Global Burnout: (Thinking Media)

Available for the first time in English and freshly adapted as the acclaimed documentary Burning Out, Pascal Chabot's polemic treatise - Global Burnout - takes the phenomenon we call burnout as not just an individual problem that affects a few exhausted people, but rather 'a disease of civilization', connected to concepts of progress, technology, and desire, which are the hallmarks of this era of experimentation. First analysing the archaeology of the concept, Chabot distinguishes three main types of burnout: the first, specific to professions who help others, appears to be the exhaustion of their humanism; the second, a trouble of adaptation and perfectionism; and the third, which is a consequence of the struggle for recognition. The philosophical implications of each of these three states is identified, allowing Chabot to buck the trend towards a negative, nearly fatalistic outlook, something not surprising considering the intrinsic gravity of the subject matter. An excellent story teller as well as an adequate elaborater of complex theories, Chabot's Global Burnout presents an introduction to the topic and therapy for the modern reader.

Table of Contents:
Introduction Something is happening Part I: Beyond fatigue Freudenberger and the free clinic? Tired souls In a Congolese leper colony Part II: The burnout?machine Abandoning perfection The useful and the subtle Recognition and disregard Women’s burnout Part III: Postmodern malaise Theory of the a mirror disorder? Under the sign of fire The tightrope-walker’s manifesto Postface to the English edition Burnout and energy The invisibility of energy The causes of repression Dialectic of energy and desire Post-burnout transition Bibliography Index

About the Author :
Pascal Chabot is a lecturer of philosophy and communication at the Institute of Advanced Studies of Social Communications (IHECS) in Belgium. He is the author of The Age of Transitions (2015), The Seven Stages of Philosophy (2011), Chatbot the Robot (2016) and The Man Who Wanted to Buy the Language (2018).

Review :
Burnout, stress, and depression have become worldwide epidemics. Calling burnout ‘civilization’s disease,’ Belgian philosopher Pascal Chabot has given us a fascinating and accessible history and theoretical framework of this modern crisis. He not only shows us how we got here, but also how we can use that knowledge to redefine success and truly thrive. Fire and work are the forces at stake in our suicidally consumption-driven civilization, examined with penetrating depth by Pascal Chabot - whose contemplative approach stands out in an era where efficiency reigns and purpose is negated, struck down by a disruption that leads to madness, in the final phase of the phenomenon that Nietzsche called nihilism. It’s urgently relevant and superbly well-written and translated. It’s readable and compelling....I love this book and the translation is beautiful.