Suffering and defense in work in a mental health care service

to know the suffering and the strategies of defense of CAPS AD III workers, from the perspective of the Work Theater proposed by Dejours.

a descriptive qualitative research, of the case study type, with CAPS AD III workers, using as theoretical framework the Psychodynamics of Work.

CAPS AD III professionals identify that the suffering in the work arises from the frustration between the real and the prescribed one; by the hegemony of practices guided by the biomedical model; stigmatization and prejudice with users; and the limitations of the Health Care Network (Rede de Atenção à Saúde). As an individual defense strategy, the rationalization was defined, and as a collective strategy, the protection strategy.

worker uses strategies of defenses to face suffering and give a new meaning to it, characterizing themselves as ways of apprehending, understanding and giving meaning and new looks to their work.