Sofrimento psíquico entre pescadores e marisqueiras da Baía de Todos os Santos e Baía de Iguape/BA

Abstract

Introduction: Artisanal fishing is an ancient activity and in Brazil it has had a strong participation in the extractive economy since the colonial period. The work is in the representation of fishing societies as a way of life, just as the environment is the extension of social and cultural processes. Precarious working and living conditions are surrounded by neglected suffering that is maximized in the face of social and environmental injustices. Objective: This study aims to understand the phenomenon of psychological distress perceived by fishermen and shellfish gatherers in Baía de Todos os Santos and Santiago do Iguape/BA Method: Participatory research, with a qualitative approach in light of hermeneutics. The theoretical framework is outlined by the dialogue between the conceptual bases of Social Sciences and Psychodynamics of Work. The snowball sample consisted of 10 semi-structured interviews with fishermen, female shellfish gatherers and leaders from December 2019 to February 2021. Observations and follow-up to the work processes synthesized in field diaries were carried out. Results: The research is divided into two articles. The first is entitled “Psychic suffering in artisanal fishing communities in the Baía of Todos os Santos”. The analysis reveals the suffering perceived by workers as sensations translated between fear, sadness and anguish. The pursuit of pleasure as a coping strategy is related to the preservation of cultural identity. The second article called “Work, suffering and pleasure of artisanal fishermen in times of pandemic of covid-19 in the Baía of Iguape/BA”, whose data reveal the pleasure-suffering dyad present in the identity trajectory of women from the waters in constant resignification of subjective aspects of work as a way to (re) exist. Conclusion: The study exposes the silencing of psychic suffering, trivialized by public policies and only recognized by artisanal fishing workers when it can no longer be transformed into creative responses. Exposed to risks differentiated from COVID-19, the tension processes in which artisanal fishermen spend in pandemic times hinder access to face-to-face work, as well as to experience sources of regulatory pleasure in the elaboration of creative suffering. Pleasures come with the ecological practices of knowledge in search of solutions for hunger and interruption of the contamination cycle. Otherness dominates collaborative actions embedded in cooperation driven by practical intelligence.