Case study in systems psychodynamics

“It was staggering how much of this stuff came out of me, and how quickly, and all because I’d gotten out of the way and allowed these other voices to speak through me” – Sting.

Yesterday, I sat in Theater Carré in Amsterdam, watching The Last Ship by Sting – the story of a shipbuilding community facing the end of its trade. This morning, I realised that what I witnessed was not only a fabulous musical, but also a case study in systems psychodynamics (The Tavistock Institute of Human Relations), told through art.

“I’d gotten out of the way” echoes the idea that if we step aside and de-center our ego then something else can emerge, we can become the carrier of a collective system; for Sting, this is not merely his voice in The Last Ship, but the voices of an entire community, an Industrial region in north-east England, that for generations lived by heavy industry on shipyards and steel. Sting thought he had run out of inspiration to write; once he stepped aside, something else took over – Tyneside’s history, labour, faith, courage finding form through him. In that sense, The Last Ship was not written by Sting so much as through him.

In my work, the challenge is rarely to add a voice of my own, but to discern whether I am speaking for myself or on behalf of the system. It is about containment, allowing a collective experience to pass through me without appropriating it, defending against it or silencing it. As Sting puts it so beautifully, the work begins when I “get out the way”, creating space for what the system needs to say to be heard.

Picture The last Ship – Koninklijk Theater Carré Amsterdam