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Pensamiento & Gestión

Print version ISSN 1657-6276On-line version ISSN 2145-941X

Pensam. gest.  no.49 Barranquilla July/Dec. 2020  Epub Oct 30, 2021

 

Artículos originales

A Bibliometric Analysis Of The Psychodynamics Of Work

Un Análisis Bibliométrico De La Psicodinámica Del Trabajo

Juliana Carvalho de Sousa1 

Ahiram Brunni Cartaxo de Castro2 

Pablo Marlon Medeiros da Silva3 

Lydia Maria Pinto Brito4 

1 Doutoranda em Administração (Universidade Potiguar -UNP) Juli.cs1009@gmail.com

2 Doutorando em Administração (Universidade Potiguar -UNP) brunnicastro@hotmail.com

3 Doutorando em Administração (Universidade Potiguar -UNP) pablo_marlon17@hotmail.com

4 Doutora em Educação (Universidade Federal do Ceará-UFC). Docente da PGGA (Universidade Potiguar) lydiampbrito@yahoo.com.br


Abstract

The present research concentrated on mapping the national and international production on the Psychodynamics of Work, by analysing its dimensions and trends. The research dwelt on a temporal cut that covers from 1970 to 2018, and used the Web of Science database, alongside the VOSviewer software, with the objective of identifying clusters. The results show only 49 identified works. By analyzing the theoretical findings, a framework in which the Psychodynamics of Work is subdivided into two major dimensions, context and content, was designed. The context dimension involved work conditions, social relations, and organization. The content dimension covered issues like pleasure and suffering, health and sickness, confrontation strategies, psychic load, subjective mobilization, and recognition, among others.

Key words: Psychodynamics of work; Pleasure; Suffering; Health

Resumen

La presente investigación se concentró en el mapeo de la producción nacional e internacional sobre la Psicodinámica del trabajo mediante el análisis de sus dimensiones y tendencias. La investigación se centró en el recorte temporal de 1970 a 2018 y utilizó la base de datos Web of Science junto con el software VOSviewer, con el objetivo de identificar los grupos. Los resultados muestran que solo se identificaron 49 trabajos. Al analizar los hallazgos teóricos, se diseñó un marco en el que la Psicodinámica del trabajo se subdivide en dos dimensiones principales: contexto y contenido.

La dimensión del contexto implicaba condiciones de trabajo, relaciones sociales y organización. La dimensión del contenido cubrió temas como placer y sufrimiento, salud y enfermedad, estrategias de confrontación, carga psíquica, movilización subjetiva y reconocimiento, entre otros.

Palabras clave: psicodinámica del trabajo; Placer; Sufrimiento; Salud

1. INTRODUCTION

The Psychopathology of Work, which focused on the contribution the way one works on the sickness of the human psyche, came to be after the Second World War and has Psychiatrists like Le Guillant, Sivadon, Veil and Fernandez-Zöila as its forerunners. Psychodynamics of Work appeared in France in the 1970's (Sousa & Santos, 2017), when Dejours suggested the study of abnormality, leading his studies to the investigation of what people do in order not to go mad as they work, which can be considered the "second generation" of Psychopathology of Work (Mesquita, 2006).

From Dejours' conception, the term psychodynamics refers to the studies of the psycho-affective processes, which manifest before intersubjective and intra-subjective conflicts that happen within the labouring environment (Assis & Macedo, 2008). It should be highlighted that the Dejourian chain implies that the Psychodynamics of Work has two essential cores: context and content. The first one is composed of work conditions, work organisation, and work social relations. The second one is composed of the following topics: psychic load, pleasure-suffering experiences, recognition, subjective mobilisation, sickness, and collective discussion place (Dejours, Abdoucheli, Jayet, 1994, Mendes, 2007 & Silva, 2015).

Although the Psychodynamics of Work is a recent chain, the works about it are more and more prominent. Among the leading authors in Latin America, Brazilian researchers stand out, such as Mendes (University of Brasilia), Merlo (Federal University of Rio Grande do Sul), Macedo (Catholic Pontifical University of Goiás), and Moraes (Federal University of Amazonas), among others (Silva, 2015). Furthermore, it is worth noting that the big names of PDT are concentrated in France and Canada (Machado et al., 2017).

Within this perspective, Brazilian studies that evoke bibliometric panoramas were found, such as those by Mello Neto (2016), Barros and Honório (2012), Machado and Macêdo (2016) and Oleto, Melo and Lopes (2013). In addition, there are empirical theoretical studies carried out in Argentina involving psychological suffering within call centers (Nusshold, 2015); A research by Wlosko (2015), from the Universidad Nacional de Lanús, addressing the main axes of the PDT in terms of theory and practice, involving subjective and intersubjective aspects; a Vélez Carrascal study (2017) involving a theoretical review on the mental health of Colombian workers, using the psychodynamics of work as a model; and a survey by Orejuela, Pérez and Vásquez (2019), carrying out a survey on the work clinics in terms of the Colombian academic context, involving university aspects.

However, the gap in the research lies in the fact that a survey on national and international researches available from the Web of Science database will be performed, covering the time period of 1970-2018. It should be mentioned that no previous bibliometric studies were found on the Psychodynamics of Work with such a wide and extensive temporal cut having the WoS as database.

From then, the research was limited to the following question: what is the national and international publication overview about Psychodynamics of Work, from 1970 to 2018, in the Web of Science database? This way, the objective of this study concentrated on carrying out a bibliometric survey about the national and international production on the Psychodynamics of Work from 1970 to 2018, by using the Web of Science database. Choosing the WoS for the research is justified by the comprehension coverage, in more than one hundred areas of scientific knowledge, since it is one of the most extensive databases (Ceretta, Reis, Rocha, 2016, Oliveira, Rodrigues & Matias, 2017).

This investigation tries to add new pieces of knowledge to science by identifying dimensions as it deepens the analyses about the target of study, thus avoiding the topic's narrow and reductionist approach. Moreover, it contributes to the concept, as it analyses the advancements of research developed in the area, and is able to help with the comprehension process, besides shedding some light on the trends around it. Also, the subject is minimally explored within the areas connected to management, according to the Web of Science data, showing that it is still incipient in the literature, upon considering the organisational context.

Besides this introduction section, the research presents the used methodological procedures. Then, in the third section, results are presented. The fourth section dwells on discussing these findings. The fifth section presents the conclusions, with a chance for future research.

2. PSYCHODYNAMICS OF WORK

Psychodynamics of Work, which originated and was consolidated in France, came to be from studies by French Psychiatrist Dejours. It should be mentioned that the highlight of this chain happened through the publication of the work entitled "Travail: usure mentale" (1980), which, later on, was published in Brazil with the title "A Loucura do Trabalho" (The Madness of Work) (Guimarães Júnior, 2017). This chain was widely spread in Brazil in the areas of Psychology and Sociology of Work (Merlo, Lapis, 2007, Martins & Mendes, 2012). As an analytical lens, the Psychodynamics of Work is considered appropriate for the field of Administration when it comes to examining the man-work relationship (Mendes, 1995).

This way, it should be highlighted that on the Psychodynamics of Work's objective, Mendes (2007) states that it pervades the relations that happen in the organisational environment, surfacing a process of subjectivation that will involve signs of pleasure and suffering, mediation strategies, health, and sickness, among other aspects.

According to Dejours (1999), some of the resulting causes of the suffering triggered by work would be:

1. Fear of incompetency - It comes as a result of the distance between what is written or said from what must be the work and the concrete reality related to the conditions in which the work is performed. It is noted that what is determined and idealised as a task to be carried out in the organisations cannot happen in practice, due to a series of reasons that come from the complexity of reality. As the complexity of reality is ignored by the power holders within the organisations, the "fault" of dissociation between speech and practice becomes the employee's incompetency (Dejours, 1999, p. 31).

2. Pressure to work badly - A situation in which the employee is aware of what must be done, but cannot do so, because of social pressures from the work context, such as: rivalry between colleagues, lack of cooperation, lack of material and technological resources, isolation, information evasion, and fear of being excluded. In execution-like tasks, there are numerous contradictions, and the employee is forced to do work from imposed methods and rules that come from top to bottom at every fad. These impositions are oftentimes incompatible with each other (Dejours, 1999, p. 31).

3. Lack of recognition hope - When the contribution to the company is not noticed in the general indifference context or is denied by the other. Non-recognition has personal insecurity and low self-esteem as background. Recognition means placing oneself in a dangerous and excluding situation. From the development of motivation theories, it is known that recognition is not a secondary claim of those who work. It is a fundamental health factor in the subjective mobilisation dynamics of intelligence and personality for work (Dejours, 1999, p. 34).

It is important to mention that Dejours unveiled a fundamental issue for understanding the man-work relationship, defined as normality, opposite to "madness of work". That is why the Psychodynamics of Work is meant to investigate not the mental issues which attack the employees, but the strategies used by them as they face adverse situations, bringing up mental health and work issue (Guimarães Júnior, 2017).

2.1 Context dimensions

According to the Psychodynamics of Work, the context of work must be studied based on the dimension zones, which are: i) work circumstances; ii) work organisation; and iii) work relations (Dejours, 1992).

The work circumstances are related to the work environment elements and, to Dejours (1992), they can be subdivided into: physical (noise, temperature, etc.); chemical (dust, gases, etc.); and biological (viruses, bacteria, among others). Moreover, the elements connected to hygiene and work safety must be considered. Mendes and Ferreira (2008) state that variables such as raw material, facilities, and payment, among others, also involve the labour circumstances issue. Based on that, it can be stated that the work circumstances can also help in the process of individual suffering, since it can transform work into something painful or pleasant (Carrasqueira & Barbarini, 2010).

The work organisation involves aspects such as work division, the content of procedures, hierarchy, power relations, and command (Dejours, 1994). The elements which involve it go through formal and informal categories, which must be fulfilled (prescribed work), and represent models of existing and operational management (Mendes & Ferreira, 2008).

When it comes to work relations, Dejours (2004) states that work allows the individual to create social bonds, by involving hierarchical interactions and several types of stakeholders, such as suppliers and clients (Lavnchicha, 2015). The work relations involve three types of interactions: i) hierarchical interactions (which involve management); ii) intra- and inter-collective group interactions (with work team members and adverse groups); and iii) external interactions (relationships with consumers, suppliers, etc.).

2.2 Content dimensions

Among the Psychodynamics of Work constructs, there is the pleasure-suffering pairing, which appears when the employees attempt to find equanimity within the work dynamic, searching for pleasure, and avoiding suffering (Mendes & Ferreira, 2008).

The Psychodynamics of Work addresses three types of rules from which suffering can emerge, and these are: creative suffering, which becomes indispensable so that the individual feels resistant and attentive, and manifests through questioning and non-acceptance (Guimarães Júnior, 2017). It is not possible to face the creative suffering as a synonym to pleasure, for this involves a sublimating pleasure that encompasses the substitution of childish sexual pleasure for pleasure at work; the pathogenic suffering, manifested by the feeling of incapacity and the sensation of exhausting one's own resources; lastly, the ethical suffering, which involves the evil individuals can bring upon themselves or upon others as they act improperly (Dejours, Abdoucheli, Jayet, 1994, Sznelwar, Uchi-da, Lancman, 2011 & Dejours, 2011).

As for pleasure, its perception is linked to the recognition of employees within the organisation to which they belong. This way, the major objective of the Psychodynamics of Work is to transform adverse situations into pleasure (Dejours, 1992, Mendes, 2007 & Lavnchicha, 2015).

On recognition, it is thought to happen collectively at work, shaped by individuals. The elements which encompass it go through cooperation, solidarity, and giving room for individuals to outsource their thoughts. From then on, there is the dynamics of recognition (Mendes, 2007).

It is important to highlight that, for the Psychodynamics of Work, there are two types of recognition: the one that comes from management and clients, which is based on utility trial; and the aesthetic recognition, which comes from colleagues at work (DEJOURS, 1994). In case of continuous suffering, there are defence strategies, also known as confrontation strategies. This measurement of suffering through defence strategies may enable the non-sickness process before suffering (Dejours, 1992, 2011, Mendes, Abrahão, 1996 & Mendes, 2007). The authors highlight that the defence strategies have some psychological mechanisms that are frequently used, such as rationalisation, which appears with the objective of avoiding fear and anxiety, searching for excuses to mitigate painful situations, resulting in indifference or conformity behaviours; the denying strategies which consider injustices and risks as natural and common facts, expressed through isolation and distrust acts; and the presenteeism, which deals with adaptation, oftentimes unaware of the state of discomfort.

Due to the understanding of this setting, the possibility of appearance of psychic load should be mentioned. This psychic load can be the result of the existing counterpoint between the prescribed work and the ideal work (Dejours, Abdoucheli & Jayet, 1994). It is important to highlight that in a work situation, in which the unloading that comes from the psychic load is hindered, the individual could get ill (Guimarães Júnior, 2017). The author states that such process of illness may cause harmful results to the individual's physical and mental health. With the objective of being recognised in the working environment, the medical certificate is necessary, and it can be characterised as the body's somatised illness. However, there is another way to deal with hidden suffering, which consists of creating a space with the aim of generating a collective discussion, which is characterised by suffering collective expression (Mendes, 2007). Dejours, Abdoucheli and Jayet (1994) state that, additionally, there is the subjective mobilisation, which is considered a way of dealing with the experienced suffering as it gives it a new meaning, by transforming it into pleasure through the process of collective collaboration among individuals.

3. MATERIALS AND METHODS

A bibliometric study was carried out, and its relevance has been valued, with the aim of expanding the performance of research, or evaluating its tendencies, by investigating the characteristics of publications (Watanuki et al., 2014). The used database was the ISI Web of Science (WoS), which is considered an indexing source of multidisciplinary coin, that encompasses periodicals of high quality, productivity, and impact of their intellectual productions (Oliveira, Rodrigues, Matias, 2017, Ceretta, Reis & Rocha, 2016). Regarding the collecting procedures, the search period covers the years from 1970 to 2018, with the use of the Science Citation Index Expanded (SCI-EXPANDED), totalling 47 full years and 6 months, considering the research was carried out in July 2018. It should be mentioned that the temporal boundary is justified by the appearance of Psychodynamics of Work in the 1970's (Sousa, Santos, 2017, Mesquita, 2006).

As for the searching criteria, the following descriptors were adopted, with numbers of works per criterion in parentheses: "Psychodynamics of Work" (40), "work clinic" (9), "Psychopathology of Work" (11), "pleasure and suffering at work" (2), "work psychopathology" (7), and "job recognition". It should be mentioned that quotes (" ") were used to keep the accuracy of research.

The sample acquisition was carried out from the search of the defined terms which appeared in the titles, abstracts, and key words of articles.

Then, the following filters were applied: type of document (article and review); and the choice of the areas of study: "Public environmental occupational health", "Psychiatry", and "Psychology", "Psychology applied", "Multidisciplinary Psychology", "management", "sociology", "business", "multidisciplinary sciences". The justification for choosing such areas was due to the fact the subject is directly linked to psychology and the man-work relation (Mendes, 1995). Moreover, scientific fields connected to Administration were chosen.

Thus, 49 works were identified and, from then on, their bibliometric analysis was performed. Then, content analysis was done. Besides, it is important to highlight that the VOSviewer software was used with the objective of identifying clusters, that is, the relationship networks of the terms that come from the WoS. WoS works with the process of forming clusters whose purpose is to evoke a visualization through a map, seeking to indicate the identified clusters and the process of co-occurrence of terms. Since then, 5 clusters have been identified that represent elements of occurrence and interconnection (Eck & Waltman, 2017).

The matches were: i) number of publications by year; ii) 10 key words with the highest representativeness; iii) ranking of 10 articles' publications by country of origin from the authors' institutions; iv) ranking of 4 languages used in the Psychodynamics of Work publications; v) ranking of 10 most cited authors/works in the texts; vi) ranking of 6 universities which the highest volume of literature on Psychodynamics of Work.

In this study, the VOSviewer software, version 1.6.8, was used with the objective to check the most common terms, their possible relations and relevance within the text through map creation, clusters and relevance of the terms found. For the use of this software, the titles and abstracts of the 49 works that breach the subject were used.

Another parameter to be observed in the VOSviewer is the minimum times of term appearance. For this study, a minimum of 8 appearances was set for each word or expression, so that it could be counted.

Finally, the following was designed: a table with the number of appearances of each term and their respective relevance, which is responsible for noting how many of these words are mentioned and their importance within the text context; the clusters, which encompass elements that are somehow connected; the map with the visual representation of the existing relations.

4. RESULTS

In the the sample selected for bibliometric analysis, the year 2016 stands out, according to Figure 1, below:

Source: research (2018).

Figure 1 Number of publications per year 

As can be seen, the year 2016 stands out with 12 publications. Then there is the year 2013 with 5 publications, and 2017 with 4. It is also worth noting that although the surveys covered the period from 1970 to 2018 the first record only occurred until 1980. Note- it is estimated that the interest in the subject has been gaining strength since 2005, although there has been a slight increase in the number of publications except in the year 2016. This is in line with data from the World Health Organization(2018), in which it states that strategies should be implemented to promote mental health and prevent pathologies. In addition, WHO (2018) data show that around 800,000 people commit suicide worldwide, each year. Based on this, one can justify the progressive interest of those surveyed in mental health issues.

Next, the Ranking of 10 publications of articles by country was found, as Table 1 shows.

Table 1 Ranking of top 10 countries of origin of authors by number of publications 

Source: Elaborated by the authors with data extracted from Wos (2018).

The results highlight that most of the researches are carried out in France (18), which was expected, since the Psychodynamics of Work first appeared in this country, with works by Dejours (Sichère, 2010). Next, there is Brazil (16), source of major Psychodynamics of Work names, such as Ana Magnólia Mendes, Adriane Vieira, José Humberto Lima Júnior, and Maria Ivete Trevisan Fossa (Barros & Honório, 2012). The remaining countries present an average between 1 and 4 publications.

Table 2 shows the ranking of the 4 languages. According to this ranking, French comes first.

Table 2 Ranking of top 4 languages used in PDT publication 

Source: Elaborated by the authors with data extracted from Wos (2018).

Such result can be justified by the fact that the researches on the Psycho-dynamics of Work originated in France. Besides, among the pioneering countries that researched such subjects, like Belgium and Canada, French is an official language.

English comes next, considered the most spoken language in the world, which can also be justified by the fact there has been growing adoption of the English language by periodicals in Brazil, and which are internationally indexed (SCIELO, 2016). Portuguese comes third, which is explained by the Brazilian pioneerism in research on this area. Then, comes Spanish, Mexico's official language and which is considered the 8th country with most publications on the area of Psychodynamics of Work.

With the objective of identifying the main terms approached by the sampled research, an analysis of key words was performed, and the ranking was catalogued (Table 3).

Table 3 Ranking of 14 of the most representative keywords 

Source: Elaborated by the authors with data extracted from Wos (2018).

The 14 key words with the highest number of citations were selected, since their publication rate was repeated from the 7th to the 14th position, showing a selection that is higher than the initially predefined number of ten positions for data organisation.

Based on Table 3, it can be inferred what are the main guidelines/focuses approached by the researches on this topic. A total of 61 key words were identified, considering only words with a minimum of three citations. Thus, the words catalogued in the ranking of the 14 words represent 24% of the total of words listed in the analysed articles, which means there is a wide diversity of words and it represents a high volume of specificity in diverging focuses.

The word "work" ranks first due to its composition with the central idea of research - Psychodynamics of Work. "Psychodynamics of Work" ranks second, and this was expected, since it was considered as one of the key terms in sample refinement. Then, there is "Health", since this topic is intrinsically linked to an individual's psychic health, which also justifies the appearance of terms such as "Mental Health", which ranks fourth. "Occupational medicine" ranks ninth, and "Occupational Health" ranks fourteenth.

Table 4 Ranking of the 10 most cited authors / works in the texts 

Source: research (2018).

The terms "Ergonomics", which ranks fifth, "Psychoanalysis", which ranks seventh, and "Management", which ranks twelfth, are major theoretical axes which the Psychodynamics of Work can develop and correlate with. Moreover, the terms "Burnout", which ranks eleventh, and "Stress", which ranks sixth, are justified by the fact that the working environment can be a major stress producer, which may lead to the Burnout Syndrome (BOS), considered a pathology associated to chronic stress.

Lastly, the words "France" and "Subjectivity" were present, and their appearance is explained by the fact that Psychodynamics of Work first ap peared in France and by the subjectivity issue being connected to the researched subject. Generally speaking, it can be inferred that these words highlight the involvement which encompasses the researched topic.

It is important to highlight that only the authors with a minimum of 7 citations were considered, resulting in a total of 10 authors. The results above illustrate the authors and their mostly cited corresponding works. It should be emphasised that, through a general overview of the contents approached by such authors, there is: mental health, psychiatry, burnout syndrome, stress, Psychodynamics of Work, ergonomics, psychopathology, and suffering at work. These contents are linked to the subject of research.

Table 5 shows the ranking of the 6 universities of the authors who had the highest number of literature productions on Psychodynamics of Work.

Table 5 Ranking of the 6 universities that produce the most PDT literature. 

Source: research (2018).

According to what is observed, most of the universities which emerged are located in France, which is where Psychodynamics of Work came to be. Besides, Brazil stands out with the University of São Paulo (USP) and is considered one of the pioneering countries in the production of researches in this area.

It is important to highlight that the Université de Montréal and the CNAM (Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers) are institutions that employ the most fruitful authors in the area, such as Dejours and Molinier at CNAM, and Marie Alderson at the Université de Montréal. It should be emphasised that these authors are major Psychodynamics of Work spreaders in the world, especially Dejours, who created the clinic of work, and Molinier. Marie Anderson is also considered a renowned author in the area and holds a PhD degree from the Université de Montréal (Machado; Macêdo & Machado, 2017).

4. DISCUSSIONS

4.1 Tendencies of the studies on the Psychodynamics of Work

It should be highlighted that the discussion of results was based on the 49 articles obtained from the performed research. Five clusters were identified with a total of 48 terms, distributed according to shown in Table 6.

Table 6 relation of clusters 

Source: VOSviewer® (2018).

Note that clusters 1, 2 and 4 agglomerate general terms which involve Psychodynamics of Work. On the other hand, cluster 3 involves elements which connect to the dimensions and symptoms of this theoretical lens, and cluster 5 is composed of connecting words to understand the theory logics. Such considerations evoke that these words are recurrent in the studies that involve the Psychodynamics of Work.

Upon analysing the studies, and considering the trends that involve the Psychodynamics of Work, overload pathologies, depression, suicide, harassment, and burnout syndrome are found among others (Boudoukhaa, Hautekeete, Abdelaoui, Groux & Garay, 2011). Loneliness is another disorder which attacks individuals and it is at the forefront of clinical evaluations. It is also explored by occupational health. Among the contemporary conceptions, suicide stands out, which results in evolved pictures of depression, along with fear and boredom that start appearing within the work environments (Gernet, 2016, Lhuilier, 2009).

This overview highlights the emphasis on "ethical suffering", which is manifested when individuals are led to perform activities that affect their moral, that is, when they carry out tasks that distort their quality of life, on behalf of high levels of productivity (Gernet, 2016). The author highlights there is a trend aligned with one's own tolerance of suffering, moral commitment, and the suspension of critical judgement delivered to others.

About depression, there are morbid processes that take place within the organisations and which can enhance this pathology's evolving picture, such as: violence, precariousness, unemployment, and competitiveness in labour relations, enveloped by the lack of control and care, which maximises their consequences (Lhuilier, 2009).

This way, trend is about protecting the employees' physical and mental health (PEZÉ, 2016), so there must be social transformations, such as team remodelling and task reorganisation (MOLINIER, 2012). Figure 2 shows these clusters' destruction through a conceptual map.

Source: VOSviewer® (2018).

Figure 2 Map of the clusters showing the occurrence of terms within titles and abstracts 

4.2 Psychodynamics of Work's Conceptual Models

Upon comparing the Psychodynamics of Work dimensional models, it is important to highlight that the human subjectivity can be affected by issues that involve requirements, work organization, and labour relations. The requirements refer to physical, chemical, and biological elements, and to safety (Sousa & Santos, 2017), all of which affect human health. Organization refers to the technical, hierarchical and psychological scope, and it involves issues of rationality, which is subdivided into instrumental rationality, correlated to efficiency; the rationality entity, which deals with moral and ethical values; and, lastly, the self-preservation rationality (Gernet, 2016). Besides these elements, there is the phatic rationality, which consists of how individuals experience their work, besides analysing how they modify the world and how their work transforms them (Sznelwar, Uchida & Lancman, 2011). Thus, the authors state that acting with the objective of transforming the world also involves an instrumental rationality at the same time it involves an axiological rationality, which encompasses communication and its distortions.

As for labour relations, they encompass the affective bonds built between colleagues and management in the working environment, allowing the individual to establish social bonds (Sousa & Santos, 2017). It is in this context that the Psychodynamics of Work develop with the psychic load, pleasure and suffering, the defence and the health-sickness strategy elements, among others. Health may not be totally reached, and it is considered a welfare state, which is opposed to illness (Sznelwar, Uchida & Lancman, 2011). Pleasure, on the other hand, develops with recognition and appreciation. In the health-sickness definition, environment and labour conditions are considered as central elements that are responsible for such realization (Sousa & Santos, 2017).

As for the mental load, which can also be understood as cognitive load and psychic load, it is now known as psychic suffering. This suffering is correlated to disorders, anxiousness, and overload (Marco, 2016). The psychic load involves strains, and there is contention between prescribed work and real work. Suffering at work goes through the analysis of work conditions and relations. As for suffering, it goes together with frustration and dissatisfaction, and can induce creativity (Gernet, 2016). Suffering at work emerges when it is not possible to keep pleasure anymore, which turns work into something pathogenic, and stops creativity. By this moment, the individual must have used all of the learning and adaptation alternatives, and the results were not those expected, exhausting the means of defence (Sznelwar; Uchida & Lancman, 2011).

There is some criticism about Psychodynamics of Work when it comes to its focus on suffering, and this overview could lead to the negative aspect as the central element. However, the Psychodynamics of Work's main objective is to overcome the labouring reality by analysing the psyches and bodies of individuals (Sznelwar, Uchida & Lancman, 2011). The distinction between the types of suffering should also be mentioned. When employees have used up all of their resources and cannot change tasks anymore, there is pathogenic suffering (Sznelwar, Uchida & Lancman, 2011). In creative suffering, there is a search to transform suffering into pleasure, since pathogenic suffering relapses over the impossibility of confrontation. It is essential to state that creativity must be noted by the social field, which will be slow to judge (Sznelwar, Uchida & Lancman, 2011).

As for the defence strategies, they show that the individuals are not passive against adversities with the objective of protecting themselves (Ramminger, Athayde & Brito, 2013). However, they appear with the aim of facing suffering, and can be turned into sub-types, such as conformism, individualism, denial, passivity, and aggression, among others (SOUSA & Santos, 2017), so as to be protected. These confrontation strategies can cause harmful effects to individuals, such as individualism and demobilization, among others (Dejours, Molinier, 1994). This way, from the moment balance is lost, illness appears, that is, the intellectual and psycho-affective resources to overcome the demands were not enough to resist the mortification experienced (Santos & Menta, 2016).

Within this context, the differences between submission and obedience should be mentioned. In obedience, individuals carry out orders for fear of confrontation, and they are not able to get subjectively involved with the task (Galperin, Ferraz & Soboll, 2015). Submission happens when there is an acceptance of what they are required, which is a kind of domination. This way, there are some ways of submission manifestation that can involve voluntary servitude, normopathic behaviour, and success ideology internalization (Galperin, Ferraz & Soboll, 2015). Galperin, Ferraz and Sobool (2015) state that, in voluntary servitude, there are not many offers of choices for individuals, which may lead to a passive submission without confronting defined orders. The normopathic behaviour is established as a consequence of the injustice process, in which individuals cannot practise any influence under the facts. This behaviour can be considered a confrontation strategy of fight against precariousness and submission. As for success ideology, individuals wish for the best, creating competition with others and themselves, resulting in an overcoming need.

Moreover, there are central concepts that permeate the Psychodynamics of Work, which are cooperation and coordination. Rules must exist, as well as deontic activity, and they must be followed (Gernet, 2016). This way, cooperation emerges as a central element that involves the working environment and demands trust between staff members (Sznelwar, Uchi-da & Lancman, 2011). The existence of a mutual help group cooperates with production. The clever intelligence is shared, and cooperation is a type of shared and deliberate intelligence, which can also mean suffering (Bouyer & Barbosa, 2010).

Regarding subjective mobilization, it is composed of bonds between collaborators and institutions, which are established within the working environment. They are an empowering base that will involve cooperation and articulation. The set of subjective experiences that is formed through the process of mobilization encompasses a symbolic operation, forming a contribution-reward system, which will allow the appearance of recognition (Azevedo et al., 2018). The subjective mobilization can be considered a challenge. Individual involve their emotional intelligence, considering their personalization and, this way, the unique contributions that naturally happen then appear, and are recognised (Dejours & Mo-linier, 1994). In this group of mutual help, recognition flows in three dimensions: collective or individual behaviour, peer recognition, and collective and deliberate space, where people can hear and be heard in an process of equality (Bouyer & Barbosa, 2010).

Recognition is a symbolic reward which comes from individual performance (Azevedo et al., 2018). Thus, it must be mentioned that recognition pervades (a) the production skills and (b) beauty and quality recognition (Marco, 2016). About utility, it will be judged by management and clients. From the beauty scope, peers, on the other hand, will ascertain if the rules have been followed, highlighting the singularity of what has been performed (Sousa & Santos, 2017).

From these considerations, there is a theoretical framework with the dimensions that encompass the Psychodynamics of Work (Figure 3):

Source: Prepared by the author (2019).

Figure 3 Dimensions of PDT 

In response to the pre-established objective, which was that of mapping the national and the international production on Psychodynamics of Work from 1970 to 2018 by analysing the dimensions and trends, there is the current scenario, which has induced the evolution of pathologies that affect the psyches of individuals. Violence, precariousness, unemployment, and competitiveness in work relations, along with lack of control and care, enhance, and lead to, the appearance of pathologies.

Due to the high number of suicides, which has grown, there is a deeper emphasis for the individuals' mental health, especially when it comes to work environment and is an elementary factor in this process.

Bibliometric studies show that the number of works of research on Psychodynamics of Work has been growing, and that the countries with the highest number of publications on the subject are France and Brazil. Besides, major seminal authors have stood out, such as Dejours, Arnaud, Lancman, Wisner, and Nolfe, among others.

The cluster and the conceptual map analysis show the Psychodynamics of Work trends and highlight mental health, based on a high number of individuals who suffer from the burnout syndrome, which is the extreme phase of chronic stress, besides depression, harassment and, in extreme cases, suicide. "Ethical suffering" is also mentioned and it is manifested when the individuals are led to perform tasks that affect their moral.

This research's contributions concentrate on the incipient subject in the organisational context, whereas only 49 of works on the researched construct were identified. Besides, the work relations' growing deterioration must be mentioned, where human work has suffered from physical, psychic, and social suffering.

Moreover, from analysing the content of the analysed studies a theoretical work on Psychodynamics of Work that consists of the subdivision of two major aspects was found, those aspects are: context dimension and content dimension.

As limitations, there is the incomplete analysis of the year 2018, which does not lessen the seriousness of this research, based on the collection that started in the end of the second semester of 2018, in July, and which allowed a partial analysis of that year.

From this bibliometry, it was found that the works are both theoretical and empirical (practical). Therefore, it is proposed, as suggestions for future research, to consider the methodology of this study, the application / use of the theoretical framework, based on dimensions that characterize the PDT, in diverse empirical realities, with areas of professionals prone to develop negative aspects, despite psychic health.

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Received: March 15, 2019; Accepted: June 01, 2020

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