ABSTRACT
This chapter presents the case study of Lucia, a management consultant in Madrid, and her attitudes to work. It aims to explore the prevalence and currency of certain idioms of industry, labour and production in the organization of social relationships in contemporary Euro-American society. Lucia’s anxiety and distress are evidence of the kind of emotional symptoms associated with the alienation many workers experience in contemporary society. Lucia builds a life for herself by ‘working out’ her life-project. She uses the imagery and vocabulary of the workplace to envision her own life; she brings the semantic field of ‘labour’ to bear on her understanding of herself as a social person and on the quality and development of her relationships with others. The terms in which Lucia spoke of people’s intellectual powers are also significant. For Lucia, to have a ‘well furnished head’ is to be a capable and worthy labourer.
