The precariousness of work, and psychosocial dehumanization in cinematographic Productions

Abstract

In this essay, we put in question the future of an illusion of modernity established in technological advances and in the neoliberal dynamic of work organization, through the interpretative analysis of two cinematographic productions that expose the dynamics of human exploitation instrumentalized by the modernization of the modes of (re)production of work. The analysis is established through two contrasting images: a hypothetical future established in the past, through Modern Times; and a contemporary record of precarious work in the documentary Estou me guardando para quando o carnaval chegar. The aim is to critically highlight the transformations that have occurred in the world of work, technological advances and the ideal of modernization, and their implications for the psychosocial dimension. The methodological path of analyzing nuclei of meaning is adopted, in conjunction with Socio-historical Psychology. The results indicate the organization of the city as an expression of psychosocial (re)ordering based on modes of production; the dehumanizing rhythm of workers' treadmills and entrepreneurs' sewing machines; the precariousness of work in contemporary times that produces (apparent) erasures in the social tensions arising from the social organization of work, (re)producing an internalization of neoliberal coordinates as ways of organizing the psyche itself. It is concluded that the (re)production of models of psychosocial precariousness/dehumanization empty and individualize the ethical-political dimension of suffering resulting from this (dis)organization of work, subjectivity and mental health.