Mental health and the labor process of the precariat in social work

Abstract

The Brazilian Unified Health System (SUS), under the hegemony of neoliberal ideology, has become a site of the commodification of health and the preca- rization of labor, deepened as a strategy to intensify the exploitation of labor power. Drawing on a historical-dialectical materialist theoretical perspective and employing critical discourse analysis as a methodological technique, this study investigates how outsourcing and the flexibilization of labor relations ge- nerate a process of alienation in which workers are separated from both the product and the meaning of their work. In this sense, the article examines how the offensive of capital against social policies manifests itself in the labor pro- cess and in the mental health of social workers employed in Psychosocial Care Centers. The findings reveal that the psychological suffering resulting from this offensive is not limited to the individual dimension but rather expresses the class contradictions that fragment care and hinder transformative praxis. The study concludes that the collective struggle for mental health and for dignified working conditions is inseparable from the confrontation with the destructive logic of capital, reaffirming the urgency of strengthening public services and the organization of the working class.