Burnout, Fatigue, Exhaustion

1. Front Matter

   Pages i-ix

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2. Introduction

   • Sighard Neckel, Anna Katharina Schaffner, Greta Wagner

   Pages 1-23

3. Cultural-Historical Perspectives

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 25-25

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   2. Pre-Modern Exhaustion: On Melancholia and Acedia

      • Anna Katharina Schaffner

      Pages 27-50

   3. Neurasthenia and Managerial Disease in Germany and America: Transnational Ties and National Characteristics in the Field of Exhaustion 1880–1960

      • Patrick Kury

      Pages 51-73

4. Exhaustion Syndromes

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 75-75

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   2. Exhaustion Syndromes: Concepts and Definitions

      • Johanna M. Doerr, Urs M. Nater

      Pages 77-104

   3. Burnout: A Short Socio-Cultural History

      • Wilmar B. Schaufeli

      Pages 105-127

   4. Burnout: From Work-Related Stress to a Cover-Up Diagnosis

      • Linda V. Heinemann, Torsten Heinemann

      Pages 129-150

5. Exhaustion and Self-Realisation

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 151-151

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   2. What We Talk About When We Talk About Mental Health: Towards an Anthropology of Adversity in Individualistic Society

      • Alain Ehrenberg

      Pages 153-171

   3. Self-Realisation Through Work and Its Failure

      • Elin Thunman, Marcus Persson

      Pages 173-194

   4. Exhaustion and Euphoria: Self-Medication with Amphetamines

      • Greta Wagner

      Pages 195-213

6. Exhaustion Discourses

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 215-215

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   2. Rechargeable Man in a Hamster Wheel World: Contours of a Trendsetting Illness

      • Ulrich Bröckling

      Pages 217-235

   3. Literary Exhaustion

      • Michael Greaney

      Pages 237-256

7. Exhaustion and the Social

   1. Front Matter

      Pages 257-257

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   2. Social Agony and Agonising Social Constructions

      • Iain Wilkinson

      Pages 259-281

   3. Exhaustion as a Sign of the Present

      • Sighard Neckel, Greta Wagner

      Pages 283-303

   4. Conclusion

      • Sighard Neckel, Anna Katharina Schaffner, Greta Wagner

      Pages 305-310

This interdisciplinary book explores both the connections and the tensions between sociological, psychological, and biological theories of exhaustion. It examines how the prevalence of exhaustion – both as an individual experience and as a broader socio-cultural phenomenon – is manifest in the epidemic rise of burnout, depression, and chronic fatigue. It provides innovative analyses of the complex interplay between the processes involved in the production of mental health diagnoses, socio-cultural transformations, and subjective illness experiences. Using many of the existing ideologically charged exhaustion theories as case studies, the authors investigate how individual discomfort and wider social dynamics are interrelated. Covering a broad range of topics, this book will appeal to those working in the fields of psychology, sociology, medicine, psychiatry, literature, and history.

• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome
• M.E.
• Neoliberalism
• Sociology
• Biology
• Literature
• History
• Mental health
• Depression
• Burnout
• Fatigue
• Anthropology
• Self Medication

“This book discusses different theories of exhaustion, from different disciplines such as biology, sociology, and psychology, and demonstrates its impact on medical and mental health. … This is an interesting book that examines exhaustion from a number of perspectives, presenting cross‐cultural studies and possible solutions. It will appeal to a wide audience in psychology, psychiatry, and sociology.” (Gary B. Kaniuk, Doody's Book Reviews, September, 2017)

• Institute of Sociology, University of Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

  Sighard Neckel

• School of European Culture and Languages, University of Kent, Canterbury, United Kingdom

  Anna Katharina Schaffner

• Institute of Sociology, Goethe University Frankfurt, Frankfurt, Germany

  Greta Wagner

Sighard Neckel is a Professor of Sociology at the University of Hamburg, Germany. He has published almost 180 articles and several academic volumes which cover a wide range of sociological topics in the fields of cultural sociology, social inequality, economic sociology, sociology of emotions, and social theory. 

Anna Katharina Schaffner is Reader in Comparative Literature and Medical Humanities at the University of Kent, UK. She has published on the histories of exhaustion, sexology and psychoanalysis, Dada, the film director David Lynch, and various modern writers.

Greta Wagner is Research Associate at the Institute of Sociology at Goethe-University Frankfurt am Main, Germany. She has published on strategies of self-optimisation, especially the self-medication with cognitive enhancing drugs, and on burnout.