This is a case study of the Psychosocial Care Center (CAPS type III) from the interior of São Paulo regarding the perception of health workers about their work, according to (i) professional empathy, (ii) forms of collective work, (iii) collective decision mechanisms and (iv) negotiation of collective labor rules. The analysis of results was done using the theory of “work psychodynamics”. The ambivalences of care experienced by workers in the construction of collective rules and in the development of empathy and professional cooperation constitute the institutional constraints, resulting from the reintroduction of a neoliberal model in the management of the mental health service.
Mental health; Job satisfaction; Environment of health institutions; Health care reform; Public health