La clinique du travail à l’épreuve de la servitude volontaire

Résumé 0

In the Discourse of voluntary servitude, La Boétie proposes several hypotheses to explain the genesis of voluntary servitude. The theme of work appears neither in the description nor in the «etiology» of this paradoxical human behaviour, which he sifts through with analysis and criticism. Yet, if servitude consists first of all in obeying, does it not also imply putting one’s intelligence and work power at the service of the tyrant? If this is the case, we must put the clinic of «living work» to the test of La Boétie’s conception. In this article, the aim is to explain under what conditions living work can be mobilised in favour of servitude or, on the contrary, emancipation. It is then necessary to analyse some intermediate links: suffering and defences against suffering, cooperation and fraternal company, common work and pleasure at work. In the current context of neoliberalism, the question of resistance to tyranny cannot be avoided: to what extent does the reference to the Discourse constitute a resource for thinking about rational action in terms of resistance to the tyranny exercised in the world of work by the devices of contemporary management?