Abstract

PEREZ GIBERT, Maria Agnes  and  CURY, Vera Engler. Mental health and work: A phenomenological study with organizational psychologists. Bol. psicol [online]. 2009, vol.59, n.130, pp.45-60. ISSN 0006-5943.

This research intended to understand psychologists' experiences concerning workers' mental health in organizational contexts. It constituted an exploratory qualitative study. Dialogic interviews were carried by the researcher with four organizational psychologists, starting with a question that stimulated them to share their living experiences regarding the theme. The interviews were recorded, transcript and phenomenologically analyzed, according to the steps proposed by Giorgi. It was concluded that workers' mental health is a theme that challenges psychologists and in organizational contexts presents a conflict between assuming psychological attitudes in order to provide support to the worker such as listening and empathic understanding against a professional role that aims to apply theoretical knowledge to adjust behaviors, by the means of enlisting, selecting and training, mainly to attend to the organization's needs. Having to deal with organizational goals and at the same time psychological attendance toward the workers' human needs presents a dichotomy to the psychologist.

Keywords : Psychological practice; Organizational psychology; Phenomenology; Mental health and work; Social clinic psychology.

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