Burnout as breakdown of one's existence in the world

Burnout is generally conceived as a condition resulting from external stressors in one's work environment, but its precise definition is contested. In line with recent empirical studies, we suggest an existential-phenomenological approach to avoid the dualisms that characterize the present understanding of burnout. Drawing on Merleau-Ponty's phenomenology, we do not consider burnout in terms of a psychological syndrome with physiological aspects, but rather suggest that these syndromes are expressions of the same problem. Burnout is not caused by an individual's inability to cope with external demands, nor by a too demanding work environment, but it is a mismatch between the two. Furthermore, we conceive of 'world' in Arendtian terms and situate burnout within the social context of vita activa. We argue that burnout can be understood in terms of 'world alienation,' and discuss the extent to which Arendt's diagnosis of the shifts in human activity in modernity from 'work' to 'labor' may provide a social context for the existential breakdown that burnout entails. We conclude the paper by outlining some implications for diagnosis and treatment based on our definition of burnout.