Self Action Research: An Institution Reviews Itself

The Scottish Institute of Human Relations, a psychoanalytically based training/therapeutic organization undertakes to "action research" itself. The need for this study comes at a time of rapid expansion and development which coincides with the death of its founder, J.D. Sutherland. Uncertain about the appropriateness of involving the total institution from the beginning (e.g. a search conference), the researchers begin by setting up and working with an incipient research group (IRG) which represents the Institute. How an Institution manages this phase in the change process is here described, with a particular emphasis on understanding the psycho-dynamics of the process of containment.