Saturday 25 August 2012

Burnout as Existendial Deficiency

     "... it is generally agreed that people afflicted by burnout experience huge problems and suffering. ... an interpretive analysis revealed signs of existential deficiencies in the lived experience of the people afflicted. ... a discord between the people and their work, a blindness towards their own actions, bodily illness as signs of burnout, experiencing a collapse as a 'crossroad', secondary suffering related to the social system and a struggle towards a way out.
     ... three levels of life: actions, values and universal existence... Unless a person is in contact with [ALL] three dimensions, he/she seems to find it difficult to maintain health in his/her encounters with life. 
     Implications for health care are existential interest on the part of caregivers and understanding of life as signs of universal values. Patients''shut off' and restrained longings understood as signs of 'darkness' in their understanding of life may induce caring acts on the part of caregivers that offer patients an opening and a glimpse of what it might be like to find health in the midst of their suffering. The caregivers' own natural light of understanding of life can then work as a caring component."

         Arman M, Hammarqvist AS, Rehnsfeldt A. Burnout as an existential deficiency--lived experiences of burnout sufferers. Scand J Caring Sci 2011; 25(2): 294-302.

Photo: clelli   www.dpreview.com

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