Books I Read - The Burnout Society - Byung-Chul Han
Byung-Chul Han is a South Korea–born philosopher and cultural theorist living in Germany, known for short, razor-sharp texts that dissect the neoliberal lifestyle and its psychological costs. The Burnout Society (originally published in German as Müdigkeitsgesellschaft) follows that same line: it argues that as we move from an era of discipline to an era of performance, people collapse not mainly from external oppression, but from pushing themselves—endlessly. In this piece, I’m thinking through Han’s critique of positivity and the culture of constant productivity, alongside the everyday rhythms we’ve come to accept as normal.
A Book That Keeps Echoing In My Head
It’s been a few days since I finished Byung-Chul Han’s The Burnout Society, but the sentences still echo in my mind. Honestly, reading it felt like a kind of awakening. I sat down and read it in one go, but I kept stopping on page after page, thinking: “This is exactly what I’ve been feeling—he’s just saying it far better than I ever could.”
From The Discipline Society To The Performance Society
Han’s central claim is this: the century we live in is no longer what Foucault described for the twentieth century as a “discipline society.” The discipline society shaped people through institutions—hospitals, barracks, prisons, factories—by drawing strict borders and repeating the logic of “no, you can’t; not like that—like this.” It was a world of clear prohibitions and visible limits.
So what do we have now? We have a “achievement society” or a “performance society.” And its typical subject is no longer the obedient subject, but the achievement subject.
The Freedom Paradox: Master And Slave At Once
This is where the real turning point begins. The achievement subject believes they are free. No one is standing over them, shouting orders. In fact, the message they hear everywhere is the opposite:
“You can do it.”
“Everything is possible.”
“You’re special.”
“Unlock your potential.”
But Han argues that this creates a freedom paradox. There is no external master anymore—yet as the person becomes their own master, they also become their own slave.
Because somewhere inside us, there is a voice that never stops demanding more:
“Do better.”
“Move faster.”
“Be more productive.”
“Why are you stopping?”
That voice becomes so dominant that we stop giving ourselves permission to rest.
The Illnesses Of The 21st Century: Not Viral, But Neural
One of the book’s sharpest observations is this: the illnesses of the twenty-first century are not primarily bacterial or viral. They are neuronal—they live in the nervous system.
Depression, burnout, attention disorders, borderline personality disorder… Han frames these not as random personal failures, but as symptoms tied to overstimulation, information overload, and the endless pressure to perform. He calls this “neuronal violence.” What drains us isn’t a virus attacking from the outside—it’s the relentless assault on the mind from within the logic of constant achievement.
What Happened To Our Days?
While reading, I couldn’t help thinking about how our daily lives have been reshaped.
We wake up and immediately reach for the phone. Dozens of notifications. Messages. A never-ending stream. We eat breakfast while scrolling Instagram, reading the news, checking work emails—often all at once.
We even brag about “multitasking.” But Han calls it a kind of regression. In the wild, animals must constantly split attention—watching for predators, tracking prey, protecting offspring. In that sense, multitasking resembles a pre-civilized survival mode.
What makes us human is something else: deep attention, contemplation, the ability to stay with a thought long enough for it to unfold.
The Collapse Of Deep Attention
So what are we doing instead? We’re slowly destroying that capacity.
We begin to expect stimulation at every moment. We want to consume something constantly. We fear empty space. We fear boredom.
And this is where Han says something that feels almost offensive at first—until it starts to make sense: deep boredom can be the birthplace of creativity, thought, and genuine existence.
Nietzsche’s line fits perfectly here: “Idleness is the beginning of all psychology.”
Time spent doing nothing—simply being, letting thoughts wander—can become the most fertile kind of time.
The Tyranny Of “Yes”
But we’ve lost that luxury. Modern life trains us to feel like we must always be doing, producing, achieving. And that’s why we break.
In this view, depression isn’t just sadness. It’s the moment the person who feels compelled to achieve reaches a point where they can’t do anything anymore. It’s what happens when the world becomes so saturated with positivity—so full of “yes”—that the capacity to say “no” quietly disappears.
The Smooth World And Its Hidden Violence
Another concept Han uses is the idea of the “smooth.” Our society wants a world without friction: no obstacles, no resistance, no rough edges. Everything should be easy, fast, convenient.
But Han says the smooth is also wounding. Because friction, resistance, difficulty—these are often what shape us, mature us, deepen us. Without them, we don’t simply become comfortable; we become flatter.
A Simple Solution That’s Hard To Live
So what do we do?
Han’s answer is simple in theory and difficult in practice: rediscover vita contemplativa—the contemplative life. Take a real breath. Turn off the phone. Shut the laptop. Learn how to do nothing again.
Look at the sky. Watch leaves move in the wind. Create time that has no goal, produces nothing, achieves nothing—time that is only about being.
My Decision: Thirty Minutes Of Nothing
After finishing the book, I made a decision: every day, I’ll spend at least half an hour doing nothing. No phone. No computer. No book.
Maybe I’ll sit. Maybe I’ll walk. I’ll let my mind move on its own. Maybe I’ll feel bored. Maybe my thoughts will scatter. But maybe—right there, in that empty space—something creative will finally surface.
Who knows?
Try It
Try it too. Even now, while reading this, you might be checking your phone on the side. Put it down.
Finish this piece—and then do nothing for ten minutes. Just ten.
Watch what happens.
Maybe you’ll meet that inner voice. Maybe you’ll start to notice how the logic of The Burnout Society isn’t only “out there,” but working quietly inside you.
