Project management and application: Prof. Dr. Sabine Flick (Fulda University ofApplied Sciences)

Project management: Prof. Dr. Sabine Flick, Alexander Herold (Fulda University of Applied Sciences), Ina Braune (Institute for Social Research Frankfurt am Main)

Funding Institution: German Research Foundation (DFG)

Funding period: 1 January 2022 to 31 December 2024

The fact that working conditions in contemporary society are undergoing a fundamental process of change has been in the public consciousness at least since the debate on burn-out, but at the latest since the Covid 19 pandemic. The increasing flexibilisation, precarisation and digitalisation of the world of work is flanked by an increase in mental stress: Work can not only trigger or intensify mental suffering, but also make it more difficult to react appropriately to health impairments in time. The rising numbers of psychiatric diagnoses thus also raise a question about clinical, therapeutic care.

This is where the research project comes in: Initial studies have shown that in psychotherapeutic clinics, the working conditions of patients are only marginally addressed, if at all. This gap in treatment practice has consequences for the patients' work-related suffering: It is often misunderstood in its social dimensions, thus individualised and ultimately privatised.

The research project takes a sociological look at psychotherapeutic perspectives on the relationship between work and suffering: It examines qualitatively and empirically how work is negotiated in psychotherapeutic institutions. What significance do the multi-professional teams attribute to working conditions and workloads for the situation of their patients? How exactly do they interpret and treat the work-related suffering of the patients in the everyday life of the clinics? What role do gender-specific assumptions and ideas about the patients' origin and social status possibly play in this? What influence do psychotherapeutic therapy methods have?

The aim of the project is to develop a typology of psychotherapeutic understandings of work-related suffering based on the reconstruction of theories of practice. Qualitative data will be collected within the framework of ethnographic field research in psychosomatic acute and rehabilitation clinics in Germany. In addition to ethnographic observations, individual interviews and group discussions are conducted and evaluated using the documentary method and content analysis.