Burnout: psychobabble or valuable concept?

Freudenberger (1974) chose the term "burnout" to describe a syndrome of exhaustion, disillusionment and withdrawal in voluntary mental health workers. It has since aroused considerable interest in all the helping professions (Table 1) with the publication of more than 300 papers and a dozen books in the last 5 years. This suggests that burnout is a major problem in human services today.