Representación social del trabajo y de la enfermedad mental

Abstract

This work is a discussion of the place and role of the social representation phenomenon of two objects: work and "mental illness", in the field ofthe worker'health. This problem in dealt with from psychosocial perspectiva, wich focuses on the psychoiogical, ideological, and cultural processes in groups. Such view establishes a difference with the dominating visions of the medical model and those that are strictly psychological (individualistic). In this view, the expression of "the symptom" in the firm is recognized in the social representation, not so much in the individual. This fact broadens the possibilities for rescarch of these phenomena, which are psychological by nature, and not organic or functional. To consider the symptoms as just a phase in the malaisewelfare process of the firm, independent from the conceptions of psychopathology, contributes to reveal the affective-cognitive precesses that are basic for the humanization of work.