Resumo:
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.
