Clinical approach to work-related subjective processes: the perspective of psychodynamic of work

Abstract

Under what conditions the work activity may be structuring health and in which ones can become a source of disease and suffering? How explain the current situation of deterioration and increased mental pathology in relation to work? The job must be conceived as a trigger among others, or could play a specific role in the etiology of various psychological and psychosomatic pictures? This article addresses these questions from the perspective of Psychodynamic of work. Based on the theory of living labor developed by C. Dejours, the article analyzes the dynamic pleasure-suffering in relation to work and the role of defensive mechanisms in those dynamics. In turn, it characterized the current epidemiological situation, describing the prevalent pathologies related to mental health and work. Finally, the article exposes the thesis of Psychodynamic of work regarding the increase and aggravation of
these pathologies. The article aims to present the main axes of Psychodynamics of Work, which is a theory and clinical practice whose object is the psychodynamic analysis of subjective and intersubjective processes
mobilized by work situations.