERENTIAL-DYNAMICS
We can start, I argue, by noting that the impossible professions are all preoccupied
with making sense of human nature within larger social entities in order to create
authentic social interactions (Kets de Vries, 2001). They are all professions that
demand enormous ‘relational expertise’ in addition to whatever ‘technical expertise’
is on offer in problem solving situations between consultants and clients. The
proportional sharing of concerns however between problem solving and client
management demands that consultants keep their relational expertise at a level that
is highly differentiated, unlike their technical expertise, which can be commodified
or outsourced through ‘expert systems’ and ‘neural networks’ in order to save on
costs in the consultancy process. The need for this relational expertise however is
related to the fact that in situations where the answers are not clear or obvious there

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is a strong element of persuasion and hand-holding in how solutions are sold to
clients by consultants. The notion of a sustainable solution in markets where a
number of solutions are available with similar if not equivalent technological
patterns however demands that constancy in the consultant-client relationship can
only be generated at the level of transferential-dynamics.
RELATIONAL EXPERTISE
When there is nothing in the technological dimension of problem solving that is
unique beyond a point, and there is a ‘convergence’ between different consultants
and service providers; competitive advantages, if any, will depend on the quality of
relationships with clients. This aspect of client management may move
disproportionately into the relational dimension in the years to come. That is why it
is important to explore how psychoanalysis can help to analyze and improve
‘consultant-client dynamics.’ It is therefore important that when we teach cases
about professional service firms, we are able to make sense of the relational expertise
that is needed to manage clients over and above the traditional preoccupation with
rational decision-making (Maister, 1997; De Long, 2007). It is also important to
identify the cognitive differences between the models of decision-making that
characterize publicly-held firms and professional service firms and share these
differences with students enrolled in management programs. This will require a
greater effort on the part of business faculty to write cases about professional service
firms than has been the case so far (McSwite, 1997; Anderson and White, 2003; De
Long and Nanda, 2003; Srinivasan, 2012).

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‘FORMATIONS’ OF THE UNCONSCIOUS
What the case method can do then in such contexts is to incorporate the forms of
disruption that Freud described in his meta-psychology as the ‘formations of the
unconscious’ (Evans, 1997). These forms of psychic disruption can be found in the
‘literature’ of psychoanalysis and in the ‘applications’ of psychoanalysis to the
theory and practice of management. We must use these traditions of case writing in
psychoanalysis then to influence the styles in which we write discuss and interpret
cases in professional schools as well (Greenwald, 1959; Freud, 1990; Freud, 1991).
This is all the more important because both the internal and external environments
are awash with an information deluge in contemporary firms. The skill-sets needed
to wade through and negotiate with this information - in order to build sustainable
relationships with clients - have become more important than ever before. While
information processing by individual consultants has become a necessary condition
if they want to provide technical advice to clients, it comes with a hidden cost-factor
that is often forgotten or overlooked. Not all the information that is processed is dry
and technical – increasingly, the type of information that has to be incorporated in
client-servicing has an affective dimension involving relational expertise. What a
simplistic preoccupation with information processing makes difficult for firms to do
is to develop the skill-sets necessary to work-through the complex array of affects in
the relationship between consultants and clients that is analogous in many ways to
what happens in the ‘talking cure’ between analysts and patients (McCabe, 1981).

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THE INSEAD APPROACH
While a lot of work has already been done by thinkers like Manfred Kets de Vries
and those who work at the intersection of management and psychoanalysis at
INSEAD on the forms of transferential turbulence that marks the relationships
between consultants and clients, it is important to incorporate the insights from such
traditions within the mainstream of case analysis and case writing in business
schools. This is especially required in the context of decision-making situations. It is
possible to argue that in most decision-making situations it is important to
differentiate between the ‘technical’ and ‘relational’ dimensions since the disruptive
elements of the unconscious emerge mainly in such contexts. Most compulsive forms
of behavior, for instance, are likely to be activated in situations which require
decisive responses, but are constrained by circumstances where errors are made
either because the situation is defined only as linear or only as complex. Many
decision-making situations, in fact, are in-between these extreme positions, and it is
important for decision-makers to develop a more comprehensive and nuanced
notion of the costs-and-benefits involved in thinking through decision-making
situations. This is where a psychoanalytically informed notion of complexity, disruption,
and over-determination will help in the theory and practice of management and
organizational studies (Carr, 2002; Gabriel and Carr, 2002; Driver, 2003; Kenny,
2009). What case writers in business schools and management programs can learn
from psychoanalysis then is applicable not only at the level of the plots that they
want to incorporate into the generic structure of a case (in order to make it necessary
for students to understand the relationships between the technical, the relational,
and the systemic in decision-making situations). It is also necessary to study and

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harness the forms of ‘psychic conflict’ that the Freudians have studied for years
within the case writing tradition in psychoanalysis as a profession. It is precisely
these conflicts that decision makers experience in the work place.
THE NEUROTIC DILEMMA
What after all are psychoanalysts preoccupied with when they study the lives of
patients in such infinite detail? Is it not the problem of decision-making all over again? Is
that not the neurotic predicament? The neurotic, or the person who finds himself
now-and-then in the locus of the neurotic, is neither sure about what he should do in
a given situation; nor for that matter, with the rest of his life. The representations of
indecisiveness in almost all matters in the life of the patient in the analytic situation,
then, which is sometimes interspersed by bouts of clarity, is not merely a neurotic
condition as such. It has to be understood instead as a structural form of psychic
disruption that Freud sourced in the promptings and formations of the unconscious,
and can affect any individual decision-maker under stress as he goes about his
routine work. What is needed then is a better understanding of the relationship
between the notions of psychic conflict in which the neurotic subjects finds himself
in, and the difficulties that this creates in the attempt to resolve conflicts or solve
problems in decision-making situations in firms and organizations (Kets de Vries
and Miller, 1984; Van de Loo, 2000). It is therefore important that we build-in clues
about the cognitive and decision-making styles of individuals who are situated in
the locus of the key decision-maker while discussing a case.

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CONCLUSION
It is interesting to note that the differences, if any, between the following questions
in the context of a case analysis is easy to overlook:
What should x do?
What should anybody in x’s locus do?
What would you do if you were x?
Unless the case discussant is acquainted with a nuanced notion of psychic conflict or
the relationship between the notion of a ‘locus’ and situational behavior, he will not
be in a position to delineate the differences involved in answering these three
questions (especially in something as fraught with complexity as decision making).
Now what if we assume that x himself is not necessarily the same person, or
necessarily knowledgeable of his interest in a given situation, or always trying to
maximize as economists will expect him to do? This is just a hint of the minimal
possibilities that x is confronted with. We must also contend with the ease, if any,
with which x occupies a locus, the demands of the locus, come to terms with the
temptations of agency in that locus, and so forth. Learning to situate the locus from
which x is thinking through the strategic options that confront the firm is therefore
not as easy as it is made out to be when the assignment question at the end of a case
routinely invokes the form of: ‘What should a given decision-maker do?’ This
conflation of several possible loci in which x can find himself in a particular locus of
decision-making will undo the inherent potential in the case method and lead to an
inability to differentiate between the locus of the ‘is’ and the locus of the ‘ought.’ The
case-discussant, who is used to linear problem solving models, is confronted
suddenly by what seems needless complexity in a case discussion, and therefore

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winds up generating options and recommending solutions that wish away a large
number of variables by pitching decisively for the ‘ought’ over the ‘is.’ The
advantage of using a psychoanalytic notion of the subject is that this routine
conflation of loci amongst case discussants can help us to generate insights on
cognitive and decision-making styles of individual or specific decision makers (by
reminding us that the difference between the ‘is’ and the ‘ought’ is precisely where
the unconscious makes its presence felt in the form of the symptom during the
process of decision making). That is why a psychoanalytically-informed model of
decision-making is of use to those interested in managing the dynamics of consultant-
client relationships in professional service firms, and business faculty can get that
point across more decisively by writing more cases that dramatize such conflicts in
professional service firms.
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SHIVA KUMAR SRINIVASAN