Abstract
Physicians who work in critical care units are prone to emotional exhaustion, manifestations of depersonalization, and professional dissatisfaction. These three manifestations make up what has been identified as burnout, and are a cause for growing concern. In this article, the authors review the available literature on burnout among intensive care physicians, but discuss it from a perspective that includes burnout as a broader manifestation, related to the exaltation of performance and the subsumption of life to capital, understanding this phenomenon as related to the society of burnout. The authors also discuss initiatives to combat burnout from the perspective of an expanded view of the concept of biopolitics, especially psychopolitics.
Keywords:
Burnout; Intensive Care; Biopolitics