NATURALIZATION OF SUFFERING AS A COLLECTIVE DEFENSIVE STRATEGY: EXPERIENCES OF PUBLIC SERVANTS IN VOCATIONAL AND TECHNOLOGICAL EDUCATION

Abstract

This article analyzes the naturalization of suffering as a collective defensive strategy among employees of the Federal Institute of Brasília – Campus Brasília (IFB/CBRA), understanding it as a functional paradox: protective in the short term and pathogenic in the medium and long term. Using a mixed-methods approach, it combines data from a questionnaire (n=162) and semi-structured interviews (n=10). The theoretical framework integrates the Psychodynamics of Work, Historical-Dialectical Materialism, and a critique of managerialism. The findings indicate that naturalization is expressed through minimizing language, self-attribution of responsibility, comparison with worse situations, and the mobilization of solidarity as a mechanism to contain help-seeking. It is evident that such dynamics do not prevent illness, but rather delay its institutional recognition. It is concluded that the creation of collective spaces for deliberation is a necessary condition to break this cycle.