Actualités de la recherche en psychodynamique du travail

Abstract

ObjectivesThe aim of this article is to give an account of the actual point of view in psychodynamics of work. Significant changes in the organization of work of the last thirty years are accompanied by new forms of suffering and psychopathological decompensations that question the psychic work issues. The psychodynamics of work tries to account for the relationship between mental health and work from the analysis of mental processes mobilized in the etiology of decompensations (post-traumatic disorders, pathologies of solitude, harassment), but also those mobilized in the avoidance of mental pathology. Material and methodsBased on the clinical approach and investigation of clinical case study resulting from both individual and collective investigations, the analysis of psychopathological disorders related to work, is focusing on the elucidation of professional defenses, led to the identification of new forms of suffering which the ethical suffering is an important part. ResultsThe clinical data highlight the role played by the dual centrality of sexuality and work. Clinical analysis of suffering at work reveals that social conditions and social work reports are at least as crucial as the intra-psychic conflict and infantile sexuality. ConclusionsMutations of the forms of suffering pose specific problems with regard to mental health prevention at work and methods of both individual but also collective action.