The Burnout Society
The Burnout Society is an essay by Byung-Chul Han.
In the essay, the author argues that there is too much positivity in the world. We now live in an “achievement society” and a “can do” culture, but we are the poor saps that have to do the doing. We find ourselves in a perpetual state of hyperactivity, unable to say no.
Traditional models of psychotherapy stem from Freud. But Han argues these are based on the repressive values of the Victorian era. Today everything is permissible and there are no rules, except that we must achieve and the potential to achieve more is endless, leading to burnout. We never reach the ultimate goal or achieve closure.
Traditionally, capitalism has achieved oppression by directly oppressing the working class. But in this new world, we are victims of self-oppression, believing that we are free and simply striving for better, which is supposedly good somehow, but are actually still mere slaves to the capitalist machine. Reduced to the essence of life, health becomes the new goddess. All focus is on keeping the body alive to serve the machine of capitalism.
It’s a hard read. It’s like reading Marx; I felt like I had been dropped into the middle of conversation at times and, again like Marx, he flips between a few different languages. Worth trying to get your head around, though.