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Deep Roles: Twelve Primordial Roles of Mind and Organization

Norwegian School of Management, Oslo, Norway; Norwegian School of Management. P.O. Box 580, N-1301 Sandvika, Norway paul.moxnes{at}bi.no

The thesis in this paper is that there are 12 archetypal roles in groups and organizations. These "deep roles" have their origin in the roles of the essential family-father, mother, son, and daughter. In groups and organizations, each of these images of family roles will-through the basic defense mechanisms of splitting and projection-be polarized into a good and bad part: The father as God or devil, the mother as queen or witch, the son as crown prince or black sheep, and the daughter as princess or whore. In addition to these eight primary deep roles, there come two secondary ones: the helpers-Shaman and Slave-whose function are to help the family survive spiritually and materially, respectively. The two last deep roles are of a transcendental nature: the hero (winner) and the clown (loser), i.e., the one who has won a good family role, and the one who has lost it-or never gained it. These 12 deep roles are well known from such cultural artifacts as fairy tales and mythology. In groups and organizations, deep roles are attended with power and interest. Those who are attributed a deep role in their organization will have a similar symbolic power as characters in fairy tales and mythology.

Key Words: group role • archetype • family • fantasy • splitting • projective identification

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