Paper Short Abstract:

The presentation will discuss the consumer-driven medicalization of burnout. To avoid it, practices such as meditation and mindfulness should help the individual to unlearn culturally conditioned expectations and values. As one of them, at least in Slovenia, diligence is discussed in particular.

Paper Abstract:

Burnout is related to the total depletion of one’s own energy reserves. And since there is still no scientific insight into a person’s energy in the Western world – except by measuring calories – Neckel and Wagner (2017) emphasise, that contemporary burnout is an example of the “Buddhist spirit” of its consumer-driven medicalization. Indeed, Eastern practices that take (human) energy into account, such as acupuncture, yoga and qigong, are widely used when facing and recovering from the condition. They are said to help change culturally determined values and behaviours that lead individuals to burnout. One of these culturally determined values and behaviours, at least in Slovenia, is diligence. After a brief introduction to the anthropological burnout research, the author will therefore explain, how and why burnout is also associated with diligence in Slovenia. A brief historical insight into the meaning of diligence will be given, as well as its contemporary rejection, which will be further explained by presenting diligence as one of the reasons for burnout. The author will show how unlearning of certain behaviours and values is supposedly related to mindfulness, awareness and other various and globally recognised self-help techniques. In addition, the “old-faith” (staroverstvo), which emphasises the forces of nature, has recently been recognised as a culturally rooted traditional belief system with its own healing practises. It’s local roots and current popularity are therefore also briefly mentioned.