Le burn-out : mal d'époque ou retour de la fatigue pathologique ?

Public space seems to have seized burnout as a new social cause. Originally identified in health care workers, this syndrome is now the scourge of big business executives, and even, outside the professional sphere, young parents or students. Nevertheless, the success of this nosological entity remains a subject of questions for the clinician. Especially since the media coverage of the phenomenon lingers on the issues, it raises on a psychopathologycal level. In fact, the visibility of burnout seems to gain ground at the expense of a debate on the semeiology and etiology of the disorder, supposedly the source of its conceptual and clinical legitimacy. Making a detour through nosographic categories whose pathological fatigue was once the core, the author shall first try to examine the specificity of burnout as a psychopathological entity. The author will then try to understand if it truly deserves to be treated as a symptom of modernity, a status that many commentators obviously want to impart on this trouble.