Where does burnout come from?: History and background

Abstract

This chapter starts out with a brief history of the burnout construct. It discusses the broader social context of occupational stress and burnout. Burnout was first mentioned as a psychological phenomenon that occurred in the helping professions by Bradley, who proposed a new organisational structure in order to counteract 'staff burnout' among probation officers. The discovery of burnout, almost simultaneously in the early 70s at America's east and west coasts by Herbert Freudenberger and by Christina Maslach and her colleagues, illustrates that burnout first emerged as a social problem and not as a scholarly construct. Typically, the first publications on burnout were anecdotal and appeared in journals, magazines, and periodicals not only for professionals such as teachers, social workers, nurses, physicians, and managers, but also for pharmacists, fire-fighters, and librarians. Social psychologists such as Christina Maslach and Ayala Pines placed burnout on the scientific agenda against all the odds.