Laerte Idal Sznelwar’s contribution to the development of Activity Ergonomics and the Psychodynamics of WorkSpeaking about Prof. Dr. Laerte Idal Sznelwar is a difficult task for those who knew him and had the privilege of spending time with him. Prof. Laerte was a multifaceted person and always surprised us by revealing activities previously unknown, even to those who knew him well. For this reason, presenting his legacy is, at the same time, an honor and a challenge, as some aspects will always elude us.
Our intention is to present, above all, his professional career, his intellectual and academic importance in the field of Health and Work, and aspects of his personality that allow the reader to better understand who Prof. Laerte was.
He graduated with a degree in Medicine from the State University of Campinas (UNICAMP) in 1980. He specialized in Occupational Medicine, and even during this period, his interest was focused on understanding and working within the world of work and alongside the people involved in it, participating in activities at the Inter-Union Department of Studies and Research on Health and Work Environments (DIESAT), in labor unions, and in other institutions in the field.
In 1984, he completed his master’s degree in France, earning the Diplôme d’Études Approfondies (DEA), equivalent to a research master’s degree and a prerequisite for a doctorate. He then pursued a doctorate in Ergonomics under the supervision of Alain Wisner at the Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers (CNAM), which he completed in 1992. Wisner was one of the founders of activity-based ergonomics, whose goal was to establish a dialogue between the human being, work, and its organization.
Throughout his career, he has carried out numerous initiatives in the field of ergonomics of activity, becoming a leading figure both nationally and, later, internationally. He has made a decisive contribution to the implementation and advancement of this field in Brazil.
While pursuing his doctorate, he met Christophe Dejours, with whom he became close friends. Dejours introduced Prof. Laerte to Psychopathology and Psychodynamics of Work. Since then, they have maintained a rich and fruitful relationship, both personally and professionally.
In 1992, he was hired by the Department of Production Engineering at the Polytechnic School of the University of São Paulo (Poli-USP) as an assistant professor in Ergonomics. As he advanced in his academic career, he had a profound impact on undergraduate and graduate students, even serving on numerous thesis and dissertation committees. He also organized conferences and workshops in both Ergonomics and Psychodynamics of Work.
He trained countless specialists in ergonomics of activity, as well as master’s and doctoral students. Later, he also began training professionals in Psychodynamics of Work, at both the lato sensu and stricto sensu levels.
In 1997, at the invitation of Prof. Seiji Uchida, he carried out his first project in Psychodynamics of Work in collaboration with him. This project was commissioned by the director of nursing at the University Hospital of Londrina, affiliated with the State University of Londrina (UEL). The project was aimed at two groups: nursing assistants and nurses. It was a pioneering effort in Brazil in this field and motivated Prof. Laerte to continue in this area.
Laerte returned to France to complete his postdoctoral research at the Laboratoire de Psychologie du Travail et de l’Action at the CNAM – Psychodynamique du Travail (from December 2010 to February 2011). During this period, he consolidated the framework he had been developing around the concept of work and the impacts of work organization on subjectivity1. His interest then turned to deepening the understanding of the subjective relationship with work. He remained affiliated with the Laboratoire de Psychopathologie et Psychodynamique du Travail, which, following the recent retirement of Prof. Dejours from the CNAM, was renamed the Institut de Psychopathologie et Psychodynamique du Travail. In this context, he participated in seminars, colloquia, thesis commitees panels, among other activities.
In his intellectual development, Prof. Laerte began to integrate his medical knowledge with the logic of work, based on the ergonomics of activity and Psychodynamics of Work, which has psychoanalysis as one of the foundations of the anthropology mobilized by Dejours.
Between 2001 and 2002, he began working with the authors of this editorial, forming a trio that developed the field of Psychodynamics of Work through a series of projects and initiatives. Over time, Prof. Laerte became a leading expert in Psychopathology and Psychodynamics of Work. His work with these two colleagues was instrumental in expanding this field in Brazil4,5.
Prof. Laerte had a striking personal trait: he had a remarkable ability to bring people together. He knew how to listen, understand, and bring people together around a common project. He was sensitive, intelligent, and curious, always researching, studying, and opening up new fields of inquiry. In addition to bringing people together, he synthesized knowledge, incorporating different fields with which he engaged in dialogue, without losing sight of the specificity of each one.
At the same time, he continued to explore other fields of interest, collaborating with various specialists both nationally and internationally. Because he formed friendships and partnerships with great ease, he quickly established professional relationships and international exchanges6,7. Throughout his career, he earned great respect as a person, as a researcher, and as a specialist in the various fields in which he worked. All of this was accomplished in a natural and unassuming manner. He never boasted about his achievements. He was reserved and, at the same time, remarkable. Wherever he went, he left a profound mark. Accounts from those who interacted with him—students, peers, and friends—highlight the spontaneous, unpretentious, and unaffected way he treated everyone. He knew how to value, like few others, the potential and worth of each person.
His intellectual curiosity led him to study Edgar Morin’s theory of complexity. Prof. Laerte advocated the idea that reality is complex and requires a theory capable of accounting for it on the level of thought; he found part of those answers in Morin. The incorporation of complexity theory took him to a new intellectual level, influencing the way he conducted projects, teaching, and research.
An example of this ability to integrate different fields of knowledge was his habilitation thesis, “Quando trabalhar é ser protagonista e o protagonismo do trabalho (When working is to be a protagonist and the protagonism of work), recently published by Editora Blucher8.
After retiring from teaching at Poli-USP, he founded the Instituto Trabalhar together with his partners, Dr. Seiji Uchida, Dr. Claudio Brunoro, and engineer Rafael Bortoleto. This institutional space allowed Prof. Laerte to continue his work in teaching, research, and training new specialists, as well as to explore new interests.
In recent years, he decided to pursue training in psychoanalysis and joined the Institute of Psychoanalysis of the Brazilian Psychoanalytic Society. In addition to representing a professional alternative, this training reflected his quest to deepen his understanding of the unconscious dimension of the human being.
Our trio remained united until the day Laerte unexpectedly left us. Together, we carried out some of the most significant interventions and reflections in the field of Psychodynamics of Work in Brazil, disseminating the thought of Christophe Dejours, giving lectures, translating books, organizing colloquia, and promoting events. Along this path, we began to develop what became known as Psychodynamics of Work. This approach aims to understand the complex relationship between the organization of work, the act of working, and subjectivity. On the one hand, it seeks to understand the process of psychological illness at work; on the other, the construction of health at work. Many pioneering initiatives in Brazil were developed by our group.
We, Selma and Seiji, companions on this long journey with Laerte, pay tribute with this text to this beloved person whom we miss so much. We hope we have done him justice, despite the brevity of this writing in the face of such a rich and multifaceted journey.
References
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1 Sznelwar LI, Lancman S, Uchida S. A subjetividade no trabalho em questão. Tempo Soc. 2011;23(1):11-30. https://doi.org/10.1590/S0103-20702011000100002
» https://doi.org/10.1590/S0103-20702011000100002 -
2 Uchida S, Sznelwar LI, Lancman S. Aspects épistémologiques et méthodologiques de la psychodynamique du travail. Travailler. 2011;25(1):29-44. https://doi.org/10.3917/trav.025.0029
» https://doi.org/10.3917/trav.025.0029 -
3 Uchida S, Sznelwar LI, Lancman S, Barros JO. O trabalhar em serviços de saúde mental: entre o sofrimento e a cooperação. Laboreal. 2011;7(1):1-23. https://doi.org/10.4000/laboreal.8098
» https://doi.org/10.4000/laboreal.8098 -
4 Lancman S, Barros JO, Uchida S, Sznelwar LI. La PDT comme contribution aux politiques publiques au Brésil: des réflexions sur la démarche et son insertion dans le contexte universitaire á São Paulo. Travailler. 2019;41(1):17-30. https://doi.org/10.3917/trav.041.0017
» https://doi.org/10.3917/trav.041.0017 -
5 Giannini R, Sznelwar LI, Uchida S, Lancman S. A cooperação como instrumento de enfrentamento do real: o caso dos magistrados do trabalho no Brasil. Laboreal. 2019;15(1):1-20. https://doi.org/10.4000/laboreal.1202
» https://doi.org/10.4000/laboreal.1202 - 6 Sznelwar LI, Uchida S, Lancman S. Psychodynamique du Travail. In: Zawieja P, Guarnieri F, organizadores. Dictionnaire des risques psychosociaux. Paris: Seuil; 2014. p. 595-600.
- 7 Sznelwar LI, Hubault F. Ergonomics in services? economy and societal challenges? a case study related to public services in Brazil. In: Proceedings of the 48th Annual Conference of the Association of Canadian Ergonomists / 12th International Symposium on Human Factors in Organizational Design and Management; 2017 jul 31 - ago 3; Banff, Canadá. Banff: Association of Canadian Ergonomists; 2017. p. 210-4.
- 8 Sznelwar LI. Quando trabalhar é ser protagonista e o protagonismo do trabalho. São Paulo: Blucher; 2015.
