The horizon of critical theories and their target audience (i.e., the subjects exposed
to social suffering) have drifted apart. While the former relies on its own set of
diagnostic concepts (e.g., alienation), the actors are socialized within the frames
of biomedical discourses. This creates a rupture between theory and praxis: the concepts
of social suffering fail to orient collective action. To overcome this challenge,
a translator category is elaborated, which can link the distinct biomedical and critical
discourses, while reconnecting theory and praxis. Burnout is chosen as a translator
category because it is located at the border of the psychological discourses (on depression)
and the critical sociological discourses (on alienation). First, the birth of the
concept is reconstructed in a genealogical fashion. Second, the psychological measurement
tools and explanations are overviewed with a special emphasis on the failed attempt
of discursive medicalization. Third, the sociological explanations are analyzed from
the perspective of their potential of breaking the biomedical and psychological discursive
hegemony. In the last section, it is discussed how burnout can link the discourses
of alienation (as a cause of burnout) and depression (as a consequence of burnout),
while remaining accessible to the biomedically socialized subjects.
