Pour une conception clinique de la notion de stress: la prise en compte des dimensions collectives

Abstract

In France, more and more employees, whether they are employed by state-owned or private enterprises, readily admit they suffer from stress. Although subjected to both deep and difficult transformations, post office counter clerks do not use the word. A three-year research study with counter clerks of La Poste, led by clinical sociologists from the viewpoint of clinical sociology, invites us to question the notion of stress. To begin, the paper takes the opportunity to clarify the use that a clinical sociologist makes of this English notion usually connected with individual psychology. It then shows in which circumstances the counter clerks, including those who work in offices considered ‘calm’, are in fact confronted with working conditions that qualify as stressful. Finally, through clinical cases, the paper contests the North American view of stress by showing that it is essentially founded on an individual understanding of this pathology and that it abusively overlooks the collective dimension of work in its account of a real suffering.