One gets the impression that fatigue has decided to wait until the right moment comes. It did not remind of itself either in the crisis 1930s, or in the long post-war period of general prosperity, and appeared again only in the last decades of the XX century.
The similarities between the early 20th and early 21st centuries are enormous, especially when it comes to the perception of stress. Both periods are marked by rapid changes: the acceleration of the pace of life, the increase in the flow of information, the intensive development of technology and the increased demands on the individual - all against the backdrop of a tough market economy. People live with a constant sense of lagging - mental, mental and emotional. The rhythms inherent in the body by nature are under threat. The person is required to be as flexible and adaptable as possible. In both periods under consideration, new types of fatigue appear, diagnoses record new symptoms of stress and exhaustion. This is a signal that a person is not comfortable in the world around him.
The turning point came in the early 1980s. Articles appeared in the media about the emergence of a strange new state of extreme fatigue, popularly called "yuppie flu", but was soon renamed "chronic fatigue syndrome." After the epidemic in Nevada (USA) (where more than 200 cases of the disease were recorded), this disorder became associated with young careerists (hence the name Yuppie - Young Urban Professional). The phenomenon caused a huge public outcry and spread throughout Europe as quickly as neurasthenia once did. In a short time, significant documentation has been collected on this issue.
Is this fatigue different from the one that caused people suffering at the end of the 19th century? A methodical comparison of symptoms shows many similarities. In both cases, fatigue is accompanied by a feeling of so much exhaustion that a person is not capable of work, stress, activity, or even entertainment (conversation, music, reading). Other signs also coincide: sleep problems, vague pain, dizziness, sensitivity to sound and light, memory and concentration problems.
At first, they tried to explain this condition using two scientific models that are popular to this day: virological and immunological in combination with the analysis of vital factors that provoked the disorders. According to the first model, the disease is caused by the so-called Epstein-Barr virus or other pathogens, such as herpes or borrelia. The second theory arose in response to the curse of the 1980s - AIDS - and environmental poisoning. Both models reflected the love of biological interpretations of the time, as well as fears associated with various dangerous infections and environmental problems.
But the diagnosis did not work out. Despite the fact that fatigue initially manifested itself in the circles of the elite, it quickly spread to the masses and "infected" women, whose number among patients increased dramatically. There was no unambiguous medical explanation for this condition. Numerous cases of the disease were discussed in the media, but did not fit well with the image of a rational, active person.
And no one then knew that very soon this fatigue would receive an alternative and sonorous name that better reflects the social aspect of the problem - “burnout”.
The word "burnout" itself is not new. It is used even in the ancient descriptions of melancholic people, who "from the inside and outside were as if dried or burned out." In the second half of the 19th century, depressive states were called so in student circles, in particular, one very scandalous suicide was explained by burnout. In the 1880s and 1890s, this concept was mainly used by writers and artists. “He was burnt out, although he was always ignited only by thinking about himself,” wrote the writer P. A. Jodekke in 1883. Strindberg liked to talk about burnt hearts and burnt blood (as well as "nerves that burst with a short dry click").
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At the beginning of the XXI century, this condition again reminded of itself, turned into a diagnosis, which quickly took root and won a solid position. Since the days of nervousness, there has not been a state of mind that has been so clearly attributed to being dependent on the state of society.
Gradually, out of this new type of melancholy, a new personality type was born. In Sweden, they started talking about "burnout" in 1985. The condition was characterized by emotional exhaustion, alienation, and loss of empathy. First of all, it manifested itself in industries where "it is necessary to use personal qualities for professional purposes to satisfy the social or mental suffering of others." Burnout people defined their condition as “emptiness, devastation, wear and tear”.
Regularities were also found: mental burnout affects primarily people who are carried away, but with a weak inner "I" and a tendency to the emergence of feelings of guilt. In general, the fate of each disease in society is determined by who is its carrier. Most often these are the elite or lumpen. The victims in the 1980s were neither one nor the other. These were specialists working in the social sphere. Mostly women. Before us is another example of the fact that in order to consolidate a certain image in society, its structure of feelings must correspond to the cultural codes of the corresponding time. Burnout did not fit into the culture of entrepreneurial mania of the 1980s, which placed high demands on the flexibility and competence of employees. They started talking about him seriously only when the diseases of the elite became more frequent. But even then it took time to understand that the cause of the disease is external and lies in the system of organization of labor in society, and not in the “defectiveness” of a particular person. Then, finally, a diagnosis was formed, which they began to put to working people.
For a very short period in the last years of the 20th century (the chronology is very compressed here), the diagnosis even acquired a heroic connotation. Not everyone fell ill with mental burnout, but only those who worked especially intensively. “It's almost like a shell shock,” wrote Finn Skorderyud. Those who were not afraid to take on work "in hot spots" suffered. Workers in the information technology, media and advertising sectors were particularly vulnerable. This disease did not harm a man's reputation, and even a new type of masculinity developed, which, if properly presented, added weight to the man in the eyes of others.
One of the key words of our day - "identity" - was very closely related to the concept of "burnout": in their professional identity, all victims belonged to industries that set high demands on employees and give them great opportunities for self-realization. Their workplace is a team of like-minded people working with full dedication to achieve a certain common goal; self-sacrifice is the norm here, and there are no rigid boundaries between work and free time. Working for wear and tear has acquired a romantic halo thanks to the language that uses rhetoric from the world of adventure, sports and drug culture: risk, command, pull yourself up, finish off (for example, a report), hit the bull's-eye, buzz, last spurt, reward. Then complete impotence. Catharsis.
And sometimes it is not catharsis, but fatigue, which no longer goes away and brings with it a number of unfamiliar symptoms and sensations. Sometimes a complete breakdown with fears, confusion, loss of control, more often - oppressive depression and a feeling of emptiness.
Could the condition be both new and repeat an already known syndrome?
The fatigue characteristics of samples from the early 1900s and 2000s can be studied in parallel. Nervousness and stress, breakdown and deadlock, overexertion and burnout are like twins. They are even described in the same way by cultural critics. “People who live in the centers of modern civilization - large cities - look pale, displeased, agitated, restless,” writes the doctor in 1885, and we can subscribe to his every word. In both cases, fatigue is not due to physical stress, but to mental stress. The list of modern symptoms largely repeats those that were known at the beginning of the 20th century. The main one is the depletion of energy due to the need to constantly meet the high requirements set for a person by an intensively developing economy (and himself!). A person is in a state of inner concentration for most of the day: mental activity, information consumption, sports, communication, shopping and pleasure. The key concepts of professional culture are competence, charisma, talent and success. Not only work, but also personal, family and even sexual life is built on the model of the project. This project involves, in particular, cooperation with numerous experts - psychotherapists, coaches, advocates of a healthy lifestyle, drug manufacturers, who, like the person himself, proceed from the thesis about the vulnerability of the human personality in their activities. The key concepts of professional culture are competence, charisma, talent and success. Not only work, but also personal, family and even sexual life is built on the model of the project. This project involves, in particular, cooperation with numerous experts - psychotherapists, coaches, advocates of a healthy lifestyle, drug manufacturers, who, like the person himself, proceed from the thesis about the vulnerability of the human personality in their activities. The key concepts of professional culture are competence, charisma, talent and success. Not only work, but also personal, family and even sexual life is built on the model of the project. This project involves, in particular, cooperation with numerous experts - psychotherapists, coaches, advocates of a healthy lifestyle, drug manufacturers, who, like the person himself, proceed from the thesis about the vulnerability of the human personality in their activities.proceed in their activities from the thesis about the vulnerability of the human person.proceed in their activities from the thesis about the vulnerability of the human person.
Burnout thus created a new identity, just as a hundred years earlier a new identity was born from a state of overstrain. These two types convincingly illustrate the fact that psychological classifications are a product of the era, arise and develop in interaction with the social environment. In both cases, we are talking about modern forms of melancholy, caused by a rapid change in social life and (if you use a concept from the arsenal of psychoanalysts) the loss of connection with reality.
Social psychologist Johan Asplund notes that the specificity of the phenomenon of burnout is its connection with social interaction, therefore, this is not a complete process, but proceeding in time. According to Asplund, the state of burnout is not the result of overwork, does not depend on specific work, and is not treated with rest or relaxation. It is localized in a specific social space and can be characterized as a loss of feelings. The reason is the lack of social interaction - “it feels like you are not there,” and in the end the person really stops showing signs of life. This does not happen immediately, not necessarily accompanied by a crisis or a nervous breakdown, and this state is not always preceded by particularly intense work. The emptiness just grows. Burnout is not fatigue, but illness, alienation.
Before us is again the main theme of melancholy - loss.
An excerpt from the book of the Swedish anthropologist Karin Johannison “History of Melancholy. About fear, boredom and sadness in the old days and now"