IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/socmed/v265y2020ics0277953620306900.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The tired hero and her (il)legitimation: Reworking Parsons to analyse experiences of burnout within the Dutch employment system and lifeworld

Author

Listed:
  • Boersma, Jolanda J.
  • Brown, Patrick

Abstract

Burnout is an illness label, and in some healthcare systems a diagnostic category, which has received growing attention and usage. Despite its ubiquity and widespread media coverage, the medical sociological literature on the condition remains small and the wider sociological literature tends to treat the rise of burnout as a straightforward reflection of changing working environments. Very few studies have critically reflected on the nature of burnout, its diagnosis and lived experiences of the condition. This neglect is surprising given the relative legitimacy of burnout as an illness category in several national healthcare contexts, not least in the Netherlands. Drawing on in-depth qualitative interviews with a range of burnout sufferers (n = 18) and diagnosing professionals (n = 12) in the Netherlands, we explore participants' narrated understandings of the condition in light of a reworked Parsonian framework. Narratives suggested sufferers of burnout generally received legitimation, often being understood as hardworking, diligent and altruistic. Experiences of (partial) acceptance through a medical label, and the relative lack of stigma were important to sense-making and coping. This recognition of burnout was particularly striking, given several features burnout shares with conditions commonly associated with ontological doubt, moral suspicion and stigma. Yet recognition of commitment and strength sat in tension with psychological assistance, which sought to correct tendencies for working too hard for too long. Drawing on insights from Habermas's extensive reformulation of Parsons's work, we understand the legitimation and tensions around burnout care in light of meanings, metaphors and manipulation which, in turn, we locate in relation to the functioning of wider socio-cultural lifeworlds and political-economic systems, including the sediments of earlier political-economic and cultural structures.

Suggested Citation

  • Boersma, Jolanda J. & Brown, Patrick, 2020. "The tired hero and her (il)legitimation: Reworking Parsons to analyse experiences of burnout within the Dutch employment system and lifeworld," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 265(C).
  • Handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:265:y:2020:i:c:s0277953620306900
    DOI: 10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113471
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0277953620306900
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only

    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.socscimed.2020.113471?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Dumit, Joseph, 2006. "Illnesses you have to fight to get: Facts as forces in uncertain, emergent illnesses," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(3), pages 577-590, February.
    2. Åsbring, Pia & Närvänen, Anna-Liisa, 2003. "Ideal versus reality: physicians perspectives on patients with chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS) and fibromyalgia," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 57(4), pages 711-720, August.
    3. Ezzy, Douglas, 2000. "Illness narratives: time, hope and HIV," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 50(5), pages 605-617, March.
    4. Madden, Sue & Sim, Julius, 2006. "Creating meaning in fibromyalgia syndrome," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 63(11), pages 2962-2973, December.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Stockl, Andrea, 2007. "Complex syndromes, ambivalent diagnosis, and existential uncertainty: The case of Systemic Lupus Erythematosus (SLE)," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(7), pages 1549-1559, October.
    2. Greco, Monica, 2012. "The classification and nomenclature of ‘medically unexplained symptoms’: Conflict, performativity and critique," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(12), pages 2362-2369.
    3. Bojovic, Neva & Geiger, Susi, 2023. "Epistemic and institutional recognition work in changing conditions of social visibility: Anosmia's journey from the shadows to the spotlight," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 338(C).
    4. Groenevelt, I.P.(Irene) & de Boer, M.L.(Marjolein), 2023. "Contesting misrecognition online: Experiences of epistemic in/justice by vloggers with contested illnesses," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 327(C).
    5. Whitehead, Lisa Claire, 2006. "Quest, chaos and restitution: Living with chronic fatigue syndrome/myalgic encephalomyelitis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 62(9), pages 2236-2245, May.
    6. Ross, Emily & Swallow, Julia & Kerr, Anne & Chekar, Choon Key & Cunningham-Burley, Sarah, 2021. "Diagnostic layering: Patient accounts of breast cancer classification in the molecular era," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 278(C).
    7. Crooks, Valorie A., 2007. "Exploring the altered daily geographies and lifeworlds of women living with fibromyalgia syndrome: A mixed-method approach," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 577-588, February.
    8. Locock, Louise & Nettleton, Sarah & Kirkpatrick, Susan & Ryan, Sara & Ziebland, Sue, 2016. "‘I knew before I was told’: Breaches, cues and clues in the diagnostic assemblage," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 154(C), pages 85-92.
    9. Laura E. Jacobson, 2020. "President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) Policy Process and the Conversation around HIV/AIDS in the United States," Journal of Development Policy and Practice, , vol. 5(2), pages 149-166, July.
    10. Trundle, Catherine, 2011. "Biopolitical endpoints: Diagnosing a deserving British nuclear test veteran," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(6), pages 882-888, September.
    11. Phillips, Tarryn, 2012. "Repressive authenticity in the quest for legitimacy: Surveillance and the contested illness lawsuit," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 75(10), pages 1762-1768.
    12. Nicole Brown, 2021. "The Social Course of Fibromyalgia: Resisting Processes of Marginalisation," IJERPH, MDPI, vol. 19(1), pages 1-13, December.
    13. Schaepe, Karen Sue, 2011. "Bad news and first impressions: Patient and family caregiver accounts of learning the cancer diagnosis," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 73(6), pages 912-921, September.
    14. Vololona Rabeharisoa & Michel Callon & Angela Marques Filipe & João Arriscado Nunes & Florence Paterson & Frédéric Vergnaud, 2012. "The dynamics of causes and conditions: the rareness of diseases in French and Portuguese patients' organizations' engagement in research," CSI Working Papers Series 026, Centre de Sociologie de l'Innovation (CSI), Mines ParisTech.
    15. Madeleine Akrich, 2010. "From Communities of Practice to Epistemic Communities: Health Mobilizations on the Internet," Sociological Research Online, , vol. 15(2), pages 116-132, May.
    16. Lonardi, Cristina, 2007. "The passing dilemma in socially invisible diseases: Narratives on chronic headache," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(8), pages 1619-1629, October.
    17. Rhodes, Tim & Bernays, Sarah & Terzic, Katarina Jankovic, 2009. "Medical promise and the recalibration of expectation: Hope and HIV treatment engagement in a transitional setting," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 68(6), pages 1050-1059, March.
    18. Jamie Albright & Cynthia D. Fair, 2018. "“Now I Know I Love Me†: The Trajectory to Self-Acceptance Among HIV Positive Adults in a Southeastern U.S. Community Center," SAGE Open, , vol. 8(3), pages 21582440188, October.
    19. Brian Walitt & Richard L Nahin & Robert S Katz & Martin J Bergman & Frederick Wolfe, 2015. "The Prevalence and Characteristics of Fibromyalgia in the 2012 National Health Interview Survey," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 10(9), pages 1-16, September.
    20. Pierret, Janine, 2007. "An analysis over time (1990-2000) of the experiences of living with HIV," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 65(8), pages 1595-1605, October.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:socmed:v:265:y:2020:i:c:s0277953620306900. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/wps/find/journaldescription.cws_home/315/description#description .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.