Burnout - by Hannah Proctor (Paperback)

About the Book

"A moving exploration of political activism and its mental toll, with the raw emotion of Maggie Nelson's Argonauts and the daring theoretical analysis of Lauren Berlant's Cruel Optimism"--

Book Synopsis

"Hannah Proctor takes that feeling we all have, and names it again and again, helping us to resee the past and present of revolutionary struggle. A must-read."
-Hannah Zeavin, Founding Editor, Parapraxis

How to maintain hope in the face of despair

In the struggle for a better world, setbacks are inevitable. Defeat can feel overwhelming at times, but it has to be endured. How then do the people on the front line keep going? To answer that question and to help readers roll with the punches, Hannah Proctor draws on historical resources to find out how revolutionaries and activists of the past kept a grip on hope.

Burnout considers former Communards exiled to a penal colony in the South Pacific; a young Bolshevik fleeing the city in despair; an ex-militant on the analyst's couch relating dreams of ruined landscapes; a trade union organiser seeking advice from a spiritual healer; and a group of feminists padding a room with mattresses to scream about the patriarchy. Jettisoning therapy talk and its stranglehold on our language, Proctor offers a different way forward - neither denial nor despair. Her cogent exploration of the ways militants make sense of their own burnout demonstrates that it is possible to mourn and organise at once, and to do both without compromise.

Review Quotes

"Hannah Proctor is one of the best writers on the left today, and this is an extraordinary and extremely timely book - a kaleidoscopic work of revolutionary history on what happens when our day doesn't come and we have to cope with the consequences. Refusing both the easy temptations of left melancholia and forced 'just another push, comrades!' optimism, this is a book full of unromantic communist longing, deadpan humour and hard-won wisdom."
--Owen Hatherley, author of The Ministry of Nostalgia

"Not since Freud first described war neurosis have we been treated to such an astonishing taxonomy of the human mind. In Burnout, Hannah Proctor takes that feeling we all have, and names it again and again, helping us to resee the past and present of revolutionary struggle. A must-read."
--Hannah Zeavin, Founding Editor, Parapraxis

"Achieves commendable synthesis between its argument and sources ... The more people are writing books like Burnout, the better we might overcome our pains, and remain in the struggle."
--Juliet Jacques, ArtReview

"Brilliant ... an invigorating reader experience. Activists will find strange comfort in knowing that burnout is a collective affliction that has loomed large over our social movements for centuries ... While its effects can be profoundly personal, it can unite us too."
--Janey Starling, Unison Magazine

"Proctor deftly dismantles contemporary 'self-care' edicts that aim to 'streamline' our participation in capitalism."
--Decca Muldowney, New Internationalist

"A joy to read ... deeply thoughtful and intelligent."
--Hel Spandler, Asylum Magazine

"Elegantly and forensically investigates the historic suffering of revolutionaries and the pain of living in the gap between communist dreams and capitalist reality."
--Henry Bell, Morning Star

"Essential"
--Juliet Jacques, Tribune

"Proctor wishes to depart from the usual left use of history, which is to find present-day inspiration in past victories or revolutionary moments....Instead, she asks, what can we learn from the emotional experience of defeat?"
--Liza Featherstone, Jacobin

"Provocative...Burnout is a book about the psychic life of radical movements; it is also a book about defeat--because that is the primary psychic experience of the radical life."
--Sam Adler-Bell, Nation

"We need that emotional energy to drive and motivate us. As Proctor shows ... an awareness of that emotional dimension of the struggle has the potential to strengthen our movement."
--Iain Ferguson, International Socialism

"Magisterial ... in a year coloured by electoral horrors and apathy, offer[s] a way of thinking through despair."
--Helen Charman, ArtReview, Best Books of 2024

"From the Paris Commune to Jeremy Corbyn, Proctor brings out illustrative examples of emotional experiences in left politics and revolutionary activity ... The wealth of such sources referenced and interpreted in Burnout helps the reader discover more and continue their journey beyond the pages of this book."
--Richard Mullen, Socialist Voice

"The insights provided in Burnout are essential in any attempt to account for the failures of the decade that precedes the current one, if not many more that precede that one too."
--Sam Kelly, rs21

About the Author

Hannah Proctor is a Wellcome Trust Research Fellow at the University of Strathclyde in Glasgow, interested in histories and theories of radical psychiatry. She is a member of the editorial collective behind Radical Philosophy, and has been published in Jacobin, Tribune, The New Inquiry and elsewhere.