The burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han
Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han Review
Hello! Welcome to another review! This book looks at the state of society, prescribing what exactly ails the populace today. Han argues that we live in a society suffering a neuronal crisis, asserting that modern-day capitalism is creating a society seeking excessive positivity, producing an abundance of burnout. For this review, I will rank this book on 4 criteria: Writing style, content, Ease of reading, and my subjective rating overall. They will be ranked on a scale of 1-5. I'll review each chapter and give my thoughts, ending with a final review and a score! I hope you enjoy it!!
Overview
Chapter 1: Neuronal power
This chapter investigates the potential affliction of this era. He investigates the main struggle for modern society, commonly considered as an immunological problem. However, he says that that is not what our society is suffering from, rather we are suffering from a neurological illness one that is not marked by a dialectic of negativity, but rather an excess of positivity
Thoughts: Wow I’ve never struggled to read 7 pages before . This chapter has so much information but is also predicated on knowing how Han uses negativity and positivity. To explain in short, negativity does not mean bad, but rather the negation of something. It stems from the Hegelian idea that the object is not defined solely by what it is, but also by what it is not. Negativity refers to that thing you are not. It’s complicated but you might want to get these ideas referring to other lecturers ( I’d recommend Julian's philosophy on YouTube, his lectures will help, linked below). Besides the difficulty, I think he’s setting up a very interesting idea that society is not suffering from some pathogen that’s ruining our mind when we see depression, ADHD, and burnout, but rather the manifestation of excessive sameness leading to unhealthy levels of positivity.
Chapter 2: Beyond Disciplinary Society
This short section evaluates the transition of society from a negative disciplinary society marked by restrictions into the current day achievement society, forcing the subjects to perpetually work on themselves in a we-can-do-it mentality. However, this is what is producing the depression and burnout that we see in society
Thoughts: Okay I take back the 7-page comment cause this was 3 and I struggled . Overall I think these are very very important ideas, but understanding the idea of negativity as the negation of something is so important if you don’t get that you will be lost. I will say his saying “ negativity of..” was confusing cause I didn’t know if he was saying “of” in the sense we’re looking at the negation of said thing, or using “of” as the name for the negation present is x. ( for example, when he used prohibition for the longest time I thought he was talking about the negation of prohibition, but he’s saying the negation in a disciplinary society takes the form of prohibition) Overall the concept that we’ve somehow shifted the almost moral imperative to do actions to avoid punishment into a mode of positivity is very crazy. In my life, I see this with friends looking for ways to relax as a form of activity. Like it’s a check off the to-do list of items to relax. So I would agree that this is spot on with pointing out the shift.
Chapter 3: Profound boredom
Here, Han is mostly evaluating how excessive positivity is producing a culture of hyperactivity, where one does not take the time to contemplate life. He argues this is a regression in our evolution and explains a variety of ways this is not good and why contemplation is important.
Thoughts: this chapter is short and sweet. Compared to the theory-heavy parts of the first two chapters, this one is very digestible for many. I think the general theme of contemplation as necessary is nice. I don’t necessarily see this as a more revolutionary chapter but this would be the chapter I point to as the incentive for someone unaware of the problems of positivity, and that don’t have a lot of background on the topics to go read. I will say though, these chapters do read more like a collection of essays rather than a book but maybe that’s how it was intended to be. Each chapter fits so far but it doesn’t seem to flow like other books it seems like unique ideas that all fall under a general umbrella
Chapter 4: Vita Activa
This chapter takes a look at Hannah Arendt's position on the active life, critiquing it by saying that she’s gotten it wrong. Instead of the acts of life being something that produces a species of workers that coast together, it produces people marked as laborers and become hyper-individualized at the same time as losing the prospects of a higher order. The rest of the chapter furthers this critique.
Thoughts: This section is another harder section, especially due to it being a response to another popular philosopher Hannah Ardent. Being a response to another philosopher's work, it would be hard for anyone to understand if they didn’t know the work of other people. If you’re interested, I recommend picking up the textbook, biopolitics by Timothy Campbell and Adam Sitze (I'll put a link to the Amazon listing of the book at the bottom). It is a hard philosophical reading, However, it is where I have heard these ideas and people be introduced. Maybe I’ll write a review or explain the concepts on TikTok one day!
Chapter 5 the Pedagogy of seeing
Here we jump from the active life discussion in the last chapter to Hans' contributions to the topic. He’s evaluating how nature has evaluated the idea of the contemplative life arguing that it isn’t a part of learning how to live to simply not think or think deeply about things, rather it is the ability to understand what shouldn’t be thought about. In this sense, it is more active to be contemplative. Here, we start to see that the conception of being active produces hyperactivity that intensifies into a hyper passivity. It is easy to be the machine that continuously runs without any sort of ability to move forward. It is not easy being something that constantly negotiates between being on or being able to slow down. As Han puts it “A machine cannot pause despite its enormous capacity for calculations… the computer is stupid and so far as it lasts the ability to delay”.
Thoughts: This section does a bit better on not referencing past ideas stripped from its context, but not by a lot. However, I do think this section is more followable. The essence of the section is to promote the contemplative life, saying that contemplative natures are more rigorous and more demanding, and how the active society we live in today is forcing us to become passive.
Chapter 6: The Bartleby case
So this whole chapter comments on a story called Bartleby the Scrivener (link to the book below) which is a story that has been theorized about since its release. This serves as Hans's interpretation of it but since I have no context on what the story is, I will refrain from commenting on this chapter as I don’t think I can reliably rate its merits without knowing the story being referenced.
Chapter 7: The Society of Tiredness
This chapter of the book investigates the idea of tiredness specifically how two forms of tiredness exist, one is labeled I-tiredness, which is a toxic isolating tiredness usually derived from being too much in the positive state, while the other one is a more fundamental tiredness or we- tiredness. When one lets go, they integrate themselves into the other and form a general and deep connection with the world
Thoughts: this section is a good one and not that hard to keep up with. I like this division of the two types of tired. I think the idea that we can be so hyper-fixated into being the best version of us, that it can induce a tiredness filled with resentment can be a violent act. I’ve seen this in my life where I can feel my tendency to judge others, hold unfair expectations, and oblige an egoistic worldview that always follows this method of tiredness. What I mean is when I’m trying to be the best version of myself and feel like I’m stretching thin, I relate to feeling a violent divisive tiredness. Here, Han brings up Handke’s resolution of tiredness, the sort of fundamental tiredness, the we-tiredness is very interesting. Holding that we can be tired of being something and that this can allow us to slip into the others or our non-being is a great observation. It does a good job of reconciling the importance of negativity while remaining concise, plus I really like the concept!
Chapter 8: Burnout Society
This functions as the collection of all the ideas in the book and the succinct presentation of what exactly is occurring in the burnout society. He covers every idea and how exactly positivity has produced the problems we see here.
Thoughts: This chapter is filled with a lot of thought-provoking ideas and very dense with information. I would be lying to say I have absorbed or digested everything in it. I wish I had more to say but there was so much information to think about. I will make a TikTok video going into the weeds of it when I get the chance to sit with the ideas. Though I can tell I will agree with most if not all the ideas presented.
Review
Writing: The writing in this book is more of an academic approach. There is not a big fixation on trying to appeal to beauty or implore any literary devices to make it read well. However, this book is very concise. Yes, at times I feel like there may be some chapters where the concept repeats itself, but overall, this book is jam-packed with information, to the point it feels like every line could be asserting a new complex idea. The ability to condense complex ideas into singular sentences is a feat of good writing, however, it does force the reader to bring a backlog of referenced material to understand the depth of each idea.
Score: 20.5/35- 5.8
Content: This book is filled with so many complex ideas that it's hard to imagine that it would stay within the theme, but it does. The ability to condense the problems we face nicely into such a small book, and produce something so poignant is amazing. This book has something on every page. However, Han accomplishes this by utilizing prior notions and assuming that people would be familiar with the arguments before his assertion ( not that I think this is bad but for the sake of the review may push away some readers.). Due to this, there can be whole chapters that are thrown away if one does not have the requisite context to faithfully engage with the topic (For example, I had to ignore chapter 6 because I have never read the story referenced) Due to this, my score for content will be based on what I reaped from content of the book, though I will warn your reaping of content can be more or less depending on your familiarity on the topics presented.
Score: 27.3/35- 7.8
Ease of reading: Due to its great ability to condense the material, this book is not a simple read. Its difficulty lies not with the writing really, but more in the reliance on prior knowledge. The barrier of entry for this topic presented in this book is higher than the other books I've read for this series. The sections that rely heavily on prior knowledge read more difficult, while chapters with more original content are not difficult to synthesize. The score reflects this difficulty, but fully understand that if you know the information, it won't be impossible to read.
Score: 19/35- 5.4
Personal thoughts: This book is a hit for me. It attacks a fundamental problem I have seen in society, that being the phenomenon of hyperactivity. In the modern era, we are constantly bombarded not just by the content on our phones( yes, I acknowledge the irony of me complaining about social media while using social media to promote these ideas) but also by this need to be something better. The hustle culture that pervades our day to day has been something of a concern of mine and this book summarizes the concern perfectly. Being a theory guy, this is something I love to read and it is so fascinating seeing the interplay of the political, economic, and personal all play into each other. I think the idea, though there is still much I need to sit on, is a very astute observation that I will be integrating into my general philosophical toolbox.
Score: 27.2/35- 7.7
Final thoughts
Overall, this is a book I'd recommend if you are into the intersection of people, politics, and philosophy. However, I caution this is not a beginner's book. To reap all you can from the book, you must read other people's work like Zizek, Agamben, Arendt, Foucault, and the plethora of other thinkers and writers referenced. I would link the two books I think are important to read to give you a backdrop on the issue, as well as a link to the YouTube channel that has many lectures breaking down some of the more fundamental ideas presented in this book. If you are looking for a more beginner-level read on the topic, start with Capitalist Realism by Mark Fisher, a book I will be reviewing shortly. However, if you are up to date on some of the topics, or don't mind looking things up frequently, I could not recommend this book more! The concept is interesting and can be the source of great contemplation about the state of the world.
Overall score: 6.7/ 10
Resources
Biopolitics: A Reader (a John Hope Franklin Center Book)
Bartleby, the Scrivener: 9781686270383: Melville, Herman: Books