The burned out society? Neuropsychological, social and ethical aspects of the burnout syndrome

Since Herbert Freudenberger (1974) first mentioned the term ‘burn-out’ in 1974, this concept is having an ever increasing importance in our everyday life. The concept of burnout, often referred to as burnout syndrome, turned into a diagnosis for a mental disease caused by intense and continuous work related stress combined with a feeling of helplessness and losing control in the work related contexts. In the industrialised countries, there is almost no larger organisation that does not have to deal with employees feeling burned out and get signed off sick for a noteworthy period of time. Almost everyone knows a friend or colleague suffering from work related stress who’s being diagnosed with burnout. Even celebrities, politicians, managers and sport stars are sometimes reported to have burnout. With the recent financial crisis the number of burnout cases rapidity swelled up and especially in the context of behavioural psychotherapy there are more and more patients seeking help and stating that they are burned out.

The goal of the project is to provide an overview on the social and ethical implications of the frequent use of the burnout syndrome and its consequences for medical research, the health care system and society. Currently, persons are regularly diagnosed being burned out though there are no valid and reliable criteria for such a diagnoses. There is no doubt that there is a growing number of persons experiencing intense work related stress but it remains unclear whether this is just a special form of a depression or a distinct mental disease.