Suffering and psychic illness in postgraduation: the affective-cognitive unit

Abstract

The objective of this article is to present the results of research that sought to identify and analyze the existence and causes of suffering and illness among postgraduate students in Psychology, based on Historical-Cultural Psychology. Field research was carried out through the application of questionnaires. Initially, a discussion will be presented about suffering and illness and the affect-cognition unit. Next, the information obtained from 135 questionnaires answered by postgraduate students will be presented. As a result, it was obtained that for most students, the difficulties in training are: reconciling work and postgraduate demands, lack of time, relationship with the advisor, financial difficulties, loneliness, low value of scholarships, high demands on post/self-billing and productivity collection. Furthermore, many students said they had experienced some form of illness and some mental problem in the last 12 months, such as anxiety and depression. The support networks for dealing with these problems are: colleagues, student grants, advisors and teachers. The conclusions obtained indicate that students consider that suffering and psychological illness are linked to postgraduate activity. Overcoming students’ suffering or illness cannot, therefore, be understood by reducing it to individual problems, but rather by taking into account historical-social conditions and analyzing the affective-cognitive unity that permeates training. The confrontation must be collective, creating objective conditions so that the training space can enhance the process of human development.