Abstract
In the introduction to this volume, the three editors outline the general scope and rationale of the volume and provide a critical overview of the key debates about past and current exhaustion syndromes, as well as reflections on the wider socio-political significance of these debates. They focus in particular on burnout, neurasthenia, and depression, and also highlight the special status of chronic fatigue syndrome in the corpus of exhaustion syndromes, discussing the controversies surrounding this diagnosis and mentioning theories of its potential biological causes. They also reflect on the complex interplay between the physical and social forces that determine the emergence and theorisation of exhaustion syndromes.
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Notes
- 1.
Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing the History of Depression in the Contemporary Age, trans. David Homel et al. (Montreal: McGill-Queens’s University Press, 2010a).
- 2.
See Steffen Mau, Inequality, Marketization and the Majority Class: Why Did the European Middle Classes Accept Neo-Liberalism? (New York: Palgrave Pivot, 2015).
- 3.
Meinhard Miegel, Stefanie Wahl, and Martin Schulte with the collaboration of Elias Butzmann, Altering Attitudes: From a Culture of Consumerism to a Culture of Prosperity (Bonn: Denkwerk Zukunft – Stiftung kulturelle Erneuerung, 2011).
- 4.
See, for example, Peter Conrad, The Medicalization of Society: On the Transformation of Human Conditions into Treatable Disorders (Baltimore: The Johns Hopkins University Press, 2007).
- 5.
See Axel Honneth, ‘Organized Self-Realization: Some Paradoxes of Indivdualization’, European Journal of Social Theory 7: 4 (2004), 463–78; Harmut Rosa, ‘Wettbewerb als Interaktionsmodus: Kulturelle und sozialstrukturelle Konsequenzen der Konkurrenzgesellschaft’, Leviathan 34: 1 (2006), 82–104; and Leistung und Erschöpfung: Burnout in der Wettbewerbsgesellschaft, ed. Sighard Neckel and Greta Wagner (Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2013).
- 6.
Anna Katharina Schaffner, Exhaustion: A History (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016).
- 7.
Max Weber, ‘“Objectivity” in Social Science and Social Policy’, in The Methodology of the Social Sciences, trans. Edward A. Schils and Henry A. Finch (Glencoe, IL: Free Press 1949), pp. 49–112 (p. 90).
- 8.
Emil Kraepelin, Psychiatrie. Ein Lehrbuch für Studierende und Ärzte. Band 1 (Leipzig: Barth Verlag, 1900), p. 196.
- 9.
Wilhelm Erb, Über die wachsende Nervosität unserer Zeit (Heidelberg: Hörning, 1894), p. 20.
- 10.
See Patrick Kury, ‘Von der Neurasthenie zum Burnout – eine kurze Geschichte von Belastung und Anpassung’, in Leistung und Erschöpfung, ed. Sighard Neckel and Greta Wagner (Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2013), pp. 107–28 (p. 109).
- 11.
Gary Holmes at the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) coined the term CFS in 1988.
- 12.
See the CDC’s web information on CFS, online at: http://www.cdc.gov/cfs/causes/risk-groups.html (accessed January 2015).
- 13.
For an analysis of the debates concerning the symptoms, epidemiology, and therapeutics of the condition, see Simon Wessely, Matthew Hotopf, and Michael Sharpe, Chronic Fatigue and Its Symptoms, rev. ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999); and Michael Sharpe, ‘Chronic Fatigue Syndrome’, The Psychiatric Clinics of North America, 19: 3 (1996), 549–73.
- 14.
See, for example, M. M. Zeineh, J. Kang, S. W. Atlas, M. M. Raman, A. L. Reiss, J. L. Norris, I. Valencia, and J. G. Montoya, ‘Right Arcuate Fasciculus Abnormality in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome’, Radiology 274: 2 (2015), 517–26; A. L. Landay, C. Jessop, E. T. Lennettee, and J. A. Levy, ‘Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Clinical Conditions Associated with Immune Activation’, Lancet 338 (1991), 707–12; A. M. Lerner, C. Lawrie, and H. S. Dworkin, ‘Repetitively Negative Changing T Waves at 24-H Electrocardiographic Monitors in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome’, Chest 104 (1993), 1417–21; and R. Freeman and A. L. Komaroff, ‘Does the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Involve the Autonomic Nervous System?’, American Journal of Medicine 102 (1997), 357–64.
- 15.
Stephen T. Holgate, Anthony L. Komaroff, Dennis Mangan, and Simon Wessely, ‘Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Understanding a Complex Illness,’ Nature 12 (2011), 539–44.
- 16.
See, for example, Edward Shorter, From Paralysis to Fatigue: A History of Psychosomatic Illness in the Modern Era (New York: The Free Press, 1992); Elaine Showalter, Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998); and Richard L. Kradin, Pathologies of the Mind/Body Interface: Exploring the Curious Domain of the Psychosomatic Disorders (New York: Routledge, 2013).
- 17.
See, for example, S. E. Abbey and P. E. Garfinkel, ‘Neurasthenia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: The Role of Culture in the Making of a Diagnosis’, American Journal of Psychotherapy 148 (1991), 1638–46; and N.C. Ware and A. Kleinman, ‘Culture and Somatic Experience: The Social Cause of Illness in Neurasthenia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome’, Psychosomatic Medicine 54 (1992), 546–60.
- 18.
J. A. Richman and L. A. Jason, ‘Gender Biases Underlying the Social Construction of Illness States: The Case of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome’, Current Sociology 49 (2001), 15–29.
- 19.
For a summary of recent criticism of the PACE trial, see, for example, David Tuller, ‘Re-Examining Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Research and Treatment Policy’, online at: http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2016/02/04/reexamining-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-research-and-treatment-policy/ (accessed September 2016).
In October 2015, Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH), announced a major new funding initiative. See https://www.nih.gov/news-events/news-releases/nih-takes-action-bolster-research-myalgic-encephalomyelitis/chronic-fatigue-syndrome (accessed September 2016).
In February 2015, the Institute of Medicine published a comprehensive report on ME/CFS, in which a refinement of the diagnostic criteria of the condition as well as a new name is proposed. Systemic exertion intolerance disease, the committee argues, emphasises more clearly the central characteristic of the disease, namely, ‘the fact that exertion of any sort – physical, cognitive, or emotional – can adversely affect patients in many organ systems and in many aspects of their lives’. The report entitled ‘Beyond Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Redefining an Illness’, released in February 2015, is available online at: http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/Reports/2015/ME-CFS.aspx (accessed 16 September 2016).
- 20.
Robin McKie, ‘Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Researchers Face Death Threats from Militants’, The Observer (August 2011), online at: http://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/aug/21/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-myalgic-encephalomyelitis (accessed March 2016).
- 21.
See BKK Gesundheitsreport, Gesundheit fördern – Krankheit versorgen – mit Krankheit leben, 2012 (www.bkk.de/fileadmin/user_upload/PDF/Arbeitgeber/gesundheitsreport/Gesundheitsreport_2012/Gesundheitsreport_2012.pdf) (accessed January 2013), p. 43.
- 22.
Wolfgang Schmidbauer, ‘Mehr Hofnarr als Hofrat. Über die Krisen der Psychotherapie’, in Kursbuch 170 ‘Krisen lieben’ (Hamburg: Murmann, 2012), pp. 150–73 (p. 159).
- 23.
Alain Ehrenberg, ‘Depression: Unbehagen in der Kultur oder neue Formen der Sozialität’, in Kreation und Depression: Freiheit im gegenwärtigen Kapitalismus, ed. Christoph Menke and Juliane Rebentisch (Berlin: Kadmos, 2010b) pp. 52–62 (p. 54).
- 24.
Herbert J. Freudenberger and Geraldine Richelson, Burnout: The High Cost of High Achievement (New York: Anchor, 1983), p. 16.
- 25.
Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello. The New Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Gregory Elliott (New York: Verso, 2005).
- 26.
See Honneth, ‘Organized Self-Realisation’, p. 467.
References
S. E. Abbey and P. E. Garfinkel, ‘Neurasthenia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: The Role of Culture in the Making of a Diagnosis’, American Journal of Psychotherapy 148 (1991), 1638–46.
BKK Gesundheitsreport, Gesundheit fördern – Krankheit versorgen – mit Krankheit leben, 2012, online at: www.bkk.de/fileadmin/user_upload/PDF/Arbeitgeber/gesundheitsreport/Gesundheitsreport_2012/Gesundheitsreport_2012.pdf) (accessed January 2013).
Luc Boltanski and Ève Chiapello, The New Spirit of Capitalism, trans. Gregory Elliott (New York: Verso, 2005).
Centres for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) web information on CFS, online at: http://www.cdc.gov/cfs/causes/risk-groups.html (accessed January 2015).
Peter Conrad, The Medicalization of Society: On the Transformation of Human Conditions into Treatable Disorders (Baltimore: The John Hopkins University Press, 2007).
Alain Ehrenberg, The Weariness of the Self: Diagnosing the History of Depression in the Contemporary Age, trans. David Homel et al. (Montreal: McGill-Queens’s University Press, 2010a).
———, ‘Depression: Unbehagen in der Kultur oder neue Formen der Sozialität’, in Kreation und Depression: Freiheit im gegenwärtigen Kapitalismus, ed. Christoph Menke and Juliane Rebentisch (Berlin: Kadmos, 2010b), pp. 52–62.
Wilhelm Erb, Über die wachsende Nervosität unserer Zeit (Heidelberg: Hörning, 1894).
R. Freeman and A. L. Komaroff, ‘Does the Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Involve the Autonomic Nervous System?’, American Journal of Medicine 102 (1997), 357–64.
Herbert J. Freudenberger and Geraldine Richelson, Burnout: The High Cost of High Achievement (New York: Anchor, 1983).
Stephen T. Holgate, Anthony L. Komaroff, Dennis Mangan, and Simon Wessely, ‘Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Understanding a Complex Illness’, Nature 12 (2011), 539–44.
Axel Honneth, ‘Organized Self-Realization: Some Paradoxes of Indivdualization’, European Journal of Social Theory 7: 4 (2004), 463–78.
Institute of Medicine, ‘Beyond Myalgic Encephalomyelitis/Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Redefining an Illness’, report released in February 2015, online at: http://www.nationalacademies.org/hmd/Reports/2015/ME-CFS.aspx (accessed September 2016).
Emil Kraepelin, Psychiatrie. Ein Lehrbuch für Studierende und Ärzte, vol. 1 (Leipzig: Barth Verlag, 1900).
Richard L. Kradin, Pathologies of the Mind/Body Interface: Exploring the Curious Domain of the Psychosomatic Disorders (New York: Routledge, 2013).
Patrick Kury, ‘Von der Neurasthenie zum Burnout – eine kurze Geschichte von Belastung und Anpassung’, in Leistung und Erschöpfung: Burnout in der Wettbewerbsgesellschaft, ed. Sighard Neckel and Greta Wagner (Berlin: Suhrkamp Verlag, 2013), pp. 107–28.
A. L. Landay, C. Jessop, E. T. Lennettee, and J. A. Levy, ‘Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Clinical Conditions Associated with Immune Activation’, Lancet 338 (1991), 707–12.
A. M. Lerner, C. Lawrie, and H. S. Dworkin, ‘Repetitively Negative Changing T Waves at 24-H Electrocardiographic Monitors in Patients with Chronic Fatigue Syndrome’, Chest 104 (1993), 1417–21.
Steffen Mau, Inequality, Marketization and the Majority Class: Why Did the European Middle Classes Accept Neo-Liberalism? (New York: Palgrave Pivot, 2015).
Robin McKie, ‘Chronic Fatigue Syndrome Researchers Face Death Threats from Militants’, The Observer (August 2011), online at: (http://www.theguardian.com/society/2011/aug/21/chronic-fatigue-syndrome-myalgic-encephalomyelitis) (accessed March 2016).
Meinhard Miegel, Stefanie Wahl, Martin Schulte, and Elias Butzmann, Altering Attitudes: From a Culture of Consumerism to a Culture of Prosperity (Bonn: Denkwerk Zukunft – Stiftung kulturelle Erneuerung, 2011).
Sighard Neckel and Greta Wagner (eds), Leistung und Erschöpfung: Burnout in der Wettbewerbsgesellschaft (Berlin: Suhrkamp, 2013).
J. A. Richman and L. A. Jason, ‘Gender Biases Underlying the Social Construction of Illness States: The Case of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome’, Current Sociology 49 (2001), 15–29.
Harmut Rosa, ‘Wettbewerb als Interaktionsmodus: Kulturelle und sozialstrukturelle Konsequenzen der Konkurrenzgesellschaft’, Leviathan 34: 1 (2006), 82–104.
Anna Katharina Schaffner, Exhaustion: A History (New York: Columbia University Press, 2016).
Wolfgang Schmidbauer, ‘Mehr Hofnarr als Hofrat. Über die Krisen der Psychotherapie’, Kursbuch 170 ‘Krisen lieben’ (2012), 150–73.
Michael Sharpe, ‘Chronic Fatigue Syndrome’, The Psychiatric Clinics of North America 19: 3 (1996), 549–73.
Edward Shorter, From Paralysis to Fatigue: A History of Psychosomatic Illness in the Modern Era (New York: The Free Press, 1992).
Elaine Showalter, Hystories: Hysterical Epidemics and Modern Media (New York: Columbia University Press, 1998).
David Tuller, ‘Re-Examining Chronic Fatigue Syndrome: Research and Treatment Policy’, online at: http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2016/02/04/reexamining-chronic-fatigue-syndrome-research-and-treatment-policy/ (accessed September 2016).
N. C. Ware and A. Kleinman, ‘Culture and Somatic Experience: The Social Cause of Illness in Neurasthenia and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome’, Psychosomatic Medicine 54 (1992), 546–60.
Max Weber, ‘“Objectivity” in Social Science and Social Policy’, in The Methodology of the Social Sciences, trans. Edward A. Schils and Henry A. Finch (Glencoe, IL: Free Press, 1949), pp. 49–112.
Simon Wessely, Matthew Hotopf and Michael Sharpe, Chronic Fatigue and Its Symptoms, rev. ed. (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999).
M. M. Zeineh, J. Kang, S. W. Atlas, M. M. Raman, A. L. Reiss, J. L. Norris, I. Valencia, and J. G. Montoya, ‘Right Arcuate Fasciculus Abnormality in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome’, Radiology 274: 2 (2015), 517–26.
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Neckel, S., Schaffner, A.K., Wagner, G. (2017). Introduction. In: Neckel, S., Schaffner, A., Wagner, G. (eds) Burnout, Fatigue, Exhaustion. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52887-8_1
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