Santé mentale et travail,entre plaisir et souffrance: quand le normal devient pathologique

Mental health in the workplace introduces a basic viewpoint to better understand the actual dynamic relationship between the individual and work in highly productive organisations. It is particularly visible in a hypermodern society, that is, a society where performance and productivity count on the workers’ free involvement and creativity. Concepts of mental health, social norms, normality and pathology, work and organisation are first defined. The main argument is then developed around the different dimensions describing the neoproductivist trend in many societies, in the occidental world but also in many others countries, like Japan, to name one. This neoproductivist ideology, based on neoliberal economy and the neo-Taylorist social approach of work organisation, produces for many workers a syndrome called ‘hyperactivity’ at work. There is a specific combination of great demands on the workers’ performance and involvement in the organisation on one end, and a great appeal to excellence and self-development on the other end. Studies in different organisations, unions, highly-technological enterprises, a television station and universities indicate that this syndrome of hyperactivity comes to be the norm, the reference, for the majority. Performance union leaders, leading scientists, television performers, highly-skilled technicians are some examples of people who become models of working behaviour in the workplace. This new ideology has consequences in all spheres of society and calls for a critical appraisal and research: clinical sociology can be a proper tool to address this challenge.