ABSTRACT

Traditionally, state and process definitions of burnout are distinguished. The former describes burnout as a negative psychological condition, whereas the latter emphasizes its development. The most popular state definition is by Maslach and Jackson (1986: 1): “Burnout is a syndrome of emotional exhaustion, depersonalization, and reduced personal accomplishment that can occur among individuals who do ‘people work’ of some kind.” This definition lies at the core of the most widely used self-report burnout questionnaire; the Maslach Burnout Inventory (MBI). Emotional exhaustion refers to the depletion or draining of emotional resources: professionals feel that they are no longer able to give themselves at a psychological level. Depersonalization points to the development of negative, callous and cynical attitudes towards the recipients of one’s services. Contrary to its use in psychiatry, depersonalization does not refer to the extreme alienation from the self, but to an impersonal or dehumanizing perception of others. Lack of personal accomplishment is the tendency to evaluate one’s work with

recipients negatively, which is accompanied by feelings of insufficiency and poor professional self-esteem. Initially, Maslach and Jackson (1986) claimed that burnout exclusively occurred among those who dealt with recipients, like students, clients and patients. However, recently, the burnout concept was expanded beyond the human services and was redefined as a crisis in one’s relationship with work, not necessarily as a crisis in one’s relationship with people at work. Accordingly, it includes three more general aspects: exhaustion, cynicism and professional efficacy.