A little bit of history

A young syndrome
The burnout syndrome is quite young for a recognised psychic disease and as yet doesn’t even figure in the DSM-IV, the most official catalogue of mental illness worldwide. Before World War 2 it is not mentioned at all. Then all of a sudden Graham Greene publishes his novel “A Burnt Out Case”, featuring a main character who is completely disillusioned and cynical and ties up his western existence by going into a self-chosen exile.

Freudenberger
In 1969 Freudenberger, a New York psychologist, first tosses the term burnout. He goes on to describe how social workers in the drug-scene deteriorate in no-time from idealist to distant and cynical officials. More than average these officials were plagued by all kinds of minor complaints: headaches, infections, ulcers, sleep disturbances etc. Worth noting is that when he first used the phrase burnout, he got an immediate and strong response. The word was easily recognised for the mental state it described. Freudenberger himself went on to describe a great many cases, always emphasizing here were always strongly committed individuals who had given the best of themselves to their demanding job. Getting a burnout meant at least that you had done your very best and so could even be used as a kind of excuse.

Maslach
Another famous name in the research Christina Maslach, an american psychologist who has devoted much work to measuring and gaining deeper insight the burnout phenomenon. To attain this she developed the Maslach Burnout Inventory, a questionnaire that international now is considered the leading instrument.