Two words whispered as if they could be contagious: “burn-out”. Professional exhaustion was first detailed in France in June 1959 by psychiatrist Claude Veil who introduced the concept into medical history (States of exhaustion. The Concours médical, Paris) before it crossed the Atlantic. “Psychiatrists used the term burn-out to describe the state of patients “burned out” by the abuse of hard drugs”, relates Valentine Hervé, clinical psychologist (“Burn-out, a syndrome of professional exhaustion”, Paris VI website).
At the time, the American psychiatrist Herbert J. Freudenberger, who worked in a volunteer clinic to treat drug addicts, discovered that he too was burned out by his mission and documented this extreme fatigue linked to work (Staff burnoutJournal of social issue, 1974 and Burnout. The high cost of high achievementwith Géraldine Richelson, Bantam Books, 1981).
In France, we are (re)discovering work-related pathologies and in particular stress, with an emergency plan for preventing psychosocial risks (psycho-social risks) of the Ministry of Labor in 2009. Then, the latter published a guide to preventing burnout in 2015, while the Rebsamen law establishes that mental illnesses can be recognized as being of work-related origin. Burnout is not one of them. “It does not describe a state but rather a process: professional exhaustion which can lead, at the end of several phases, to a total collapse of the person and therefore to mental illnesses”, explains Valentine Hervé (Ibid). In recent years, a new term has appeared: psychological distress. Thus, in November 2023, 48% of French employees reported being in such a state, four points more than in February and seven points more than in March 2022 (Empreinte Humaine/OpinionWay, 12th edition).
Burn-out, psychosocial risks, psychological distress… The vocabulary changes over time. How can this be explained? “While the employer is responsible for mental health, it is very difficult to define, hence the evolution of the semantic field,” analyzes Philippe Emont, co-founder of the firm AlterNego (specializing in negotiation and conflict management in companies). “The expansion of the term burn-out is a source of confusion due to the imprecise limits of this reality,” states the Academy of Medicine in its report of February 23, 2016. Depression, on the other hand, is indeed an illness, but is not listed in the table of occupational illnesses… which requires doctors to set up precise protocols to characterize its origin. Occupational origin or not? The vagueness persists around the generic expression “mental health” which has a spectrum with multiple ramifications (stress, depression, psychological overload, etc.).
“For about twenty years, the terms have been evolving. We have moved away from anglicisms. We are appropriating through French a reality that covers more or less similar things,” describes Philippe Emont. He sees this as “an enrichment of the vocabulary, because it is the social body that appropriates it.” Furthermore, the acculturation of these terms by society, the media coverage of dramatic situations such as the suicide of several dozen France Télécom employees in the 2000s, as well as the legal obligations of companies, mean that the latter are much more attentive to these risks, believes the co-founder of AlterNego. Awareness is going beyond the professional world and the people concerned are now describing their feelings, without taboo.
A diffuse suffering that covers different realities
“Even if some practitioners say that these terms mean nothing and that they are a set of symptoms, an aggregate of negative emotions, these are expressions that speak to everyone and it is beneficial for moving forward,” continues Philippe Emont.
An anxiety-provoking international climate, a business world that is increasingly anchored in society… “We are also in a world of work that is becoming more complex and at a political and social crossroads,” the expert analyses. Out with burnout? No, but now, a diffuse suffering covers different expressed realities, such as “solastalgia” for example, a neologism from the Australian philosopher Glenn Albrecht, which results from a negative emotional state linked to environmental degradation (Solastagia: the distress caused by environmental changeAustralasian Psychiatry, February 2007). In other words, eco-anxiety, “a contemporary anxiety” according to the Jean-Jaurès Foundation: 43% of the world’s population says it is very concerned about climate change (Ipsos, November 2023).
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