O conceito de capital mental no campo da saúde mental no trabalho: uma análise crítica do discurso da organização mundial da saúde

• Ano de defesa: 2018
• Autor(a) principal: Pinheiro, Marcelo de Andrade
• Orientador(a): Fontenelle, Isleide Arruda
• Tipo de documento: Tese
• Tipo de acesso: Acesso aberto
• Idioma: por
• Palavras-chave em Português: Capital mental; Capital psicológico; Saúde mental; Organização Mundial da Saúde
• Palavras-chave em Inglês: Mental capital; Psychological capital; Mental health; World Health Organization
• Link de acesso: https://hdl.handle.net/10438/24181

According to reports on the status of mental disorders in the workplace, produced by the World Health Organization (WHO), a specialized United Nations agency concerned with global public health, there is increasing evidence of the global impact of mental disorders at the organizations (WHO, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2013). Since 2000, two key ideas about mental health have been disclosed in such reports: 'mental health generates mental capital, and there is no health without mental health' (WHO, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2013). The economic perspective linked to mental health, expressed as mental capital, implies the proposition that good mental health would allow a good cognitive and emotional state, essential for social skills and for resilience to stressful situations, besides being required for a healthy functioning (Prince, 2007). According to Lok Sang-Ho, economist who created the term, 'mental capital encompasses the capacity for reflection and the degree of efficiency with which the individual solves the problems and constraints of daily life' (SANG-HO, 2001, p. 24). In a pragmatic approach to psychology, mental capital was associated with psychological abilities such as hope, self-efficacy, optimism, and resilience (LUTHANS et al., 2004), subjective factors that can be verified from the behaviors of individuals and likely to be developed. In this way, the effectiveness and productivity of an individual in the work environment depends on their mental capital, associated with their subjective condition. However, organizations themselves are subject to frequent transformations, the most recent of which is called Market Rationalism, anchored in the claim that to survive in global markets, companies must adjust to the everincreasing demands of customers expecting instant, downward and personalized gratification (DAVIDOW; MALONE, 1992). The consequences for individuals are job instability, excessive and permanent pressure for increasing results, associated with negative effects on mental health (DEKKER; SCHAUFELI, 1995). The evocative power of the term burnout to capture the exhausting realities of individuals' experiences in the workplace has emerged from the various research as a psychological syndrome in the response to chronic interpersonal stressors at work. From this notion, in order a conduct to turn into capital, it must be transformed into economic and social benefits. To understand how this rationality that values efficacy, productivity and profitability, influenced the conceptualization of what mental health is currently considered, and what are its theoretical components and their implications in the world of work, this thesis sought to identify and discuss, a critical analysis of WHO reports (WHO, 2000, 2005, 2010, 2013) one of the fundamental concepts in the current discourse of mental health promulgated through such reports - 'mental capital', via the Critical Discourse Analysis (Critical Discourse Analysis) from Fairclough, created in the context of applied linguistics and discourse analysis as a way to systematically address the relationships between language and social structure (FAIRCLOUGH, 2011). The ontological position on which the WHO is founded in its theoretical conceptualizations and practical propositions marks the notion of respect for human beings, defined from the principle of treating individuals as an end in themselves, seeking conditions of mental well-being in organizational settings. However, this imperative proposition conflicts with the management principles upon which organizational guidelines are based. The ideology of Market Rationalism views employees as a production factor that can be measured based on performance tied to financial results, disregarding the subjective needs of the workforce. There is, therefore, an antagonism between organizational ideologies based on continuous growth and the endless search for maximization of financial results and ethics values advocated by the WHO. The management of subjectivity via the concept of mental capital enters a world in the image of the financial markets, whose purpose is the permanent maximization of resources for economic success.