Psychic suffering and silencing at the university: keep this "shut up" away from me

Our goal is to discuss the institutional silencing of psychic suffering in the university, considering its negative impact on the mental health conditions of students and the search for care. We adopted a qualitative approach to identify and discuss the phenomenon, based on the responses to the electronic questionnaire applied to students of health and social sciences and humanities and health courses. In total, 544 students responded and 192 left written statements, which are the subject of discussion here. The experience of suffering is a socio-historical and complex phenomenon that reflects the contemporary social changes promoted by the process of objective individualization of the material conditions of life and the consequent subjective individualization of consciousness and identity, and, above all, unconscious psychic dynamics. In higher education, the contemporary imperatives of personal responsibility and fulfillment, coupled with the institutional demands for productivity and resilience, radicalize the processes of silencing and consequently intensify the experiences of isolation and inadequacy that characterize the psychic suffering of students. It is necessary to rethink institutional practices, expand the supply of mental health care and broad pedagogical strategies, but it is recommended that listening take into consideration the sociogenesis of suffering and its collective, institutional and conjunctural dimensions. There is, in silencing, a complex dynamic to be weighed up, considering the challenges that contemporary subjectivity brings to higher education and to the impasses faced by students and educators.