The metamorphosis and the field of the mental health of workers: a Bakhtinian analysis

摘要

The scope of this paper is to analyze the dialogism between the narrative of Franz Kafka in “The Metamorphosis” and the discursive practices surrounding the mental health of the worker. Based on the theoretical/methodological perspective postulated by Mikhail Bakhtin, this study conducted a discursive analysis of Kafka’s narrative based on the concepts of the Ergonomics of Activity and the Psychodynamics of Labor. In particular, the concepts of “dialogism” and “gender of discourse” in Bakhtin were used because they enable the study of the text and the social reality simultaneously. The results of this analysis, based on references from the field of Mental Health and Work, indicated that dialogical relations were established in two main areas: the invisibility of the suffering of the worker; and the strategy of defense and redefinition of the worker. These aspects, therefore, indicate a point of convergence between the discourse on mental health present in literature, which emerges from the work environment, and the academic knowledge that becomes imbued with these realities. The paper highlights Kafka’s work as a component in a broader setting of an already established discursive practice, currently referred to as mental health and work.