Mercantilização do autismo e precarização do trabalho: relatos de terapeutas em uma mídia social digital

Abstract

The historical transformations of capitalism, culminating in the neoliberal model, extend beyond the economic sphere and involve structural changes that directly shape work organization, management practices, and the commodification of several areas of health care. In the field of autism, this process has fostered the emergence of a lucrative market of products, services, and treatments, frequently subordinating care to logics of efficiency, control, and profit maximization. Such dynamics affect not only therapeutic approaches but also the ways in which work processes are structured, teams are managed, and care is organized in everyday practice. Within this context, the precarization of work expresses the effects of neoliberal rationality, which redefines values, practices, and expectations, reverberating simultaneously across the objective, subjective, and ethical dimensions of therapeutic work. Examining this scenario makes it possible to understand how these dynamics permeate daily labor, revealing both the materiality of precarization and its symbolic, affective, and ethical impacts on workers. By exposing contemporary forms of labor exploitation and their subjective effects, this study contributes to the debate on precarization in the health sector, drawing on critical perspectives on neoliberal rationality, commodification, and labor. It also aligns with analyses that interrogate the advancement of the commodification of health and the configuration of the Autism Industrial Complex, understood as processes that reconfigure services, practices, and labor relations.This study aimed to understand and analyze the work processes and conditions in clinics specialized in the care of autistic children, drawing on critical frameworks on healthcare commodification and the Autism Industrial Complex. Designed as an exploratory, documentary study with a quali-quantitative approach, the corpus consisted of 540 anonymous reports posted by therapists on Instagram between March and October 2024. Data analysis was conducted through thematic content analysis. From this process emerged Category A and its five subcategories, which address the technical and productive organization of work processes and constitute the core structure of precarization identified in the narratives. This analytic focus aligns with the study’s objective of examining how work organization, routines, demands, and operational structures directly impact both care and therapists’ work experiences. The subcategories discussed include: A1 – Neglect of basic working conditions and work overload; A2 – Inadequate infrastructure; A3 – Administrative disorganization and lack of technical support; A4 – Contractual exploitation and violation of labor rights; and A5 – Remuneration. The results revealed a concerning panorama of precarized labor relations, marked by physical overload, inadequate infrastructure, informal and unstable contractual arrangements, and fragile administrative processes. These findings demonstrate that the expansion of the commodification of care, coupled with contemporary management models guided by neoliberal efficiency, has deteriorated the working conditions of therapists who provide care to autistic children. Precarization manifests in both objective dimensions—such as workload, pay, and infrastructure—and subjective, ethical, and affective dimensions that shape daily care practices, often eroding therapeutic relationships and rendering workers’ suffering invisible. At the same time, forms of resistance emerge, reclaiming the ethical–political meaning of work, the value of collective action, and the importance of spaces for dialogue as means of confronting and elaborating suffering. This study contributes to debates on the effects of health commodification in the field of autism by highlighting psychosocial impacts on professionals and problematizing the modes of care production under neoliberal capitalism. It underscores the urgency of rethinking public policies and care models that prioritize service quality, workforce valorization, and the centrality of care as an ethical, collective, and human practice.