Vem är ansvarig? : En samhällsvetenskaplig diskussion om utbrändhet

Sammanfattning: University of Örebro Department of social Sciences Sociology, Contnuation Course, 61-90hp. Essay 15hp. Spring 2008 Title: Who is resbonsible? A soceityscientific discussion about burnout. Author: Emilie Fuchs Abstract The purpose with this essay is to do a critical comparation between two different perspectives, burnout as an individual problem and burnout as a social problem. The first perspective states that the individual itself is responsible for her sickness while the second perspective states that the society and foremost the labour market should work in order to prevent people from beeing burned out. With that purpose in mind I want to enlighten and hopefully bring up the topic for discussion. The essay is based upon the following questions: • How can you sociologically understand the labour market of today? • How can you understand burnout in an individual context? • How can you understand burnout in a social context? By studying and reading four books, I have presented the two different perspectives of burnout. Two books represents burnout out of a social perspective whereas the individual perspective is advocated in the other two books. The results founded shows that the individual perspective means that the individual has to resolve his own problems even though the labour market is the main cause to why people becomes burned out. The social perspective, on the other hand, basically want the labour market to take responsibility and prevent burnouts. Through the results, my conclusion is that the individual perspective represents the individualised world we live in. The social perspective of burnout shows the importance of a good solidarity, mainly at work. This point of view could probably lead to a growing safety on the labour market, which presumably results in less burned out people. There are, after reading this essay, a few questions the reader may ask herself: Should not the society take responsibility and help those who are burned out? Does the structure of society contribute to the fact that people becomes burned out? Keywords: Burnout, Individual, Society, Work, Flexibility