Global Burnout

145 Pages·2018·2.704 MB·English

by  Pascal Chabot

Global Burnout
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Th inking|Media
Series Editors:
Bernd Herzogenrath
Patricia Pisters
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Global Burnout
Pascal Chabot
Translated from the French by Aliza Krefetz
Bloomsbury Academic
An imprint of Bloomsbury Publishing Inc
NEW YORK • LONDON • OXFORD • NEW DELHI • SYDNEY
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Bloomsbury Academic
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BLOOMSBURY and the Diana logo are trademarks of Bloomsbury
Publishing Plc
This translated edition published by Bloomsbury Academic 2018
First published in French by Presses Universitaires de France 2013
© Pascal Chabot and Presses Universitaires de France 2013, 2018
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted
in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying,
recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior
permission in writing from the publishers.
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or refraining from action as a result of the material in this publication can
be accepted by Bloomsbury or the author.
Library of Congress Cataloging-i n-Publication Data
A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress
ISBN : H B : 978-1-501-33438-2
e PDF : 978-1-501-33440-5
eBook: 978-1-501-33439-9
Cover design: Daniel Benneworth-Gray
Cover image © Paolo Sanfi lippo
Series: thinking|media
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To those who contemplate.
“If your only tool is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail”
Paul Watzlawick, C hange
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Contents
Foreword viii
Introduction 1
Something is happening 1
Part I Beyond Fatigue 7
Freudenberger and the free clinic 7
Tired souls 12
In a Congolese leper colony 17
Part II Th e Burnout Machine 25
Abandoning perfection 25
Th e useful and the subtle 37
Recognition and disregard 47
Women’s burnout 56
Part III Postmodern Malaise 67
Th eory of a mirror disorder 67
Under the sign of fi re 75
Th e tightrope- walker’s manifesto 81
Part IV Postface to the English Edition 89
Burnout and energy 89
Th e invisibility of energy 94
Th e causes of repression 100
Dialectic of energy and desire 116
Post- burnout transition 121
Author’s Acknowledgments 125
Translator’s Acknowledgments 127
Bibliography 129
Index 133
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Foreword
Th e phenomenon we call burnout is not just a personal problem that
aff ects a few exhausted individuals. It holds up a mirror to dysfunctions
in the relationships between human beings and their material
environment.
Aft er analyzing the origins of the concept, the author identifi es three
main types of burnout: the fi rst, specifi c to professions centered on
caring for others, seems to stem from the exhaustion of their humanism;
the second appears to be a problem of adaptation and perfectionism,
while the third is a consequence of the struggle for recognition.
Th e philosophical implications of each of these three conditions are
identifi ed. Finally, burnout is presented as an occasion to rethink the
pact between humanity and technology, and to reinterpret the notion
of progress.
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Introduction
Something is happening
Something is happening.
In the highway breakdown lane, a woman sits weeping in her car. It’s
strange, the way her tears seem to pour out uncontrollably. Nothing can
stop them. It is as if her entire body were emptying itself, as if it were
expelling a humor that cannot be contained. Her hands tremble. She
rocks back and forth. And the look in her eyes is one of incomprehension
mixed with fear.
Tears, they say, wash the emotions clean. But her tears aren’t washing
anything away. Th ey are tears of destruction. A surge of suff ering is
ravaging an otherwise stable person. It is as if her very existence has
overwhelmed her. Th is body, this car, this life, everything, suddenly
seems to her useless and insurmountable.
We could understand this breakdown if it had happened in response
to a death, a break- up, even a war. But there is no apparent cause for this
implosion.
Something else is happening; for example, that haggard man in his
forties. For the last hour, he has been sitting motionless in front of his
computer. Mouth open, eyes wild, he seems to be frozen in place. Earlier,
he was double- checking some numbers on a spreadsheet.
Th en everything went black, leaving a gaping void, a vacantness that
bordered on madness.
When he tried to get up, his body refused to obey him. From his
pelvis to his shoulders, an inexplicable stiff ness paralyzed his spine. He
had to be taken away in an ambulance, in front of his stupefi ed
co- workers. For three months now, he has been confi ned to his bed,
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