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Burnout

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Burnout has been applied in a variety of contexts. Amongst drug takers it describes those who read the end of the road and become like walking zombies. Among lawyers who work; in poor communities, it refers to those who start off full of fire and enthusiasm and end up disillusioned and deadened. In sports it describes the effect of having overtrained.

Graham Greene used the term 'burnt-out case' in his novel of that title for lepers who came for treatment too late and had to wait until the disease burnt itself out, taking whatever limbs it was going to take. His main character, Querry, an architect who had lost his faith and his ability to love, also considered himself a 'burnt-out case'.

It wasn't until the late 1970s and early 1980s that social scientists began to pick up the word 'burnout' and use it in relation to work Herbert Freudenberger who is given credit for using the word first, and Christina Maslach who defined it and applied a research perspective, were the pioneers. Burnout immediately caught the imagination of people all over the world. We found over 7,000 entries for burnout on just one database. In general, the research is about work burnout. There has been a little study of marriage burnout, but mainly this is about burnt-out relationships,' rather than about people who have actually burnt out as a result of a relationship, a subject which is covered in this book.

Originally, burnout was widely thought of as an individual clinical problem and has been attributed to a variety of causes: failure to retain one's idealized self-image, lack of balance in one's life, progressive disillusionment, wrong expectations, poor coping mechanisms when goals are frustrated, a failed quest for existential meaning, a lack of social competence, or extreme emotional overload.

Burnout was then shown to be far more prevalent in some professions or organizations than in others. It began to be seen as an organizational problem resulting from: a high level of demands and responsibility; a low level of support and appreciation; a lack of control or decision-making power; a dearth of resources to carry out the job; and the loss of meaning and community. At first it was associated with social workers, nurses and workers in the caring professions, the people carrying all the responsibility and the emo­tional demands but holding very little decision-making power. Soon it became clear that this was happening throughout industry as well.

Some researchers and clinicians argue that since some people burn out in the best situations and others never burn out, no matter what happens, burnout is best described as the result of a lack of fit between the individual and his work situation. Other researchers have con­sidered burnout to be the symptom of a materialistic and alienating society.

Burnout is considered to be increasing rapidly and dangerously. Estimates of its incidence have ranged between 10 per cent and 80 per cent of the working population. In Japan, karoshi, 'death by overwork', which is often associated with burnout, is becoming a major social concern. Burnout is commonly described as having reached epidemic or even pandemic proportions.

An incomplete picture: The research on burnout is wide-ranging and fascinating, and the threads of what I believe burnout is about are all there in the literature. But what hasn't emerged is a complete picture. This is because the literature is focused too narrowly on work situations, and, more importantly, because burnout is seen as a problem or illness that needs to be fixed or cured or prevented.

Although there is a great deal wrong with our society, our work-places, our relationships and our lives, burnout is ultimately positive if we are open to its message. This is because it asks us to become more who we really are. Indeed, it is part of an evolutionary process that is happening at all levels of our personal and social lives. 

The word 'epidemic', like many of the words associated with burnout, makes it sound as if something terrible is happening. Epidemics must be stopped so that life as we knew it before can go on. But life as we knew it before cannot go on. We are being pushed by burnout towards that which we do not yet know but are yearning to discover. This is why the prevalence of burnout is in many ways a good though painful omen.