Professional Burnout: When Selling Oneself Leads to a Sense of Self Loss
Through a number of cultural, economic, social and political transformations witnessed in our contemporary context, this article offers a macro-sociological interpretation of the phenomena referred to as the multiplication and democratization of "burnout cases," since the initial diagnosis of such a case was made in the 1970s. We will analyze two examples of transformation here: the first being the search for autonomy as the new social norm and the second being the domineering injunction that henceforth incites workers take on ever greater responsibilities. At the heart of these transformations, the contemporary worker is confronted with the requirement to provide a professional "overinvestment" that is more psychic than physical, dictating that he/she must establish an autonomous identity while heeding the internal command to "strive ever higher," largely inspired by "self promotion" techniques.