ARTICLES

Organizational Dynamics, Vol 36, #4, pp 377-391, (Winter 2007)
Republished in Portuguese (shortened edition) by Fundação Dom Cabral, November 2008, #7

This article looks at the meaning of the noun “complex” in its psychological sense: a cluster of related thoughts, feelings, memories, images and ideas—many of them pushed out of consciousness—dominated by an emotional theme. The article explores the nature and origin of complexes and then explores five complexes regularly encountered in organizational coaching and consulting work: the God complex, the Sisyphus complex, the Nobel Prize complex, the Monte Cristo complex, the Troll complex, and the Faust complex. Ways of identifying and coping with a complex are also examined.