Burnout as a Failure of Holding

I invite us to explore burnout through a psychoanalytic lens as a failure of holding within organisational life.

The term “burnout” has psychoanalytic roots. It was coined by Dr Herbert Freudenberger, himself a psychoanalyst who personally endured the phenomenon he sought to describe. The psychologist, Professor Christina Maslach, formalised the definition as a sustained experience of three core features: overwhelming exhaustion, emotional detachment, and a loss of joy in work.