The Burnout Society

In his book “The Burnout Society,” Byung-Chul Han presents the paradigm shift that has led humanity from the disciplinary society toward the achievement society. From a repressive society, based on the negativity of prohibitions, toward a hyperactive society, overabundant in stimuli and information, based on total positivity. The verb that defines the achievement society is not “I must” but “I can”; contemporary man believes himself free, but paradoxically lives at war with himself. The achievement society, Han says, engenders the infinite pain of the exhaustion of the self.