Anomie sociale et processus mélancolique : une perspective sociopsychique sur les suicides en lien avec le travail

Abstract

The psychological dynamics involved in work-related suicidal behaviour are generally neglected or obscured, in favour of an exclusive focus on critical social contexts and poor working conditions. In the field of agricultural work, these conditions, which affect a majority of farmers, are undoubtedly a source of “ill-being”, but do not specifically account for suicidal behaviour. Social anomie and organisational problems are linked to specific drives and mental mechanisms, such as identification and turning against one's own person, mobilised in a “melancholic process” likely to shed more light on the suicidal dynamic. Based on situations encountered in the world of agriculture, and broadening certain perspectives opened up by work psychodynamics, this article proposes a reflection that attempts to correlate socio-organisational processes and mental processes based on movements of psychic unbinding, coextensive with the expression of the death drive.