This paper engages with the growing literature on alternative organizing, in particular concerned with organizations fostering autonomy and subjective expression, and with offering spaces of emancipation for workers. We offer to contribute to this literature by drawing on a critical psychodynamics approaches, in particular those inspired by Jacques Lacan and post-Lacanian scholars. We base our study on two cases of therapeutic institutions (named Antenne 110 and Le Courtil) that host and provide care for children diagnosed as autistic and psychotic. Our choice of theoretical lens is also empirically-driven, since both institutions are located in Belgium and are part of a common network of practitioners inspired by Lacan’s ideas and ethics, in particular regarding the necessity of allowing for subjects’ Desire to guide work and for subjective difference to be expressed in relationship. We therefore interpret these cases are exemplars of desire-driven organizing, and discuss the implications for alternative organizational practices.
