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Unequal in Sickness: Construction and Uses of the Differential of Legitimacy and Social Acceptability of Diagnostic Labels

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Psychosocial Health, Work and Language

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Abstract

In Quebec, an increasing number of workers are on sick leave because of mental disorders (burnout, depression, stress, etc.). The objective of this chapter is to shed light on the way these workers choose the category to describe their illness, above the diagnosis done by doctors. Using a qualitative dedicated survey, we focus on burnout. It appears that this category is more associated to see working conditions as the cause of the sick leave, while the category of depression is strongly linked to individual internal characteristics, i.e. outside of working conditions.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    For a detailed inventory of the tools related to the prevalence of discomfort at work, consult Allard-Poesi and Hollet-Haudebert (2014). Editors’ note: See Chap. 1 for the language effect regarding these tools.

  2. 2.

    Workers’ difficulties, including physical or muscular endurance, are often depicted in terms of distress and suffering rather than in an exploitation language and through the use of the body: psychological knowledge is put forward to depict, legitimize, and give answers to the difficulties experienced by individuals in the workplace.

  3. 3.

    See Chap. 5 for an example about gifted people at work (Editors’ note).

  4. 4.

    The survey is described in details in Dorvil et al. (2015).

  5. 5.

    These results are extracted from the research program “ La stigmatisation des personnes atteintes de troubles mentaux dans les domaines du logement, de l’emploi et des médias de masse”, edited by H. Dorvil, P. Morin et G. Dupuis (CRSH 2009–2012, no 410–2009-1712).

  6. 6.

    It lasted between 12 and 24 months.

  7. 7.

    A respondent was currently on sick leave due to physical problems (back ache).

  8. 8.

    Some chose to only complete the two questionnaires which accompanied the interview: one on psychological distress, the Psychiatric symptoms index (Ilfeld 1976), and a second on quality of life, the systematic inventory of the quality of life (www.qualitedevie.ca), but which had been slightly modified for the purposes of the survey. On a total of 36 workers, 29 participated in the semi-directive interview, 32 to the questionnaire on psychological distress and 29 on the quality of life questionnaire on personal and professional quality of life. This chapter is based solely on the results of the semi-structured interviews.

  9. 9.

    Respondents were met only once to answer the questionnaires and to participate in the research interview. A compensation of $25 was given to each worker after their participation in the survey.

  10. 10.

    See the Introduction and Chap. 1 regarding the questionnaires built on the basis of the main models (Editors’ note).

  11. 11.

    For a definition, see Zawieja and Guarneri (2014).

    In Quebec, psychosocial factors which are known to be at risk of harming the workers’ mental health state are namely control, the work load, and relationships with others (Vézina et al. 2006).

  12. 12.

    The first section of this analysis has chosen to exclude some litigious diagnostic cases, that is to say, those meaning for the individuals who questioned or had a serious doubt or disagreed with the choice of diagnostic given by their doctor.

  13. 13.

    See Chap. 10 for an example of the shift in the responsibility attribution (Editors’ note).

  14. 14.

    Also see Chaps. 6 and 7 (Editors’ note).

  15. 15.

    See Chap. 2 about work values (Editors’ note).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Chaire sur l’intégration professionnelle et l’environnement psychosocial de travail, Québec, Canada

    Laurie Kirouac

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  1. Laurie Kirouac
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Correspondence to Laurie Kirouac .

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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre d’Études en Habitat Durable CEHD, Charleroi, Belgium

    Stéphanie Cassilde

  2. University François Rabelais of Tours VALLOREM EA 6296, Tours, France

    Adeline Gilson

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Kirouac, L. (2017). Unequal in Sickness: Construction and Uses of the Differential of Legitimacy and Social Acceptability of Diagnostic Labels. In: Cassilde, S., Gilson, A. (eds) Psychosocial Health, Work and Language. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50545-9_8

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-50545-9_8

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