Learn the key ideas of the book by Emily Nagoski , Amelia Nagoski

Burnout

How to break free from the stress cycle

In Burnout we will look at the problem of exhaustion and why it has a different effect on women. In today’s world, being a woman and satisfying the expectations of society are two different things, and it's the attempt to bridge this gap that drains and exhausts most women. The two authors of this book offer a guide, based on scientific research, to learn to put an end to the stress cycle and they bluntly present the patriarchal society that all women are born into, offering strategies to fight it and to learn how to better manage emotions to live a more balanced life.

Read in 14 min.

Listen in 17 min.

Many useful tips to:

Support every woman who feels exhausted and overwhelmed by all the tasks on her plate and is still worried that she is not doing enough.
Learn to treat ourselves with more compassion and to interpret the signals that our body sends us to minimise stress.
Become aware of how the patriarchal society in which we live unconsciously affects us from an early age.

The author of the book:

Emily Nagoski has a Ph.D in Health Behaviour with a focus on human sexuality and a Master’s degree in psychological counseling. She also did a clinical internship on sexual health at the Kinsey Institute Sexual Health Clinic. She is the award-winning author of the New York Times bestseller Come as you are: The Surprising New Science That Will Transform Your Sex Life. She has been a sex educator for twenty years and is an expert in healthy relationships and in the prevention of sexual violence and harassment. She currently works as director of the Smith College Center for Wellness Education.

Amelia Nagoski has a doctorate in musical arts and is an orchestral conductor. She is assistant musical coordinator at Western New England University. She often holds sessions for other professional musicians on the application of communication sciences and psychological research.

IDEA CHIAVE 1/7

What is burnout and the Human Giver Syndrome?

The technical term “burnout” was first used in 1975 by Herbert Freudenberger, who defined it using three characteristics:

Emotional exhaustion – the fatigue that comes from caring too much, for too long.
Depersonalisation – the depletion of empathy.
Decreased sense of accomplishment – when it feels like nothing we do seems to make any difference.

All too often burnout coincides with what the philosopher Kate Manne defined as “The Human Giver Syndrome”. Society is divided into human beings and caregivers (very often women) and the latter are often expected to voluntarily give their time, affection, attention and their body to the former without needing anything or bothering anyone with their emotions. Caregivers cannot move through the “emotional tunnel”, meaning they are unable to process an emotion to its end and so they remain stuck in the same emotion for long periods until they reach exhaustion.