Abstract EN:

Crisis in the words of lagadec (1995) is an "upsurge, upheaval and severance", a state rather than a process that is generally extended by some form of transition. It is illustrated here through the experience of unemployment. Of the two theories which embrace unemployment, psychoanalysis places crisis at the centre of the subject, while systemics places the subject at the centre of a crisis. - in the first case, crisis is decompensatory, characterised by loss (dumesnil, 1980) and harking back to the past rusk (1971) maintains that "the loss of a job may represent the loss of a mother" grieving (freud, 1926) aids the process of transition (winicott, 1951, kaes, 1979). - in the second case, crisis is linked to events that undermine methods of regulation (morin. 1976): crisis has a change-related function, is causally independent (nizard. 1991 or weick 1996) and transforms representations during a "psychosocial transition" (parkes, 1971). A synthesis of the two theories is possible : the theory of personalisation (mairieu, baubion, tap) and the thematics of activity systems (curie, hajjar, baubion) can account for both historicity and environment. People undergoing an unemployment crisis were asked about how far their past was a factor in their emotions, representations, values and strategies. Their responses and the relationships between responses were compared, as were the intensity and meaning of changes that occured, and links within and between crisis components. The recurrence and creation of certain contents, reactions, links, etc. Emerged simultaneously. A "combined" explanatory model that goes further than either psychoanalysis or systemics should include (cf weick) the equivocality of meanings and "self", and the inter-determination of the subject and the societal, as a creative extension of the activity system. This combined model has been found to be operational in a wide range of situations.