Go offline with the Player FM app!
Burnout, with Hannah Proctor
Manage episode 413323299 series 3334981
Burnout has become a byword for workplace exhaustion, but does it have a deeper history? Hannah Proctor joins us to explain how the notion emerged in the USA’s 1960s countercultural free clinics movement, at first relating to the emotional defeat of idealistic activists but came to be seen as simply the result of working too hard. It’s a story that tracks the trajectory of capitalism itself – as Hannah shows referencing thinkers from Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello to filmmaker Adam Curtis.
Rosie and Alexis ask Hannah: are there gendered, classed and racialised aspects to how burnout gets discussed? How do structural conditions prevent us from caring for caregivers? And how do the statements of those in power undermine or validate the causes we care about, and thus compound our feelings of defeat and exhaustion?
Hannah explains what psychiatrist Frantz Fanon's work teaches us about the challenges and contradictions of striving to make people “well” in a sick society. Plus, she tells us why the Black Panther phrase “survival pending revolution” is a crucial reminder that while small-scale acts of care remain essential, only wholesale reform can ensure a better, less burnout, world for all.
Guest: Hannah Proctor
Hosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu Truong
Executive Producer: Alice Bloch
Sound Engineer: David Crackles
Music: Joe Gardner
Artwork: Erin Aniker
Find more about Uncommon Sense
Episode Resources
Recommended by Hannah
- “Hyper” – A. Ismaïl
From The Sociological Review
- The Stigma Conversations: Apocalypse and Change – I. Tyler, A. Knox
- Uncommon Sense: Care – B. Skeggs, R. Hancock, A. H. Truong
- Healing, knowing, enduring: Care and politics in damaged worlds – M. Tironi, I. Rodríguez-Giralt
By Hannah Proctor
- Burnout: The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat
- “Sadistic, grinning rifle-women” in Gender, Emotions and Power, 1750–2020
- university profile and website
Further reading
- “Burn-out: The High Cost of High Achievement” – H. J. Freudenberger, G. Richelson
- “Staff Burn‐Out” – H. J. Freudenberger
- “How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation” – A. H. Petersen
- “Edifice Complex” – B. Ansfield
- “The making of burnout” – M. J. Hoffarth
- “Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties” – M. Davis, J. Wiener
- “The New Spirit of Capitalism” – L. Boltanski, E. Chiapello
- “The Care Manifesto” – The Care Collective
- “Revolutionary Suicide” – H. P. Newton
- “The Case of Blackness” – F. Moten
- “The Wretched of the Earth” – F. Fanon
- “Disalienation” – C. Robcis
Read about Isabelle Le Pain’s work and watch Adam Curtis's films.
Support Uncommon Sense
Uncommon Sense is a project of the Sociological Review Foundation, a charity whose mission is to promote sociological thinking to audiences beyond academia.
There is a long and heartening tradition of listener support for independent podcasts. If you enjoy what you’ve heard and learned from Uncommon Sense, we’d be grateful for your support for the creation of future episodes.
Make a one-off or r
29 episodes
Manage episode 413323299 series 3334981
Burnout has become a byword for workplace exhaustion, but does it have a deeper history? Hannah Proctor joins us to explain how the notion emerged in the USA’s 1960s countercultural free clinics movement, at first relating to the emotional defeat of idealistic activists but came to be seen as simply the result of working too hard. It’s a story that tracks the trajectory of capitalism itself – as Hannah shows referencing thinkers from Luc Boltanski and Eve Chiapello to filmmaker Adam Curtis.
Rosie and Alexis ask Hannah: are there gendered, classed and racialised aspects to how burnout gets discussed? How do structural conditions prevent us from caring for caregivers? And how do the statements of those in power undermine or validate the causes we care about, and thus compound our feelings of defeat and exhaustion?
Hannah explains what psychiatrist Frantz Fanon's work teaches us about the challenges and contradictions of striving to make people “well” in a sick society. Plus, she tells us why the Black Panther phrase “survival pending revolution” is a crucial reminder that while small-scale acts of care remain essential, only wholesale reform can ensure a better, less burnout, world for all.
Guest: Hannah Proctor
Hosts: Rosie Hancock, Alexis Hieu Truong
Executive Producer: Alice Bloch
Sound Engineer: David Crackles
Music: Joe Gardner
Artwork: Erin Aniker
Find more about Uncommon Sense
Episode Resources
Recommended by Hannah
- “Hyper” – A. Ismaïl
From The Sociological Review
- The Stigma Conversations: Apocalypse and Change – I. Tyler, A. Knox
- Uncommon Sense: Care – B. Skeggs, R. Hancock, A. H. Truong
- Healing, knowing, enduring: Care and politics in damaged worlds – M. Tironi, I. Rodríguez-Giralt
By Hannah Proctor
- Burnout: The Emotional Experience of Political Defeat
- “Sadistic, grinning rifle-women” in Gender, Emotions and Power, 1750–2020
- university profile and website
Further reading
- “Burn-out: The High Cost of High Achievement” – H. J. Freudenberger, G. Richelson
- “Staff Burn‐Out” – H. J. Freudenberger
- “How Millennials Became The Burnout Generation” – A. H. Petersen
- “Edifice Complex” – B. Ansfield
- “The making of burnout” – M. J. Hoffarth
- “Set the Night on Fire: L.A. in the Sixties” – M. Davis, J. Wiener
- “The New Spirit of Capitalism” – L. Boltanski, E. Chiapello
- “The Care Manifesto” – The Care Collective
- “Revolutionary Suicide” – H. P. Newton
- “The Case of Blackness” – F. Moten
- “The Wretched of the Earth” – F. Fanon
- “Disalienation” – C. Robcis
Read about Isabelle Le Pain’s work and watch Adam Curtis's films.
Support Uncommon Sense
Uncommon Sense is a project of the Sociological Review Foundation, a charity whose mission is to promote sociological thinking to audiences beyond academia.
There is a long and heartening tradition of listener support for independent podcasts. If you enjoy what you’ve heard and learned from Uncommon Sense, we’d be grateful for your support for the creation of future episodes.
Make a one-off or r
29 episodes
All episodes
×Welcome to Player FM!
Player FM is scanning the web for high-quality podcasts for you to enjoy right now. It's the best podcast app and works on Android, iPhone, and the web. Signup to sync subscriptions across devices.