Suffering at Work and Teachers’ Strategies against Psychic Illness

Abstract

This research is Based on the study carried out with teachers from the State public schools’ located in a medium-size city in the south region of Rio Grande do Sul’s State. This article focuses on discussing delight and suffering at work, emphasizing the defense and coping strategies developed by teachers to relieve suffering in the work place. The article shows it importance by the need to expand and deepen the research that seeks to understand the defense mechanisms utilized by the workers to withstand and face the degrading effects of work on their mental health. Supported by the ‘Work’s Psychodynamic’ theory and by the historical-critical perspective of education, this study focuses on conscious or unconscious mental and behavioral mechanisms that when faced to suffering characteristics at work, imply active participation of the subjects in the defense of their mental health in their struggle against psychic decompensation. This research had qualitative and quantitative character and counted on the participation of six female teachers and one male teacher that were interviewed individually. The data discussion is based in the content analysis method. The research results revealed denial, self-repression and routinization as mental health defense strategies designed to promote self-preservation while withdrawals and time management strategies were identified as coping strategies.