Re-aligning rationality: Crisis management and prisoner abuses in Iraq

Abstract

This paper focuses on the U.S. military abuse of Iraqi prisoners in Abu Ghraib as a case-based illustration of a psychodynamic approach to organizations. Rather than viewing the abuse and its PR aftermath as an instance of poor crisis management, we argue that it should be seen as an expression of systemic neurosis at the highest levels of government. Understanding crisis as the normal outcome of a dysfunctional system provides an alternative explanation of the nature and causes of crisis and prescribes therapeutic intervention prior to training in crisis management and public relations.