Philosophical Reading: Byung Chul-Han’s The Burnout Society

Why are so many of us exhausted — not from hardship, but from the relentless pressure to do more, be more, optimize more? Korean-German philosopher Byung-Chul Han has a diagnosis, and it might make you look at your own daily life differently.

The Burnout Society is a short, sharp book that asks why burnout, depression, and anxiety have become the characteristic experiences of our time — and whether the problem runs deeper than stress management or work-life balance.

Byung-Chul Han is a Korean-German philosopher based in Berlin who writes short, dense books diagnosing what’s gone wrong in contemporary life. He writes short, dense books — often under 100 pages — that draw on continental philosophy, cultural theory, and East Asian thought to diagnose something gone wrong in contemporary life. The Burnout Society, first published in German in 2010, was one of his early breakthroughs and one of his most widely read works.

Join us for a close reading and open discussion. No prior knowledge of Han or continental philosophy is required. Participants are encouraged to read the text in advance and come prepared with a passage, a question, or a point of resistance.

(I didn’t realize that the internet archive option is unavailable. If you can’t easily find a copy, please drop me a message here and I’ll help you out)