In an earlier age, writes Byung-Chul Han in his short book The Burnout Society, we lived in a world of "hospitals, madhouses, prisons." What has replaced these? "Fitness studios."

There is a touch of exaggeration to this arresting opening—we still have many prisons—but also a measure of truth. On my walk the other day, I passed no less than three yoga studios, not to mention a gym, a pilates studio, and a space devoted to "barre" workouts (like those done by ballet dancers). On Han's view, this is no accident. If in an earlier age people were disciplined by external authorities, today we are called on—at least if we live in the relatively privileged world of yoga and barre studios—to discipline ourselves.

For Han, this aspect of the contemporary predicament is the source of its distinctive psychologies, which for him are depression, attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder, and "burnout syndrome." If one is living in a society in which all is purportedly possible, and one disciplines oneself to strive after one's goals, and one nonetheless fails to measure up—this is the kind of predicament, in Han's view, that inevitably leads to depression. The paradox at the heart of much work on the economics of mental health—that societies experiencing unprecedented levels of plenty nonetheless continue to........

© Psychology Today