tonyreadsbooks 's review for:

The Burnout Society by Byung-Chul Han

4.0

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Interesting… This book introduced me to ideas such as “excess of positivity” and “denarrativation of the world”. I found the underlying argument of our society being a society of achievement where the individual is exploiting oneself and thus becomes the exploiter and the exploited at the same time compelling. The author contrasts it with Foucault society of discipline where institutions and walls are the most predominant symbols of domination. I will admit though that the writing is hard to follow due to the abundance of german psychoanalytical terminology that I am not too familiar with. Maybe I should’ve read more Freud. Regardless, it’s an interesting read and definitely thought provoking. Worth the odd couple of hours spent on it for sure. 4/5