What Work and Organizational Psychology under Capitalism? Spinozian Approach and the Hypothesis of Structural Alignment

The objectives of work and organizational psychology (WOP) are now supposedly complementary, namely those relating to workers’ conditions and those relating to productivity. We believe that productivity objectives are highly detrimental to human objectives. The aim of this article is, in a Spinozian approach, to build the foundations of a hypothesis of the structural influence of capitalism on the objectives of the WOP.

After a presentation of the various Spinozian theories and the structuralism of passions introduced by Lordon (2013), we propose an affective clinic of the practicing work psychologist (PWP) in order to identify the affective issues linked to his or her activity. The conclusions of our work support the hypothesis of a structural alignment of the goals of the PWP with the goals of capitalism. Empirical perspectives for testing this hypothesis are proposed. We conclude by a discussion on the possible objectives of WOP under capitalism and the hope for a disciplinary debate.