Burnout was first described in the mid-1970’s by Herbert Freudenberger, who was a psychiatrist working in an alternative health care agency at the time. Because of this, the early writings on burnout focused primarily on the experiences of health-care workers.

According to Freudenberger, mental health professionals may be particularly susceptible, due to the fact that “…we are contending with the ills of society, with the needs of the individuals who come to us for assistance, and with our own personality needs.” However, the burnout syndrome (as we understand it today) is certainly not confined to health-care workers.

Rather than write a very long blog post here, I thought instead I’d supply a link to a pdf file on the syndrome of burnout; it’s taken from an updated powerpoint presentation that I did some time ago. To view it, simply click here.